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 Medieval Italy during a thousand years ( 
 
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GREAT NATIONS 
 
 MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
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MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 DURING A THOUSAND YEARS (305-1313) 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORICAL NARRATIVE WITH 
 CHAPTERS ON GREAT EPISODES AND PERSON- 
 ALITIES AND ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 RELIGION ART AND LITERATURE 
 
 BY H. B. COTTERILL 
 
 Author of ■ Ancient Greece ' Translator of Homer's 
 Odyssey' Editor of 'Selections from the Inferno' etc. 
 
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 v ^*«WsgSi*^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
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 PRINTED AT 
 THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
 LONDON ENGLAND. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 1 A S early as the time of Cicero and Varro,' says Gibbon, ' it 
 /\ was the opinion of the Roman augurs that the twelve 
 JL JL vultures which Romulus had seen represented the twelve 
 centuries assigned for the fatal period of his city.' This pro- 
 phecy, as we learn from writers of the age, such as the poet 
 Claudian, filled men's minds with gloomy apprehensions when 
 the twelfth century of Rome's existence was drawing to its close, 
 and ' even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise 
 that the interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circum- 
 stance has been seriously verified by the downfall of the 
 Western Empire.' 
 
 The traditional date of the founding of Rome is 753 B.C., 
 and if we hold that its Empire ended with the capture of the 
 city by the Vandal Gaiseric and the death of Valentinian III, 
 the last Emperor of the great Theodosian dynasty, both of 
 which events occurred in a.d. 455, the fulfilment of the predic- 
 tion will certainly appear surprising. Nor need it wholly 
 shatter our faith in ancient auguries if we feel compelled to 
 defer the date of the final downfall for some twenty-one years, 
 during which brief period no less than nine so-called Emperors 
 assumed the purple : one the assassin of Valentinian, the next 
 the nominee of the Visigoth king at Aries, five others the 
 puppets of the barbarian general Ricimer, another an obscure 
 palace official elected by a Burgundian noble, and the ninth 
 the son of a Pannonian soldier in Attila's army — the ' inoffen- 
 sive youth/ as Gibbon calls him, who had inherited or assumed 
 the high-sounding names of Romulus Augustus (derisively 
 or pityingly belittled into Momullus Augustulus), and whom 
 in 476 the barbarian Odovacar deposed and with contemptuous 
 
 v 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 generosity allowed to retire to spacious and luxurious imprison- 
 ment in the villa built by Marius and adorned by I^ucullus 
 on the heights that overlook the bays of Baiae and Naples. 
 
 This date, 476, is generally accepted as that which marks 
 the end of the history of ancient Rome and the beginning of 
 Italian history. Nevertheless the ' Roman ' Empire is con- 
 sidered by some writers to have continued its existence under 
 the Eastern Emperors, if not for nigh a thousand years, till 
 the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, anyhow for more 
 than 300 years, until its usurpation by a woman— that 
 inhuman wretch, the pious Irene. This event, according 
 to such writers, justified the Romans in reviving by papal 
 unction the imperial dignity in the person of the Frank monarch 
 Charles the Great. This revived Empire, which went on 
 existing in a fashion till the death of Henry VII in 1313 (when 
 all real connexion with Italy ceased), or lasted even, some 
 would say, till the abdication of Francis II in 1806, was of 
 course a fiction ; but the belief in the so-styled ' Holy Roman 
 Empire ' was a fact which much influenced medieval history, 
 and therefore cannot be ignored by the historian. However, 
 whatever arguments may be adduced in support of these 
 various views, it is simpler and more reasonable to hold that 
 the ancient Roman Empire — that is, the world-wide Imperium 
 of which Rome herself was the metropolis — if it did not come 
 to an end when Constantine sifece Greco and transferred the 
 imperial seat from Rome to Byzantium, or when the last 
 Theodosian Emperor was murdered in Rome shortly before 
 the arrival of the Vandal Gaiseric, did certainly suffer final 
 extinction when, in 476, the barbarian Odovacar deposed the 
 boy-emperor Romulus Augustulus and assumed the powers, 
 if not the title, of a King of Italy. 
 
 We may therefore assume that the history of medieval Italy 
 begins from the year 476. After that date Italy was only 
 temporarily and indirectly connected with that Eastern 
 Empire which some would persuade us to call the ' lyater 
 Roman ' Empire, but which, seeing that ' Constantinopolitan ' 
 is a long word, I think we had better call ' Byzantine ' — 
 ▼i 
 
PREFACE 
 
 especially as the word possesses a sufficient flavour of Orien- 
 talism to be useful as a distinguishing term in questions of 
 art as well as of history. N 
 
 It is true that for a certain period this Byzantine^Empire 
 did re-establish its sovereignty over Rome (which it regarded 
 as merely a provincial town of its Italian diocese) and over 
 almost the whole of the peninsula, and that for centuries it 
 retained its supremacy in some important Italian cities and 
 districts — the Exarchate and the southern marina especially — 
 so that at times we shall be much occupied by the presence of 
 Byzantines in Italy. It is also true that the Byzantine rulers 
 claimed to be, and were often acknowledged to be, ' Roman ' 
 Emperors. 1 Moreover, it must be allowed that the history of 
 this so-called Eastern Empire in its later stages — with its 
 Greek, Syrian, Armenian, Macedonian, Latin, Flemish, and 
 French monarchs and dynasties and with its wealthy and 
 luxurious Oriental offshoots known as the ' Empires ' of Nicaea 
 and Trebizond — is exceedingly picturesque and interesting. 
 
 Nevertheless, seeing that our subject is Italy and not 
 Byzantium, it will be better to assume that the real Roman 
 Empire ended with the deposition of the last successor of 
 Augustus at Rome in 476, and to limit our attention after that 
 date almost wholly to Italy, casting only now and then a 
 glance across the Adriatic. 
 
 But, although the history of medieval Italy may be said 
 to begin its main course from this date, I have thought it 
 advisable to go back to the age of Constantine in order to trace 
 from their early origins certain religious, political, artistic, 
 and literary characteristics, as well as to be able to relate more 
 fully and consecutively the story of the barbarian invasions. 
 After this has been done there will remain the still more 
 difficult task of showing how amid all these diverse elements 
 and forces began to work that new spirit which after so many 
 
 1 But the Caroling Louis II had much reason on his side when, in answer 
 to a contemptuous letter of the Byzantine Emperor Basil, he asserted that 
 the Eastern ' Emperors ' were no Imperatives Romwnorum, and justified his 
 own claim to the imperial office (as Charles the Great used to do) by appealing 
 to the case of David. 
 
 vii 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 centuries has in our days at length evolved an Italian nation. 
 My subject, which extends to the first dawn of the new art 
 and literature, covers the space of a thousand years, and it 
 would be a most wearisome and unprofitable task if I were 
 to attempt to crowd my pages with the innumerable persons 
 that move in such rapid succession, and in such intricate and 
 swiftly changing groups, across the ever-varying scenes of 
 these ten centuries. Even in the spacious and luminous 
 narrative of Gibbon the reader who has not ample leisure 
 and rare perseverance must often despair of finding his way 
 amid the labyrinthine mazes of barbarian invasions and reli- 
 gious discords, or of following continuously the drama of the 
 Empire — a drama so complicated that on more than one occa- 
 sion no less than six Emperors appear together on the stage. 
 With limited space and such a vast amount of detail before 
 him, he who wishes to give something better than a dry 
 catalogue of names and events must devise some method 
 which, while it allows him to present in a connected narrative 
 whatever historical facts may seem essential, will also permit 
 him to treat other matters of importance in a less formal 
 and statistical fashion — to fill in with a free hand, so to speak, 
 the bare historical outline. 
 
 The plan that I have adopted is to prefix to each of the five 
 parts into which my subject naturally divides itself a brief 
 account of the political events of the period in question. 
 These summaries, together with various tables and lists, will 
 enable the reader to frame, or perhaps I should say to arrange 
 in chronological order and perspective, the contents of those 
 chapters in which with a freer hand I sketch certain interesting 
 episodes and personalities, endeavouring by means of quota- 
 tion and description to add a little in the way of local colour 
 and portraiture. 
 
 I have thus been able to avoid interrupting my narrative 
 by disquisitions on architecture, literature, and art, and have 
 relegated what I had to say on these subjects to supplementary 
 chapters. 
 
 Any fairly full list of the multitudinous writers on the history, 
 viii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 the art, and the literature of Italy during the period covered 
 by this volume would need more space than I can spare, and 
 if the titles of their works were added a large number of pages 
 would be required. I shall therefore only mention a few old 
 and recent acquaintances to whom I owe especial thanks, 
 and whom I can recommend for further information. I have 
 not thought it necessary to give any names of the almost 
 innumerable compilers of local handbooks, authoritative or 
 amateur. 
 
 Balzani (Cronache it. del Med. Evo) ; Boethius (De Cons. Phil.) ; 
 Bryce ; Capelletti ; Cassiodorus (and Jordanes ; also his 
 Letters, edited by Hodgkin) ; Compagni (Dino) ; Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle ; Bngel et Serrure (Numismatique du Moyen 
 Age) ; Eusebius ; Ferrero ; Gaspary (Scuola Poet. Sicil.) ; 
 Gibbon ; Gregorovius (Gesch. Stadt Rom) ; Gregory the 
 Great ; Hodgkin (Italy and her Invaders) ; Sir T. G. Jackson 
 (Romanesque Architecture) ; Jordanes (Hist. Goth.) ; Kugler ; 
 Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne) ; Machiavelli (Istorie Fior.) ; 
 Mothes (Baukunst d. Mittelalters) ; Muratori ; Paulus Diaconus 
 (Hist, tomb.) ; Priscus ; Ricci (especially on Ravenna) ; 
 Rivoira (Orig. dell' Arch. Lomb.) ; Rotari (Editto) ; St. Augus- 
 tine (De Civ. Dei) ; Sismondi ; Symonds ; Villani (Giov.) ; Wroth 
 (Brit. Mus. Catal. Goth, and Lomb. Coins). 
 
 The Invasioni barbariche and L'ltalia da Carlo Magna alia 
 Morte di Arrigo VII of S.E. Professor Pasquale Villari I have 
 found very pleasant and useful guides through the mazes of 
 political events and biographical details. 
 
 My thanks are due to the Delegates of the Oxford Press 
 for allowing me to make use of my little volume of Selections 
 from Dante's Inferno, published just forty years ago. 
 
 In the Iyist of Illustrations, where the necessary information 
 is given about the pictures, due acknowledgment is made of 
 permission to make use of photographs, etc. Some of the line 
 engravings inserted in the text I copied from my own note- 
 books, some from old books or photographs. 
 
 In regard to the coins, it gives me pleasure to repeat here my 
 thanks that are due to Mr. J. Allan, of the British Museum. 
 
 ix 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 For my first four maps I have accepted in the main the 
 political divisions given in Professor Villari's Invasions bar- 
 bariche ; the fifth is . (with permission) founded on a map 
 published by the Cambridge University Press to illustrate the 
 Cambridge Medieval History. 
 
 Perhaps it may be well to add that I am aware that nobody 
 can express opinions on subjects such as medieval architecture 
 without exposing himself to a fucilata from various quarters. 
 
 H. B. COTTERIIJ, 
 
 Rome, April 1915 
 
 P.S. A note on the Papal Tiara has been most kindly sent me by 
 Professor Villari. As it has arrived too late to be inserted in the List of 
 Illustrations, I append here a translation of the more important passages : 
 
 " The tiara probably came from the East. . . . The Jewish High Priest's 
 tiara had three crowns. ... It is certain that the tiara adopted by the 
 Popes represents the temporal power, whereas the mitre represents the 
 spiritual. The rites used in placing the episcopal mitre on a Pope's head 
 and in placing the tiara are different. The tiara (also called the regnum) 
 had first one crown, then two, and then three. The tiara with three crowns 
 was called the triregnum. The crowns have been said to symbolize the 
 Church militant, tribulant, and triumphant, or the Trinity, or else the three 
 theological virtues ; but such interpretations are fantastic. . . . After 
 1059 the tiara is often mentioned. It may be said to appear [as natural] 
 with the programme of Gregory VII [Hildebrand]. After some years of 
 his pontificate Boniface VIII added a second crow n[evidently after 1299; 
 see explanation of Fig. 50], but it is difficult to say who added the third. 
 Some think it was Urban V [1362, at Avignon], and some fancy that the 
 motive was to imitate the High Priest of the Jews. I have heard of the 
 hypothesis that the first crown symbolized the papal sovranty over the 
 Patrimony of St. Peter, and the other two the sovranty which the Popes 
 pretended to have over the kingdoms of Apulia and Sicily. This hypothesis 
 might have been suggested by the fact that in some of the oldest tiaras with 
 three crowns there is a single crown above, while below the two others are 
 united, the lower being upside down." 
 
 Some further details are given by Gregorovius. See vol. i, pp. 812, 829, 
 and vol. ii, pp. 653, 673, of the splendidly illustrated Italian edition of his 
 History of the City of Rome. On p. 489 of vol. i will be found a photograph 
 of the statue of Gregory the Great (said to have been begun by Michelangelo) 
 where the tiara has three crowns — which is of course a blunder. Gregorovius 
 says that the original tiara was a conical head-dress made of white peacock 
 feathers. 
 
 H. B. C. 
 
 Viareggio, May 1915 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Historical Outline (305-476) 1 
 
 Roman Emperors from Diocletian to Romulus 
 
 Augustulus (305-476), p. 18 
 The Family op Constantine, p. 19 
 The Families of Valentinian I and Theodosius I, 
 
 p. 20 
 
 I. Why the Empire Few, 21 
 
 II. The Barbarians 27 
 
 III. Christianity and Paganism 37 
 
 IV. Theodosius the Catholic 55 
 V. Stilicho, Alaric, and Placidia 74 
 
 VI. Attila the Hun 93 
 
 VII. Gaiseric to Odovacar 105 
 
 Notes on Plate I of Coins (Fig. 9) (Constantine I 
 to Justinian), p. 117 
 
 PART II 
 
 Historical Outline (476-568) 121 
 
 Kings, Emperors, and Popes during 476-568, p. 157 
 
 I. Theoderic 159 
 
 Lineage of Theoderic the Great, p. 172 
 The Vandal Kings, p. 172 
 
 xi 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 PACK 
 
 MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 II. Writers of the Age i 73 
 
 III. St. Benedict i86 
 
 IV. Justinian z 94 
 
 PART III 
 
 Historical Outline (568-800) 207 
 
 Kings, Emperors, and Popes during 568-800, p. 248 
 Kings of the Franks, p. 250 
 Lineage op Charges the Great, p. 250 
 
 I. Gregory the Great 251 
 
 II. Architecture and Mosaics (300-800) 259 
 
 III. Venice and other Cities 284 
 
 IV. Charles the Great in Rome 293 
 
 Note on the Byzantine Emperors, p. 308 
 
 PART IV 
 
 Historical Outline (800-1190) 311 
 
 Lineage op the Carolingians, p. 323 
 
 Emperors, Kings, and Popes during 800-962, p. 377 
 
 Emperors (Saxon and Franconian) and Popes during 
 
 962-1125, p. 379 
 Emperors and Popes to the Death op Barbarossa 
 
 (1125-90), p. 382 
 Genealogy op the Hohenstauper, p. 383 
 
 I. The Dark Age 385 
 
 II. The Normans 399 
 
 Norman Dukes and Kings of Sicily and South Italy, 
 p. 410 
 
 III. The Rise of the Republics 413 
 
 IV. Romanesque Architecture (800-1200) 434 
 
 Note on Mosaics and Plastic Art in South Italy 
 
 and Sicily (1050-1200), p. 446 
 Notes on Plate II op Coins (Fig. 45) (Heraclius to 
 Henry VII), p. 449 
 xii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Historical Outline (1190-1313) 453 
 
 GENEALOGY OP THE ANGEVINS AND CHARI.ES OF VAVMS, 
 
 P-477 
 Genealogy of the Rari,y Spanish Kings of Sichy, 
 
 P-477 
 Note on Dante and henry VII, p. 495 
 Emperors and Popes during 1190-1313, p. 497 
 
 I. Religious Movements (c 1200-1300) 499 
 
 II. The Republics and Signopoes (down to c. 1320) 511 
 
 III. Art (c. 1200 to c. 1320) 524 
 
 IV. Origins op Italian Language and Literature 
 
 (to about 1300) 540 
 
 Index ' 553 
 
 xiu 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MAPS 
 
 FAG« 
 
 The Four Praefecturae op the Roman Empire in 
 
 the Time of Constantine I i 
 
 ITALY IN THE Age of Odovacar 120 
 
 S.W. Europe in the Time of Theoderic 158 
 
 The Lombard Domination 206 
 
 The Empire of Charles the Great 240 
 
 Italy in the Age of Dante 494 
 
 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The names of those to whom the author is indebted for permission to 
 use copyright photographs are printed in italic. 
 
 PIG. 
 
 1. Dante Frontispiece 
 
 Bronze bust. Naples, Museo Nazionale. The face perhaps 
 copied from the Bargello mask, which is said to have 
 been taken after death. In any case a very fine work 
 and a most satisfactory representation of what one hopes 
 the poet of the Divina Commedia looked like. The 
 much-restored Bargello fresco, originally perhaps by 
 Giotto, presents rather the lover of Beatrice and the 
 writer of the Vita Nuova. Photo Brogi. 
 
 2. Battle at Saxa Rubra 4 
 
 Part of the Arch of Constantine, Rome. The central rude 
 and grotesque relief, dating from about 312, represents 
 the battle at Saxa Rubra, near the Milvian Bridge, 
 where Maxentius was drowned. See pp. 3, 40. Note 
 above the much finer sculptures of the age of Trajan 
 and the Antonines. See p. 260. In a. Stanza ot the 
 
 XV 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 PIO. PAGE 
 
 Vatican there is a celebrated fresco of the same scene, 
 designed by Rafiael and painted by Giulio Romano. 
 Photo Anderson. 
 
 3. Busts ok Constantine the Great and Julian_ 50 
 
 Uffizi, Florence, and Capitol Museum, Rome. For Con- 
 stantine's curls and finery, see p. 51 n. The Julian 
 bust is doubtful, the inscription being medieval. Photos 
 Brogi. 
 
 4. S. Paolo fuori le mura, Rome 58 
 
 Founded in 388 by Theodosius and Valentinian II. (See 
 p. 58 and under ' Churches ' in Index.) Burnt down, 
 except the choir and apse, in 1823. The reconstruction 
 (1824-54) on the old lines is very impressive, and the 
 more modern character of some of the alterations does 
 not prevent the edifice from being one of the grandest 
 basilicas in existence. Photo Alinari. 
 
 5. S. Maria Maggiore, Rome 68 
 
 See p. 67 n. and Index under • Churches.' Photo Anderson. 
 
 6. Pulpit, S. Ambrogio, Milan 80 
 
 With the so-called tomb of Stilicho. As he was killed at 
 Ravenna (p. 80) it is unlikely that he was buried here. 
 The sarcophagus dates probably from about 500. The 
 ancient Lombard pulpit was removed about 1150, 
 during restorations, and re-erected in later Romanesque 
 style, etc., about 1200. Some of the quaint reliefs may 
 date from 800, or even 500. Photo Alinari. 
 
 7. Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna go 
 
 See pp. 91, 260, 271. The middle sarcophagus is that of 
 the Empress. Those to right and left (the latter in- 
 visible) are supposed to be the tombs of her husband, 
 Constantius III, and her son, Valentinian III. Photo 
 Alinari. 
 
 8. Pope I^eo and Attd^a 102 
 
 Fresco by Raffael in one of the Statue of the Vatican. See 
 p. 102. Raffael transfers the scene to the vicinity of 
 Rome (Colosseum in background) and gives Leo I the 
 features of Leo X (cf. Fig. 29). For Attila's personal 
 appearance, see p. 96. Note that SS. Peter and Paul 
 are seen only by the Huns. In St. Peter's, over the 
 altar of Leo I, there is a theatrical relief by Algardi 
 (c. 1650) representing the same scene. Reproduction, 
 with permission, of a heliotype in the ' Rafael-werk,' 
 published, by E. Arnold (Gutbier), Dresden, 
 
 xvi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 9- Coins, Plate I : Constantino I to Justinian 
 
 (c. 306-565) 118 
 
 See Notes, p. 117. 
 
 10. Baptistery of the Orthodox, Ravenna 132 
 
 See pp. 80 «., 92, and 271. The dome, as that of S. Vitale, 
 is formed of terra-cotta vessels. See p. 267. Photo 
 Alinari. 
 
 11. Mausoleum of Theoderic, Ravenna 164 
 
 See p. 165. Photo Alinari. 
 
 12. S. Apollinare Nitovo, Ravenna 168 
 
 See descriptions, pp. 168 sq., 272. Photo Alinari. 
 
 13. S. PlETRO IN &EL D'ORO, PAVIA 176 
 
 See under ' Churches ' in Index. The church was (if not 
 still older) originally Lombardic, founded perhaps by 
 Agilulf, c. 604 ; but it was rebuilt in Romanesque 
 style. The main portion of the portal dates (says 
 Mothes) from 950 to 1000. For the tomb of Boethius see 
 p. 177, and for that of St. Augustine see description of 
 Fig. 52 (1). Coronations of the Kings of Italy (see under 
 Fig. 19) were sometimes held at Pavia, the old Lombard 
 capital, in S. Pietro, or else in S. Michele, which was 
 then the cathedral. Photo Alinari. 
 
 14. Boethius 178 
 
 See p. 175 sq. The painting (imaginary or from some old 
 portrait ?) is by Giovanni Santi, Raffael's father. It is 
 in the Barberini Gallery, Rome. Photo Brogi. 
 
 15. Monastero del Sacro Speco, Subiaco 188 
 
 See p. 188. The church and monastery, as also the Abbey 
 Church of Monte Cassino and the Collemaggio at Aquila 
 (Fig. 49), are said to have suffered from the recent terrible 
 earthquake (January 13, 1915). Photo Brogi. 
 
 16. S. Vitale, Ravenna 198 
 
 See under ' Churches ' in Index. Cf. Fig. 23. Photo Alinari. 
 
 17. Mosaics of Justinian and Theodora, Ravenna 203 
 
 See pp. 203-4, 272. Photo Alinari. 
 
 18. S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna 204 
 
 See under ' Churches ' in Index. For the mosaics, see p. 273. 
 
 Photo Alinari. 
 
 xvii 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 FIO. PAGK 
 
 19. (1) The Iron Crown 228 
 
 Preserved in the Treasury of Monza Cathedral (p. 256 ».) . With 
 this the Lombard kings, it is said, were crowned at 
 Pavia, their capital, or Milan (e.g. Agilulf), or perhaps 
 Monza. The Frank and German monarchs until 
 Henry II (1002) seem to have been crowned, as Kings 
 of Italy, generally at Pavia, but later at Milan. The 
 ' Italian ' king Berengar II (c. 950) was crowned at 
 Pavia. Frederick Barbarossa, at feud with Milan, was 
 crowned at Monza, or perhaps at Pavia (c. 1155), which 
 city took his part. Since then the Iron Crown has been 
 preserved at Monza. It was used by Charles V, who 
 crowned himself with it at Bologna in 1530, and by 
 Napoleon (at Milan) in 1805. In 1859 it was carried 
 off by the Austrians, but was restored in 1866. Perhaps 
 the original was a simple iron crown, or possibly only the 
 interior circlet of iron (visible in the picture) which 
 tradition asserted to have been formed of one of the nails 
 of the Cross, brought by Helena from Jerusalem (p. 39). 
 The golden, jewelled exterior dates perhaps from about 
 1 100. It is a simpler and apparently later work than 
 the imperial crown figured below. Muratori repudiates 
 the nail legend. Bonincontro, a Monza chronicler of 
 the fourteenth century, does not mention the legend, 
 though he speaks of the iron crown and tells us that 
 iron is a strong and regal metal. Numerous nails from 
 the Cross were supposed to exist. See p. 43. The 
 legend, if it was not originated, was certainly confirmed 
 by the fact that Matteo Villani (c. 1350) called this 
 crown Sda Corona, which was wrongly explained as 
 Sancta Corona, whereas it meant Seconda Corona — 
 the first crown being the silver one at Aachen and the 
 third being the golden one at Rome. Photo G. Bianchi, 
 Monza. 
 
 (2) The so-called Crown of Charlemagne 228 
 
 This magnificent crown, surmounted by a cross and arched 
 diadem, is- in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna (in the 
 Hofburg), the Keeper of which was good enough to give 
 me permission to use the photograph. There is great 
 divergence of opinion as to its date. Some authorities, 
 as Bock — with whom I agree — believe the crown itself 
 to be early Italian work, and the diadem with the name 
 ' Conrad ' to have been a later addition. In this case 
 there is just a possibility that the crown is actually 
 that which was used by Leo III to crown Charles the 
 Great. But some patriotic Teutons, such as v. Falke, 
 who has written a richly illustrated monograph on the 
 subject, assert that both parts were undoubtedly made 
 in Germany, and they insist that the whole cannot be 
 
 xviii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 no. rAoa 
 
 anything but eleventh- century work, and therefore 
 must be an imperial diadem made specially (at Mainz ?) 
 for the coronation of Conrad II and his consort Gisela 
 in 1027 (see p. 348). There exists also — found in 
 excavating a street in Mainz not very long ago — a 
 collection of beautiful brooches, spangles, earrings, 
 necklaces, etc., which are of work very similar to the 
 arched diadem, and which may very probably have 
 been the coronation finery of Gisela. She was a very 
 energetic and ambitious lady. She was descended 
 through her mother from Charles the Great, and, after 
 having had two husbands, married Conrad when he was 
 only a Count. She was not content till she had got him 
 and herself crowned with the imperial diadem at Rome — 
 an occasion on which much bloodshed was caused, as 
 so often, by quarrels between Germans and Romans, 
 and also by the jealousies of the rival archbishops of 
 Ravenna and Milan. The arched diadem bears, worked 
 in pearls, the words, Chuonradus Dei gratia Imperator 
 Augustus. The crown itself is a mass of precious 
 stones, gold filigree, and pearls. It has three pictures 
 in enamel representing (1) Christ, between two arch- 
 angels, as King of Kings ; (2) David as the King of 
 Manly Courage ; (3) Solomon as the King of Justice 
 and Wisdom ; (4) Hezekiah as the King of Piety. 
 Photo by S. Schramm, Vienna, photographer to the Court 
 of Rumania. 
 
 20. Theodewnda's Hen and Chickens 254 
 
 See footnote, p. 256. They perhaps represent the Lombard 
 kingdom and its seven provinces. They are silver-gilt. 
 The copper disk on which they stand is modern. Photo 
 G. Bianchi, Monza. 
 
 21. (1) S. Maria in Cosmedin, Rome 258 
 
 Close to the Tiber and the Round Temple (formerly ' Temple 
 of Vesta '). Built c. 775. Small, but interiorly very 
 beautiful in its proportions. The bell-tower (eighth 
 century) is a good example of a Roman campanile. 
 See Index under ' Campanile,' Photo Anderson. 
 
 (2) The Phocas Column, Rome 258 
 
 In the Forum. For centuries ' The nameless column with 
 a buried base.' Excavated, with the help of English 
 money, soon after Byron wrote that line. The inscrip- 
 tion shows that the column (taken from some ancient 
 building) was erected in 608 by the Exarch Smaragdus 
 in honour of the odious tyrant Phocas, of Constantinople, 
 whose gilt statue stood on its summit. See pp. 67 n., 220 
 258. Photo Anderson. 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 no. 
 22. 
 
 PAG» 
 
 CcEmente, Rome 262 
 
 The upper church. See under ' Churches ' in Index. Photo 
 Alinari. 
 
 23. S. Vitale, Ravenna 266 
 
 See under ' Churches ' in Index. Cf. Fig. 16. Photo Alinari. 
 
 24. Mosaics in S. Pudenziana and S. Prassede, Rome 270 
 
 See description, p. 269, and p. 525. The two saints were 
 daughters of Pudens, the host of St. Peter in Rome, and 
 the first-named church is, tradition says, built on the site 
 of the house where the apostle lodged. In the lower 
 picture note that Pope Paschal (817-24), who holds a 
 model of his church, has the square nimbus, which shows 
 that he was still living when the mosaic was made. Note 
 also on the palm-tree a phoenix with a radiate nimbus. 
 Photos Alinari. 
 
 25. S. PlETRO, TOSCANEU.A 276 
 
 See p. 280 and under ' Churche9 ' in Index. Photo Anderson. 
 
 26. S. Maria Maggiore, Toscaneiaa 280 
 
 As Fig. 25. Photo Anderson. 
 
 27. Cathedral and S. Fosca, Torceilo 284 
 
 See p. 283 and under ' Churches ' in Index. For the marble 
 seat in the foreground (' the chair of Attila ') see p. 286 n. 
 Photo Andrson. 
 
 28. Cathedrai, of Grado 288 
 
 See pp. 101, 285. Grado and Aquileia, both ancient Italian 
 towns and intimately connected with Italian history, have 
 been for more than a century appropriated by Austria. 
 They will doubtless ere long be restored to their mater 
 antiqua. In 568, when the Lombards came streaming 
 down over the Venetian Alps, the citizens of Aquileia 
 (rebuilt after its destruction by Attila in 452) fled once 
 more for refuge to Grado. The Patriarch, Paulinus, 
 brought with him all the relics and treasures of the 
 Aquileian churches, and his successor, Elias, obtained 
 the title of Patriarch of Grado. Patriarch Elias (c. 578) 
 built the present Cathedral of Grado, doubtless on the 
 site oi a more ancient church, taking for his model the 
 basilicas of S. Apollinare in Ravenna. The columns 
 and mosaic floor are evidently from the older church 
 (Byzantine-Ostrogothic). Note the (further) pulpit, with 
 curious reliefs (Ostrogothic ? Lombard ?) of the evan- 
 gelistic beasts, and surmounted by a Venetian (Byzan- 
 tine) canopy. Note also the silver pala of the altar, and the 
 (thirteenth-century ?) frescos in the apse. Built on to the 
 church there is an ancient baptistery, which has stone 
 XX 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TAG* 
 
 shutters, as atTorcello. The church has been often restored, 
 and probably under the plaster of the triforium might 
 be found mosaics or frescos. In this church is sung the 
 old medieval liturgy of the Grado patriarchate, the 
 Cantus patriarchinus. Photo AHnari. 
 
 29. The Donation op Constantino to Silvester 304 
 
 In the Vatican Stanze. By Raflaello da Colle, designed prob- 
 ably by Raffael. Silvester has the features of Clement 
 VII. Among the spectators are depicted Raffael's friend 
 Castiglione and his pupil Giulio Romano. The scene 
 takes place in the old basilica of St. Peter. Reproduc- 
 tion, with permission, from ' Rafael-werh,' published by 
 E. Arnold (Gutbier), Dresden. 
 
 30. S. MlNIATO, FLORENCE 344 
 
 See p. 442 and Index. Photo Brogi. 
 
 31. Tomb of Beatrice, Mother op Countess Matilda, 
 
 Campo Santo, Pisa 348 
 
 Interesting firstly on account of the famous Countess 
 Matilda, whose mother Beatrice was the wife of Boniface, 
 Marquess of Tuscany (pp. 349, 353, 430 ; and note that 
 the predecessor of Boniface was the Marquess, or 
 Margrave, Ugo, called by Dante il gran barone, whose 
 tomb is well known to visitors of the Florentine Badia, 
 and whose mother, Willa, founded the original Badia). 
 Boniface died in 1052, and Beatrice, who had married 
 Godfrey of Lorraine, was captured by Henry and, 
 together with her daughter Matilda, taken to Germany, 
 but they were released in 1056, and it was not till the 
 year before the scene at Canossa (viz. 1076, as stated 
 on the tomb) that Beatrice died and. Matilda succeeded. 
 Some state that her body was first deposited in this 
 ancient (late Roman) sarcophagus in 1116. The hexa- 
 meter means ' Although a sinner I was called Lady 
 Beatrix [i.e. blest, or sainted].' The following words 
 one expects vainly to make a pentameter, such as In 
 tumulo jaceo quae comitissa fiti. They mean ' Placed in 
 a tomb I lie, who [was] a countess.' The pentameter 
 was perhaps spoilt by an illiterate stone-cutter in order 
 to insert a rime. He should have also altered it to In 
 tumulum missa ... As for the connexion of the relief 
 with Niccolb Pisano, see p. 533. Photo AHnari. 
 
 32. Baptistery Portal, Volterra 372 
 
 The octagonal Baptistery dates originally perhaps from the 
 seventh century. The finely proportioned and simply 
 decorated portal is a good example of Tuscan Romanesque 
 quite untouched by the Pisafl style (as are also the 
 richer facades of the Toscanella churches, Figs. 25, 26). 
 Photo Brogi. 
 
 xxi 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 no. **<>» 
 
 33. Cappella Palatina, Palermo 4 00 
 
 ' Palace Chapel,' attached to the royal palace of the Norman 
 kings at Palermo. The style is Norman influenced by 
 Saracen architecture. Built about 1130 by King Roger. 
 The walls, arches, and apse are richly covered with very 
 fine mosaics of the Norman-Sicilian school (see pp. 446- 
 448). Note the slightly pointed arches, showing (as at 
 Monreale) what may be Arab influence. See Fig. 43. 
 Photo Alinari. 
 
 34. Roger of Sicily crowned by the Saviour 406 
 
 Mosaic in La Martorana, Palermo. See pp. 407, 448. Photo 
 Brogi. 
 
 35. King Roger's Tomb 408 
 
 In the Cathedral of Palermo. In other porphyry sarcophagi 
 are buried here Frederick II (Fig. 47), his father, 
 Henry VI, his mother, the Empress Constance (Roger's 
 daughter), and in an old Roman sarcophagus lies 
 Frederick's wife, Constance of Aragon. About 1780 
 the sarcophagi were brought from a side chapel and, 
 after being opened and examined, were placed under 
 these baldachini. Photo Alinari. 
 
 36. Palermo Cathedral 412 
 
 Originally built, in the place of an ancient church that had 
 been turned into a mosque, by Archbishop Ofiamilio 
 (Walter Of a Mill). This south side of the cathedral 
 and the east front date mainly from about 1170-1200, 
 and show many interesting evidences of Saracen influ- 
 ence. (The gable over the beautiful south porch is a 
 fifteenth-century addition and the very disfiguring dome 
 dates from 1800.) The west front is later (c. 1350). It 
 is attached to a vast ancient campanile (the upper part 
 restored) by an arch that spans the street. Photo Alinari. 
 
 37. S. Marco, Venice 422 
 
 See under ' Churches ' in Index. Photo Brogi. 
 
 38. The Baptistery, Florence 428 
 
 See p. 78. Photo Brogi. 
 
 39. Ferrara Cathedral 438 
 
 Might perhaps have been better reserved as an example of 
 transition from Romanesque to Gothic. The lower 
 part dates from about 1130, and not only the lowest 
 arcade and the doors but also the main features of the 
 whole building are Romanesque. They are however 
 curiously Gothicized, and the general result is not very 
 satisfactory, though the building is impressive. The 
 xxii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FIG. PACK 
 
 protruding porch is a later addition, partly in Roman- 
 esque style, with lions, and partly in a kind of Venetian 
 Gothic. Photo Alinari. 
 
 40. Baptistery, Cathedral, and Campanile, Pisa 440 
 
 See p. 441 and under ' Churches ' in Index. Photo Brogi. 
 
 41. S. Martino (Cathedrai,), I^ucca 442 
 
 See pp . 280 and 442. Also for Guidetto's equestrian statue 
 of St. Martin and the Pisani's Deposition (neither easily 
 recognizable in the picture) see pp. 532 and 536. The 
 bell-tower is a fine specimen of Lombard campanile. 
 Note the crenate Ghibelline merli. Photo Alinari. 
 
 42. IyA COLLEGIATA, S. GlMIGNANO 444 
 
 See p. 443. Cf. also Fig. 54. The church is richly adorned 
 with frescos by Benozzo Gozzdli (pupil of Pra Angelico), 
 Ghirlandajo, and others, and contains an altar dedicated 
 to S. Pina, the girl patron saint of the town, by Bene- 
 detto da Maiano. Photo Brogi. 
 
 43. Cathedrae, of Monreale, near Palermo 446 
 
 Built by William the Good, c. 1175-89. Its fine towers and 
 other features seem to denote influence of Northern, 
 perhaps English, Norman. See p. 445. The beautiful 
 curves of the slightly pointed arches may denote Saracen 
 influence. Magnificent mosaics cover the walls and 
 apse. See p. 448. Photo Alinari. 
 
 44. Cathedral of Cefalu 448 
 
 For its resemblance to St.-Etienne, Caen, see p. 445 n. For 
 the splendid mosaics see p. 448, and note the crenate 
 antipapal battlements of the tower. Photo Alinari. 
 
 45. Coins, Plate II : Heraclius to Henry VII (c. 650 
 
 to 1313) 450 
 
 See Notes, p. 449. 
 
 46. Castel del Monte 460 
 
 In Apulia, some fifteen miles inland from Tram, on the 
 Adriatic. Built in 1228 by Frederick II and much used 
 by him for hunting purposes. (He is said to have 
 written here his book on falconry, the MS. of which is 
 in the Vatican.) At another such Apulian castle, that 
 of Fiorentino, near Lucera, he died. Photo Alinari. 
 
 47. Tomb of Frederick II, Palermo Cathedral 466 
 
 See note on Fig. 35. When the sarcophagus was opened 
 the Emperor's body was found swathed in Saracen robes ; 
 a crown was on its head ; his sceptre and a sword lay 
 by its side. Photo Alinari. 
 
 xxiii 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 FIG. MM 
 
 48. Charles of Anjou 47 6 
 
 In the Capitol Museum, Rome (badly placed and lighted). 
 Probably erected by the Romans after the dastardly 
 execution of the youthful Conradin in 1268, when Charles, 
 who is here robed in a Roman toga and is furnished with 
 crown and sceptre, was re-elected Senator of Rome. 
 The face is repellently coarse and cxuel and ' the nose 
 is very large,' as Gregorovius remarks — quite rightly, 
 seeing that Dante himself, who met Charles in a pleasant 
 glade of Antipurgatory (instead of in Hell, where he 
 should surely have been !), mentions his maschio naso, 
 and calls him nasuto. This feature, I think, Dante may 
 have noticed in this very statue when he was at Rome 
 in 1300 and 1301 ; and, perhaps in Dante's company, 
 Giovanni Villani may have noticed it too, for he de- 
 scribes Charles as ' having a fierce countenance and 
 olive complexion and a large nose.' See p. 476 n. The 
 big nose is also visible on Charles's coins. See Plate II, 
 coin 10 (p. 450), where the face has a decided resem- 
 blance to that of the statue. Photo Brogi. 
 
 49. S. Maria di CollEmaggio, Aquila 482 
 
 Aquila is in the Abruzzi. This church is interesting in 
 connexion with the story of the poor old hermit-Pope, 
 Celestine V, whose tomb one may see here, as well as 
 frescos, by a pupil of Rubens, depicting his miracles. 
 See p. 481 n. The architecture is also very interesting, 
 being a specimen of Southern, probably twelfth-century, 
 Lombard Romanesque, with fine rose-windows, but 
 with an inlaid marble facade which shows decided 
 Saracen influence. It suffered seriously from the terrible 
 earthquake of January 13 this year. It is said to be/ocfe- 
 mente lezionata e pericolanle, and is being propped to 
 prevent collapse. Photo Anderson. 
 
 50. (1) Boniface VIII proclaiming the Jubilee of 
 
 1300 486 
 
 A fragment of a fresco by Giotto suspended on a pier of the 
 nave in the Lateran Basilica, Rome. It proves that 
 Giotto remained at Rome until at least shortly before 
 1300. See p. 525. It also proves that at this date 
 Boniface had not assumed the second coronet, which is 
 seen in the Statue (and also may be seen on the half- 
 length figure in the Grotte of St. Peter's). The original 
 papal head-dress (tiara) was simply a high conical cap 
 of cloth of gold, copied probably from the Phrygian 
 Kvpflaoia, or the apices of Roman flamens. The first 
 coronet was perhaps adopted by Bishop Silvester on 
 the strength of the gift of Constantine. (In the fabri- 
 cated ' Donation ' the word frigium, i.e. Phrygian cap, 
 xxiv 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FIG * PAGE 
 
 is used.) Why Boniface assumed the second is un- 
 known ; but I think it may have intimated suzerainty 
 over Sicily and Apulia (see p. 483), at which he was for 
 ever aiming. The third coronet of the ' triple-tyrant,' 
 as Milton calls the Pope of Rome, was adopted, it is 
 thought, by the Avignon Pope Urban V — but on what 
 grounds is unknown. Photo Alinari: 
 
 (2) The Statue of Boniface VIII 486 
 
 Once adorned the faQade, but is now inside the Duomo, at 
 Florence, where it seems to glare angrily round a huge 
 pier towards the portrait of Dante, who is depicted amid 
 scenes of that Inferno to which he condemned his great 
 enemy. Photo Alinari. 
 
 51. Tomb of Henry of Luxemburg 492 
 
 In the Campo Santo, Pisa. By a Sienese sculptor, c. 1315. 
 Photo Brogi. 
 
 52. (1) Tomb of St. Augustine 504 
 
 In S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro, Pavia. See Fig. 13 and pp. 231 
 and 280. The body was rescued from the Saracens, 
 and brought from Sardinia by Liutprand, c. 723, and 
 was deposited in the ancient Lombard church, built by 
 Agilulf. The present tomb, profusely ornamented with 
 reliefs and statuettes, was made about the year 1370. 
 When the church was turned for a time into a storehouse 
 (1844-75) the tomb was taken to the cathedral, and the 
 bones were transferred to a glass coffin. Photo Alinari. 
 
 (2) Tomb of St. Domenic 504 
 
 In S. Domenico, Bologna. Said by Vasari to be early work 
 (1231 !) of Niccolo Pisano, completed by his pupil, Fra 
 Guglielmo ; but probably executed entirely by the 
 pupil about 1267. Having received no pay, it is said, 
 the friar stole a rib of the saint. One of the kneeling 
 angels is said to be an early work of Michelangelo. 
 Photo Alinari. 
 
 53. Assisi 508 
 
 Monastery and upper church (c. 1250) from the west. The 
 monastery is secularized and used as a seminary. Photo 
 Anderson. 
 
 54. S. GlMIGNANO 5l6 
 
 Photo Brogi. 
 
 55. S. Zeno (Maggiore), Verona 520 
 
 A very fine Romanesque basilica dating from the eleventh 
 century (choir from c. 1260). The castellated building 
 
 C XXV 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 FIG. PAGE 
 
 (with the crenate Ghibelline merli) is said to have been 
 sometimes used by Emperors on their visits to Italy. 
 Photo Alinari. 
 
 56. Palaces Loredan and Farsetti, Venice 52a 
 
 Both Venetian Romanesque of about 1150, and of exquisite 
 proportions. The Loredan (to the left) Ruskin calls 
 the most beautiful of all the palaces on the Grand Canal. 
 Photo Anderson. 
 
 57. (1) Mosaic in S. Maria in Trastevere 524 
 
 For the upper part (c. 1140), see p. 525, and for the general 
 character of such mosaics, p. 270. Photo Alinari. 
 
 (2) I,a Navicella 524 
 
 In the vestibule of St. Peter's, Rome. By Giotto, or after 
 his design, possibly by Cavallini. See p. 525. The 
 upper part especially has been considerably altered in 
 order to accommodate the mosaic to its present site. 
 Originally it was in the atrium of the old basilica. 
 Photo Alinari. 
 
 58. Pulpit at ~L,k Trinita della Cava, near Salerno 526 
 
 Both the pulpit and the spiral column for the Easter candle 
 are very beautiful specimens of South Italian ' Cosmati ' 
 work (c. 1250). Photo Brogi. 
 
 59. Cosmati Tomb in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome 528 
 
 See p. 527. Photo Alinari. 
 
 60. S. Croce, Florence 530 
 
 See pp. 529-30. Photo Alinari. 
 
 61. The Baptistery Pulpit, Pisa 532 
 
 By Niccolo Pisano. See pp. 532 sq. Photo Brogi. 
 
 62. The Ravello Pulpit 534 
 
 See p. 535. Ravello is not far from Amain. Photo Brogi. 
 
 63. The Siena Pulpit 536 
 
 See p. 536. Photo Alinari. 
 
 f>.\. Palazzo pubblico, Siena 544 
 
 One of the finest of Italian Gothic palaces. See p. 532. 
 The campanile, some 335 feet high, called La Torre del 
 Mangia, was built c. 1330-40 ; the palace itself between 
 1289 and 1305. Siena became Guelf in 1270 (see p. 517), 
 consequently we have the square Guelf merli, which 
 should be compared with the crenate merli in Figs. 41 
 and 55. In the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio the main 
 xxvi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 building (c. 1300) has the square, and the tower (c. 1460) 
 has the crenate, battlements. Photo Brogi. 
 
 FASB 
 
 65. Siena Cathedral 548 
 
 See p. 529. Photo Brogi. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 
 
 Castle of Theoderic at Verona (Seal) 167 
 
 Classe, Ravenna (Mosaic) 169 
 
 Theoderic's Palace at Ravenna (Mosaic) 170 
 
 IvEo's Triclinium Mosaic 243 
 
 Lunette above the Portal op Monza Cathedral 256 
 
 Columns and Entablatures, S. Costanza fuori, 
 
 Rome 262 
 
 Capitals from S. Vitale 269 
 
 Lombard Work at S. Abbondio, near Como 280 
 
 Capital from S. Pietro, Toscanella 281 
 
 Capital from S. Ambrogio, Milan 281 
 
 The Ancient Basilica of St. Peter at Rome 295 
 
 Presbytery Steps and ' Confessio,' S. Giorgio in 
 
 Velabro 300 
 
 ' Confessio ' in the Oratory of S. Alessandro's 
 
 Catacomb, Rome 301 
 
 Coin of Michael Palaeologus 309 
 
 He is kneeling before Christ, supported by the Archangel 
 Michael. On rev. the Virgin surrounded by the ramparts of 
 Constantinople. Pachymerus, a contemporary historian, 
 says Michael Palaeologus coined debased gold money, to 
 meet great demands, with ' an image of the city ' on the 
 reverse. 
 
 xxvii 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Venetian Coin of c. 860 419 
 
 Venice now being nearly independent, we have ' God Save the 
 Roman Empire ' and ' Save Venice * instead of the name of 
 the Emperor. The building is the ' Carolingian Temple,' 
 found often on coins of this period. After noo all refer- 
 ence to the Empire is omitted, and after 1155 the name 
 of the Doge is inserted on the silver grossi and matapans. 
 Giov. Dandolo first coined the gold ducat and sequin, c. 1285. 
 See Plate II, coin 14 (p. 450). 
 
 Florentine Coin or c. 1200 432 
 
 Silver grosso. The same type was kept for the gold florin. 
 See Plate II, coin 16 (p. 450). 
 
 Coin of the Sons of Ugolino, c. 1290 516 
 
 Ugolino was bailli in Sardinia, where his sons, Guelfo and Lotto, 
 minted these coins with the family (Gherardesca) arms. 
 
 Coin of Milan, c. 1260 519 
 
 Type of the Milanese gold florin, with St. Ambrose and the two 
 Milanese saints, Protasius and Gervasius. Minted probably 
 by one of the Torriani or Visconti. 
 
 xxvtu 
 
, *«^^-* 
 
 Ths dioceses of the Pracfecturae were as follows : Praefectura Galliarum : Britannia, Galliae, Viennensis. Praefectura Itauae : Italia, Hispania, Africa. 
 
 (Spain is sometimes said to belong to the Prefecture of the Galliae.) Praefectura Iiayrici : Thracia and oil Greece, Moesiae, Ponnoniae. Praefectura Orientis : 
 
 Asia, Pontus, the Orient, and Egypt — ' Asia ' being western Asia Minor and the ' Orient ' being Syria, Palestine, etc. 
 
PART I 
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 305-476 
 
 IN 305 Diocletian abdicated and forced Maximian, a 
 Pannonian soldier whom twenty years before he had 
 elected as his imperial colleague (i.e. as an 'Augustus'), 
 to do the same. He then left the Empire to Constantius 
 Chlorus and to Galerius, who had been hitherto only ' Caesars,' 
 that is heirs-apparent to the purple. As new ' Caesars ' were 
 elected Severus and Maximin. 
 
 Constantius in earlier life had married Helena, possibly of 
 British birth, by whom he had a son, afterwards Constantine 
 the Great. When elected a Caesar (293) he had been com- 
 pelled to put aside Helena and to marry Theodora, daughter 
 of the Emperor Maximian ; and the young Constantine, 
 probably feeling humiliated, had preferred to serve as soldier 
 in the far East instead of remaining with his father, who was 
 in command of Gaul and Britain. But fifteen months after 
 his election as Emperor of the West Constantius died at York, 
 and his son Constantine, who had travelled in great haste from 
 Nicomedia in Bithynia to join his father on his expedition 
 against the Caledonians, was saluted by the army at York as 
 Augustus and Imperator. 
 
 Galerius had fancied that he would become sole Emperor 
 on the death of Constantius, but when Constantine sent him 
 notice of his election he was obliged to dissemble his rage and 
 grudgingly allowed him the title of Caesar, while he advanced 
 Severus to the dignity of an Augustus and assigned him the 
 province of Italy. 
 
 But Maxentius, son of old Maximian (who with impotent 
 
 A I 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 resentment had been sulking in obscurity since his abdication), 
 now raises the standard of revolt at Rome, and Severus takes 
 flight to Ravenna, where he capitulates and is forced to put 
 himself to death. Old Maximian visits Constantine in Gaul 
 in order to explain and negotiate, and takes with him his 
 daughter Fausta, whom Constantine marries, at Aries. 1 In 
 virtue of his former imperial authority Maximian then invests 
 Constantine with the purple, thus giving sanction to his election 
 by the army. Forthwith the Eastern Augustus, Galerius, 
 hearing of the death of Severus, invades Italy, but is obliged 
 to withdraw. He then elects I^icinius as an Augustus for the 
 Illyrian province. Hereupon the remaining ' Caesar,' Maximin, 
 demands and is unwillingly granted the imperial title for 
 Egypt and Syria, while at Rome Maxentius proclaims him- 
 self Emperor of Italy and persuades his father, the aged 
 Maximian, to reassume the purple. Thus we have no less 
 than six Emperors at the same time — a most confusing state 
 of things ! 
 
 Maxentius and his father now quarrel. The praetorian 
 guard declares for the younger and Maximian retires to 
 Ulyricum, and when expelled thence by Galerius makes his 
 way again to Aries, in Southern Gaul, and resigns his purple 
 into the hands of his son-in-law, Constantine. But while 
 Constantine is absent on an expedition in Rhimeland, irre- 
 pressible ambition incites the old man to seize the treasure at 
 Aries and to persuade certain soldiers to proclaim him once 
 more as Emperor. Constantine comes sweeping with his 
 flotillas down the Sadne and Rhone, and Maximian flees to 
 Marseille, hoping to be rescued by the Roman fleet of his son 
 Maxentius ; but he is given up by the citizens and put to death 
 by Constantine, Fausta ' sacrificing the sentiments of nature 
 to her conjugal duties ' and apparently approving of the 
 death of her father. 
 
 Galerius soon afterwards (311) dies in his palace at Nicomedia 
 — eaten of worms, it is said. He seems to have possessed a 
 
 1 He thus marries his stepmother's sister. His first wife, Minervina, seems 
 to have died. 
 2 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 proud and fiery but a manly and enterprising character, and 
 his reign was noted for many works of public utility, amongst 
 which were the drainage of a vast swamp between the Drave and 
 the Danube and the clearance of wide extents of forest-land. 
 
 There are now only four Emperors : Maximin in Asia and 
 Egypt, Iyicinius in East Europe, Constantine in the West, 
 while Maxentius plays the tyrant in Italy and North Africa. 
 
 But Italy and North Africa are too small an Empire for 
 the ambition of Maxentius. He openly avows his intention 
 of invading the dominions of Constantine, whose imperial 
 titles he commands to be erased and whose statues he causes 
 to be ignominiously overthrown. Whereupon Constantine, 
 leaving half his army on the Rhine, with some 40,000 men to 
 oppose 200,000, marches southwards and, having crossed Mont 
 Cenis, takes Susa, Turin, Milan, and Verona, and with an eagle- 
 like rapidity, such as that of the great Caesar himself, is ere 
 long in the neighbourhood of Rome, where, at the battle of 
 Saxa Rubra (the Red Rocks, near the Milvian Bridge), Maxen- 
 tius is defeated, and is drowned in the Tiber (312). 
 
 In 313 Constantine's ' Edict of Milan ' secured the so-called 
 ' Peace of the Church ' and the recognition, at least in 
 the Western Empire, of Christianity as a legal religion — 
 possibly as the State religion, though Constantine himself 
 remained a pagan, or unbaptized, until shortly before his death. 
 In the same year Maximin (Nicomedia) makes war on Licinius 
 (Byzantium and Ulyricum), but he is defeated and flees to 
 Tarsus, where he dies. Thus there are now only two Emperors, 
 Constantine and I/icinius, who for ten years (314-24) divide 
 the Roman Empire. They quarrel and are reconciled and 
 again quarrel. Constantine then captures Byzantium and 
 shortly afterwards puts I/icinius (his brother-in-law) to death, 
 though on the supplication of his own sister he had promised 
 to spare the life of her husband, ' after compelling him to lay 
 himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master and 
 raising him from the ground with insulting pity ' (Gibbon) . So 
 the Roman world is at last once more for a time united under 
 a single Emperor. 
 
 3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 During the next six years Constantine plans and effects the 
 transference of the seat of Empire from Rome to Byzantium, 
 which he furnishes with new walls and public buildings. It is 
 dedicated in 330 under its new name of Constantinopolis. It 
 was during this period — a year after his capture of Byzantium 
 and his murder of Dicinius — -that he summoned the famous 
 Council at Bithynian Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed was 
 composed and the doctrines of Arius were condemned. (Con- 
 stantine, by the way, though legend and art picture his baptism 
 by Bishop Silvester at Rome in 324, was first baptized on his 
 death-bed by an Arian bishop.) Shortly after thus laying a 
 foundation-stone of orthodoxy he puts to death his eldest son 
 Crispus and his own wife Fausta (the story reminds one of Hippo- 
 lytus and of Don Carlos), and his nephew, the young I/icinius. 
 Towards the end of his reign Constantine leads a campaign 
 against the Goths, who are now beginning to drive the Scythian 
 inhabitants of Central Europe, known in that age as ' Sarma- 
 tians/ across the Danube. He defeats the Goths in a great 
 battle, but the Sarmatians (ancestors of the Bulgarians) are 
 finally forced south of the Danube, and about 300,000 are 
 given territory in Thrace, Macedonia, and Italy. 
 
 In 337 Constantine the Great dies at his palace near Nico- 
 media (Bithynia), and the Empire is divided among his three 
 sons — twenty-one, twenty, and seventeen years of age — 
 Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans. Of these the 
 first (Emperor of Gaul and Britain and Spain), is killed when 
 invading Italy, the province of his brother Constans; and 
 Constans is murdered by an usurper named Magnentius. 
 Then Constantius, who has massacred a dozen of his own 
 cousins and uncles, hoping thus to extirpate rivals, becomes 
 sole Emperor. He attacks and defeats Magnentius (at Mursa, 
 on the Drave) and chases him from place to place. At last 
 the usurper is overtaken near Lyon and falls on his sword. 
 
 Constantius, whose court (at Constantinople, and later at 
 Milan) is dominated by palace officials, especially by an 
 eunuch named Eusebius, adds to his family murders by exe- 
 cuting Gallus, his cousin, whom he had married to his sister 
 
 4 
 
< 
 
 cq 
 
 rt .g 
 
 ■«! S 
 
 H « 
 
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 3 ° 
 
 M ° 
 
 ►-r -a 
 
 3. ^ 
 M 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Constantina (a human Fury) and had appointed as Caesar to 
 the province of the far East. The brother of Gallus, the future 
 Emperor Julian (many of whose writings have survived), tells 
 us the shameful story of this tragic event. He too was im- 
 prisoned by Constantius, and barely escaped with his life 
 by the favour of the Empress, the beautiful and amiable 
 Eusebia. He is exiled to Athens, but by the influence of 
 Eusebia is recalled to Milan, and married to Helena, another 
 sister of Constantius, and receives the title of a Caesar and 
 the administration of the West. How strife arises, how 
 Julian is proclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, and how Con- 
 stantius, hastening from the far East to chastise the usurper, 
 dies near Tarsus, leaving Julian supreme in the Roman world, 
 will be narrated more fully on a later occasion, when the 
 character and reign of the ' Apostate ' Emperor will be dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 Julian reigned only twenty months and was not yet thirty- 
 two years of age at his death in 363. He died of an arrow wound 
 in Persia, to the east of the Tigris, not far from where Bagdad 
 now stands, at a moment when his army (as in earlier days 
 in these regions the army of the ten thousand Greeks) was in 
 imminent risk of annihilation It is saved by the diplomacy 
 rather than the strategy of Jovian, an officer of the Guard, 
 who (after the honour had been refused by Sallust, the noble- 
 minded Prefect of the eastern provinces) is acclaimed Emperor 
 by the troops and accepts a humiliating peace offered by the 
 Persian king, Sapor, ceding five provinces and many cities. 
 The imperial army, after losing many men in the rivers and 
 deserts of Mesopotamia, reaches Antioch, where, as on all the 
 line of retreat, great indignation is excited by the cession of 
 the eastern provinces. (On Jovian's coins, by the way, his 
 portrait is accompanied by laurel crowns, winged Victories, 
 and prostrate captives !) 
 
 During his six weeks' stay at Antioch and his hurried march 
 through Asia Minor towards Constantinople Jovian issues 
 proclamations enjoining toleration towards paganism, but 
 re-establishing Christianity and the ' Peace of the Church ' — 
 
 5 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 re-establishing also the aged Athanasius on the patriarchal 
 throne of Alexandria — an attempt at pacification which, while 
 it brings him enthusiastic acclamation from the Catholic 
 hierarchy, is soon followed by the outbreak of still bitterer 
 fratricidal strife between the Christian sects. At Tarsus the 
 body of the Emperor Julian is buried. Hence Jovian pushes 
 forward, with the Christian standard (the Labarum) at the 
 head of his army ; but before reaching Nicaea he suddenly 
 dies — poisoned ^perhaps by mushrooms, or perhaps by the 
 effluvia of charcdal or of a newly plastered room. 
 
 In Jovian's stead (after the honour had been once more 
 refused by the Prefect Sallust) is chosen Valentinian, a stalwart 
 officer of Pannonian origin. As he ascends the tribune after 
 investiture a clamour arises that he should elect a colleague- 
 He makes no promise, but a month later, after his arrival at 
 Constantinople, he confers the title of Augustus on his brother 
 Valens, described as a feeble-minded, fat, short man. Thus the 
 Empire is again divided (364) , Valens being assigned the East, 
 from the Danube to Persia, and residing chiefly at Antioch, 
 while Valentinian retains Illyricum, Italy, North Gaul, and other 
 western provinces, and chooses Milan as his imperial residence. 
 
 In 365-66 takes place the attempt of Procopius, a relative 
 of Julian and a pagan, to make himself master of the Eastern 
 Empire. He captures Constantinople and is acknowledged 
 by troops in Thrace and on the Danube, and his generals 
 subdue Bithynia. The timid Valens, now at Caesarea, wishes 
 to abdicate, but his ministers will not allow it. The aged 
 Sallust is re-elected Prefect of the East, and Procopius, defeated 
 at Thyatira (or in I^ycia), escapes to the Phrygian mountains, 
 but is betrayed and beheaded. Thus the cowardly and feeble 
 Valens is re-established on the throne of the Eastern Empire. 
 He devotes most of his energies to persecuting the ' Athanasian 
 Catholics,' being himself an Arian, baptized by the Arian 
 patriarch of Constantinople. The aged Athanasius is, perhaps 
 for the fifth time, forced to fly from Alexandria ; but the people 
 take up arms and reinstate their patriarch, who soon after- 
 wards dies (373). 
 6 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Valentinian, whose person was tall and majestic and who 
 at first gained respect and affection, seems to have passed 
 useful laws — one of which restricted legacies made to the 
 Church, now beginning to indulge in regal wealth and 
 luxury — and to have instituted in many cities educational 
 academies and universities, such as had for centuries existed 
 in Athens. But before he had been long on the throne 
 he appears to have been overmastered by an ungovern- 
 able ferocity which demanded many thousands of victims, 
 especially in Rome and in Antioch — the verdicts being 
 generally founded on charges of magic. (He is said to have 
 kept two savage bears, Innocentia and Mica Aurea, to tear 
 to pieces before his eyes those who were condemned.) 
 His choleric temper was the immediate cause of his death, 
 for when (in 375) envoys of the barbarous tribe of Quadi came 
 into his presence in his palace at Trier (Treves) he addressed 
 them with such passionate violence that he burst a blood-vessel. 
 
 Valentinian I was succeeded by his son Gratian, whom he 
 had proclaimed as Augustus when a child of nine, and who 
 was now sixteen years of age. But a part of the army is in 
 favour of his half-brother Valentinian, a mere babe of four, 
 and Gratian good-naturedly accepts him as colleague, under 
 the regency of the child's mother, Justina, assigning him the 
 province of Italy and advising Milan as a residence. 
 
 About this time the weak-minded Eastern Emperor, Valens, 
 the uncle of the boy rulers of the West, had allowed a great 
 multitude of Visigoths, driven across the Danube by the Huns, 
 to settle in Moesia and Thrace. These Visigoths, suffering 
 terribly from famine and maltreated and enslaved by imperial 
 officials, revolt and begin to devastate the country; whereupon 
 Valens attacks them. A battle is fought not far from Hadrianople 
 and some 40,000 Imperialists are slain — a disaster that has 
 been compared with that of Cannae. Valens disappeared in the 
 midst of the fray and was never seen again. A vague report 
 asserted that a cottage in which he had taken refuge with his 
 retinue was set on fire by the Goths and that all perished in 
 the flames. Gratian now (378) elects as Emperor of the East 
 
 7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the general Theodosius, of Spanish origin. He himself, a mild 
 and sport-loving youth of nineteen years who had been brought 
 up under the gentle influence of the poet Ausonius, excites the 
 contempt of his army by devoting his time to hunting in his 
 great preserves in Gaul, dressed in Scythian costume and 
 attended by Scythian gillies and favourites. Ere long a revolt 
 is incited in Britain by Maximus, a Roman exile who had 
 married, it is said, a lady of Carnarvon. With a great army — 
 ' afterwards remembered * as the emigration of a considerable 
 part of the British nation,' says Gibbon — he attacks Gratian, 
 who flees to Lyon and is there taken and slain (383). Maximus 
 proclaims himself Augustus. For four years he is de facto the 
 Emperor of the West north of the Alps, and as such is recog- 
 nized by Theodosius ; but ere long he invades Italy, forcing 
 Justina to flee with her son, Valentinian II, now a lad of 
 fifteen, from Milan to Aquileia, and from Aquileia to Con- 
 stantinople. Theodosius, the Eastern Emperor, receives the 
 fugitives and falls in love with Galla, the sister of the boy- 
 Emperor of the West. After marrying her he carries war into 
 Italy, defeats and slays Maximus, restores Valentinian II to his 
 throne (388), and spends three years in Rome and Milan. It 
 was during this sojourn of his at Milan that Theodosius, who 
 as ardent Catholic and exterminator of Arianism had enjoyed 
 the special favour of St. Ambrose, was (it is said) excluded by 
 the archbishop from the cathedral of Milan until he had publicly 
 done penance for the massacre of the unsuspecting citizens of 
 Thessalonica, which he had allowed to take place on account 
 of a tumult 
 
 Some two years later (392), not long after the return of 
 Theodosius to Constantinople, the young Valentinian was 
 murdered at Vienne in Gaul, probably by a Frank general 
 named Arbogast. Thus Theodosius was left the sole legitimate 
 Emperor. Arbogast set himself up as dictator and elected 
 as rival Emperor of the West a rhetorician named Eugenius, 
 and it was two years before Theodosius ventured a campaign 
 against this second usurper, whom with great difficulty and 
 
 1 For the story of St. Ursula in this connexion see Index. 
 
 8 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 peril he defeated on the Erigidus (Cold River) near Aquileia. 
 Arbogast fell on his own sword, and Theodosius, thus rid of 
 all rivals, was now practically, as well as nominally, the 
 supreme lord of the Roman Empire. 
 
 But his life is threatened by dropsy, caused or aggravated 
 by luxurious habits, and having nominated his two sons, 
 Arcadius and Honorius, as his successors, the first in the East 
 and the second in the West, he summons the younger, Honorius, 
 a boy of ten years, to Milan (395) to receive the Western 
 sceptre from his dying hands ; and he entrusts the tutorship 
 of the lad to the chief of his army, Stilicho. To Arcadius, 
 a feeble youth of eighteen years and, according to Gibbon, of a 
 malignant and rapacious spirit, was committed the Eastern, 
 Empire, and as his guardian or regent was selected by Theo- 
 dosius the chief minister of State, Rufinus, a Gaul of obscure 
 birth and odious character. This partition of the Empire 
 proved final, except for an interval of two years after the death 
 of Honorius. Henceforth, therefore, Italy alone will occupy 
 most of our attention. 
 
 Honorius, who reigned for twenty-eight years, was of such 
 mean intellect, ungovernable temper, and unnatural instincts 
 that he may justly be suspected of insanity. During his 
 reign, however, events took place of supreme importance for 
 the future of Italy. 
 
 The chief actor in this scene of the drama is Stilicho, the 
 Vandal general already mentioned, at first the guardian and 
 afterwards the father-in-law of Honorius, and known to 
 literature as the hero of the servile muse of Claudian, the last 
 of the classic I/atin poets. In 395 he succeeds in procuring 
 the assassination of his rival Rufinus by means of Gothic 
 troops devoted to his cause, and for about thirteen years he 
 is the real ruler of both Empires. 
 
 In 402, after having rescued Honorius, who had abandoned 
 Milan in terror at the invading hosts of Visigoths under Alaric 
 and of Vandals under Radegast, Stilicho persuaded him to 
 transfer the seat of Empire to Ravenna ; and this city remained 
 for many years the capital of Italy. 
 
 9 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Again and again Stilicho now defeats Alaric — near Turin 
 and then near Verona— and at length (405) captures and kills 
 Radegast, who with a huge army of Vandals and other bar- 
 barians from Rhaetia is besieging Florence. But in order to 
 oppose these invaders he withdraws legions from the Rhine, 
 thus letting into Gaul a deluge of savage Vandals and other 
 German tribes, who spread devastation over seventeen pro- 
 vinces. Also from Britain troops are withdrawn, and ere long 
 Roman occupation comes here finally to an end, so that the 
 Britons, thus left to the ravages of the Picts and Scots, begin 
 to call on the ' English ' sea-rovers for help — the help that 
 came some forty years later with Hengist and Horsa ! But 
 to return 1 In 407, one of the last years of the Roman occupa- 
 tion, a private soldier, Constantine by name, is elevated 
 by the soldiery in Britain to the dignity of Emperor, and for 
 some time he terrifies Honorius by extending his conquests 1 
 over Gaul and Spain, 'from the wall of Antoninus to the 
 columns of Hercules.' 
 
 The popularity and power of Stilicho suffer eclipse by 
 reason of these occurrences. He is accused of treason, and 
 in 408 at Ravenna, where he had sought sanctuary in a church, 
 he is killed by the orders or the connivance of Honorius. The 
 death of Stilicho opens the floodgates to the Visigoth invaders. 
 Thirty thousand Goths, hitherto in the service of Stilicho and 
 the Empire, join Alaric, who, after seizing the port of Ostia and 
 thrice investing Rome and bringing it to dire extremities by 
 famine, enters it with his army in 410 — the first time that the 
 city had been entered by a foreign foe since its capture by the 
 Gauls in 390 B.C. Alaric remained only three days — or per- 
 haps six — in Rome, where the bloodshed and pillage were 
 apparently less than might have been expected. He then 
 marched southward, perhaps intending to invade Sicily, but 
 died at Cosenza and was buried, it is said, beneath the waters 
 of the Busento, whose stream was diverted for a time to allow 
 
 1 A little later there were again six nominal Emperors, viz. Honorius, Theo- 
 dosius II, Constantine and his son Constans, Attalus (Rome), and Maximus 
 (Spain). Some of the usurpers I have omitted from my narrative. 
 10 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 a sepulchre and cairn to be built in the river's bed. The retreat 
 of the Visigoths from Italy under Athaulf (Adolf), the founda- 
 tion of their great kingdom in South Gaul, and the remarkable 
 fortunes of the princess Galla Placidia, whom Alaric captured 
 in Rome, will be more fully described later (Chapter V). 
 
 Here it will suffice to say that this daughter of the Eastern 
 Emperor, Theodosius the Great, is taken to Gaul by Athaulf, 
 who soon after marrying her is murdered. She is ransomed 
 by her half-brother Honorius (for 600,000 measures of corn), 
 and on her return to Italy marries Constantius, a celebrated 
 general, who receives the title of Augustus from Honorius, 
 but soon after dies (421). She then quarrels with Honorius 
 and withdraws with her son Valentinian, scarcely four years 
 of age, to Constantinople. At Constantinople the Emperor 
 was now Theodosius II, her (half-) nephew. He had succeeded 
 Arcadius in 408 when a child of seven years, and had been 
 till now under the regency of his sister, Pulcheria, who long 
 after he came of age, indeed during all his reign (especially 
 after the retirement of his wif e, Eudocia, to Palestine), was the 
 real ruler of the Eastern Empire, and after his death in 450 
 was acknowledged as Empress, but was induced or allowed 
 to take as her imperial consort, nominally her husband, a fine 
 old soldier and senator named Marcian. 
 
 But to return to Placidia and her little son : they are kindly 
 received by Pulcheria and Theodosius, and after the death 
 of Honorius a few months later (and a further interval of about 
 two years, during which Theodosius suppresses an usurper, 
 John by name, at Ravenna and thus becomes the sole Emperor) 
 the title of Augustus of the West is given to the child 
 Valentinian, now some six years of age, the regency being 
 confided to his mother. Thus the whole Roman Empire is 
 now practically under the rule of two women, of whom one 
 holds the reins of government for about fifteen years (425-40), 
 and the other (Pulcheria) for about forty. 
 
 The long reign of Valentinian III (425-55) is notable for 
 two most important barbarian invasions — that of the Huns 
 and that of the Vandals. 
 
 u 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 At Ms, or rather his mother Placidia's, court at Ravenna the 
 rivalry of two distinguished generals, Aetius and Boniface, 
 greatly influences the course of events. 
 
 Boniface, an old and faithful supporter of Placidia in her 
 days of exile, had been made governor of the province of Africa, 
 where he became a great friend of St. Augustine. Aetius, who 
 had sided with the usurper John, and had even summoned a 
 great army of Huns to support the insurrection, was clever 
 enough to explain matters and gain the favour of Placidia, 
 whose chief adviser he became at the Ravenna court. By 
 the intrigues of Aetius Boniface was, it seems, summoned 
 home from his command in Africa ; but he refused to obey, 
 and it is said — perhaps falsely — that in a fit of indignant anger 
 he invited the Vandals to Africa. In 429 their king Gaiseric 
 (Genseric) crossed from Spain with a large army, and in spite 
 of the desperate resistance of Boniface, who too late had 
 repented of his error (if indeed he had ever committed it), 
 they laid waste the whole of the country and captured Hippo 
 after a long siege — during which siege St. Augustine, who was 
 with Boniface in the beleaguered city, died. Boniface escapes 
 and returns to Ravenna, where he fights a duel (or perhaps a 
 battle) with Aetius and dies of his wounds in 432. Aetius 
 is thereupon — some relate — proclaimed a rebel by Placidia 
 He takes refuge with his friends, the Huns, and once more 
 brings a great army of these barbarians to overawe Ravenna. 
 By this means (says Gibbon — though others doubt it) he 
 established himself as a kind of dictator, * assuming with the 
 title of master of the cavalry and infantry the whole military 
 power of the State.' 
 
 Meanwhile Gaiseric and his Vandals waste Africa with fire 
 and sword. In 439 they capture Carthage and soon after 
 attack and overrun Sicily, and Placidia is compelled to sign 
 a treaty conceding them the conquered provinces and thus 
 securing a period of peace. So things continued until 450, 
 when Placidia, who for the last ten years had withdrawn into 
 private life at Ravenna, died— at Rome, though her tomb is 
 at Ravenna. 
 
 12 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 The period 450-52 is notable for the terror caused by Attila 
 the Hun, the ' Scourge of God,' who like a thunderbolt falls 
 on the Empire of the West, but is defeated, or at least checked, 
 by Aetius and his Visigoth allies at a great battle near 
 Chalons — a battle that decided the fate of Europe, and is worthy 
 to be remembered with that of Salamis, of Himera, or of Tours. 
 Then Attila, enraged, swoops down upon Italy and captures 
 many towns, among them Padua and Aquileia. (The fugi- 
 tives from these and other places settle at Grado and on the 
 lagune islands and lidi where Venice afterwards arises.) At 
 the south end of I,acus Benacus (I^ago di Garda) Attila is 
 now met by an embassy from Rome, led by Pope I^eo the Great. 
 What was said, or what happened, to cause such a marvel 
 is unknown, but it is certain that after his interview with 
 I,eo the savage Hun monarch withdrew his army ; and shortly 
 afterwards he died suddenly — perhaps of haemorrhage. 
 
 Valentinian III had promised Aetius his daughter in marriage, 
 but after Attila's death he becomes more self-reliant, and in a fit 
 of fury, when Aetius importunately urges his suit, assassinates 
 him. In the following year (455) Valentinian himself, while 
 looking on at athletic games at Rome, is assassinated by two 
 soldiers, in revenge for the murder of Aetius, or possibly, as 
 we shall see, for another reason. Thus the dynasty of Theo- 
 dosius is extinguished (for Pulcheria had died two years before 
 at Constantinople), and we might perhaps reasonably regard 
 this year, 455, which also brought ruin and desolation on the 
 city of Rome, as the end of the Western — that is, the ancient — 
 Roman Empire ; for, although in the next twenty-one years 
 no less than nine so-called Emperors arose and fell in Rome, 
 they are mere shadows in the great procession of Augustan 
 monarchs — puppets, most of them, of barbarian princes or 
 generals. 
 
 Valentinian's assassination was perhaps an act of revenge 
 not only for the murder of Aetius but also for insult offered 
 by the Emperor to the wife of a Roman senator, Petronius 
 Maximus. However that may be, Maximus was now elected 
 Emperor, and he, devising what seems a strange method of 
 
 13 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 avenging the insult offered to his own wife, tries to force the 
 young widow of the murdered Valentinian to marry him. She, 
 Eudoxia, daughter of the late Eastern Emperor Theodosius II, 
 in her indignation, it is said, against her husband's murderer, 
 invites the Vandal king to attack Rome. Perhaps however 
 she had scarce time to do this — for her husband was killed 
 early in 455, and by June Gaiseric and his Vandals were at 
 the mouth of the Tiber. A few days afterwards they enter 
 Rome, where the new Emperor has been stoned to death in 
 a tumult when trying to flee from the city — ' a Burgundian 
 soldier claiming the honour of the first wound.' The sack 
 of Rome by the Vandals will be described in one of the following 
 chapters ; here it will suffice to add that when Gaiseric 
 returned to Sicily and Africa, carrying with him innumerable 
 treasures (among which were the spoils of the Temple of 
 Jerusalem), he took with him as prisoner this Empress who 
 is said to have invited him to Italy, together with her two 
 daughters, one of whom (Eudocia) married his son, the Vandal 
 king Hunneric. 1 
 
 Rome is for some months paralysed by the disaster. At 
 last Theoderic II, the Visigoth king whose father had fought 
 and fallen in the battle of Chalons, takes upon him, in conclave 
 with the chief Romans and Goths of Gaul assembled at Aries, 
 to elect as Emperor the commandant of the army in Gaul, 
 a native of Auvergne named Avitus. He is accepted, though 
 unwillingly, by the Senate and people of Italy, and his election 
 is sanctioned by the Eastern Emperor, Marcian. 
 
 But the reign of Avitus was short. His chief military 
 officer, Ricimer, a barbarian — his mother being a Visigoth 
 princess and his father a Suevian noble — inflicts a crushing 
 naval defeat on the Vandals near Corsica, and, having thus 
 gained popularity, seizes the reins of government, and for the 
 next sixteen years (456-72) plays the role of King-Maker. 
 First he deposes Avitus, who when attempting to escape is 
 
 1 The Empress was after seven years allowed to return to Constantinople 
 with her other daughter, Placidia, who in 472 married Olybrius, Emperor of 
 the West. 
 
 H 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 seized by him at Placentia and suffers a fate that afterwards 
 befell several other deposed magnates : he is forced to take 
 the tonsure and is — made a bishop! (Others assert that he 
 was killed, or died of the plague.) After an interregnum 
 Ricimer selects Majorian as Emperor — a brave and energetic 
 soldier ; but his fleet of 300 ships is destroyed by Gaiseric 
 off the coast of Spain — and on his return he is slain by soldiers 
 of Ricimer's — or abdicates and dies. 
 
 Then follows another puppet — I/ibius Severus — during whose 
 nominal reign (461-65) Ricimer rules supreme. But on account 
 of the great increase of the Vandal power on the sea Ricimer 
 is forced, on the death of Severus and after a further inter- 
 regnum of eighteen months, to appeal to the Eastern Emperor, 
 now I,eo I, called the ' Thracian ' — himself also the puppet of 
 a barbarian general, Aspar by name, who at Constantinople 
 is playing a role similar to that of Ricimer. I^eo proposes 
 Anthemius, whom Ricimer accepts, marrying his daughter 
 (467). A great expedition of more than 1000 ships is then 
 sent by I^eo and Anthemius to crush the Vandals, but it fails, 
 and Gaiseric (who lives on till 477) becomes all-powerful in the 
 Mediterranean, dominating Sardinia and Sicily and ravaging 
 at his ease the coasts of Italy. 
 
 Anthemius had become too popular. Ricimer therefore, 
 collecting in Milan a large force of barbarians, besieges and 
 sacks Rome, murders his father-in-law, and elects as Emperor 
 a Roman noble, Olybrius, who had married the princess 
 Placidia, Valentinian's daughter above mentioned. A few 
 weeks after the murder of Anthemius the King-Maker Ricimer 
 succumbs to an haemorrhage, and two months later Olybrius 
 dies (472). 
 
 On Ricimer's death his nephew Gundobald, a Burgundian 
 prince, takes his place and at Ravenna proclaims as Emperor 
 a captain of the Imperial Household Brigade {Comes Domes- 
 ticorum) named Glycerius. But the Empress Verina at 
 Constantinople, ever ready to meddle, profits by the fatal 
 illness of her husband, Leo the Thracian, to nominate as 
 Emperor of the West a relative of hers called Julius Nepos. 
 
 15 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 When Nepos arrives in Italy Gundobald withdraws to his home 
 in Burgundy, and Glycerius, fugitive from Ravenna, consents to 
 be consecrated as Bishop of Salona, in Dalmatia ; for a deposed 
 magnate in these ages was fortunate if he could choose ton- 
 sure and ordination, or even episcopal consecration, instead 
 of having his tongue cut out and his eyes blinded by means 
 of a basin of red-hot metal (a process called in Italian abbaci- 
 namento) . 
 
 But a rebellion now breaks out among the Gothic troops 
 in Rome. I^ed by their general Orestes, they march upon 
 Ravenna. Nepos takes flight and reaches Salona, where he 
 probably meets his former rival, ex-Emperor Bishop Glyce- 
 rius. Here he assumes the government of Dalmatia and rules 
 for years, recognized as Roman Emperor by Tthe court of 
 Constantinople. 
 
 Orestes, the third of these Emperor-Makers, was probably 
 a Roman patrician, though born in Illyricum. He had served 
 in Attila's army and had been sent, as we shall see, by the 
 Hun king as ambassador to Constantinople — possibly as 
 fellow-envoy with Edeco, the father of Odovacar, who will 
 soon appear on the stage. Himself a Roman — that is, an 
 Italian and not a northern barbarian — he had to wife the 
 daughter of Count Romulus, a Roman noble resident in 
 Noricum, and this claim of his family to Roman lineage was 
 probably the reason why he dared what not even Ricimer 
 himself would have dared to do — namely to proclaim his own 
 son as Emperor.. The youth's name, inherited or assumed 
 on his accession, combined the names of the first King and the 
 first Emperor of Rome. He is generally known as Romulus 
 Augustulus, though the contemptuous or affectionate dimi- 
 nutive is not found on his coins. 
 
 One might have expected that the fact of the Roman blood 
 and Roman sympathies of the youthful Emperor and of Orestes 
 himself would have secured the stability of their rule. But 
 this very fact seems to have caused its overthrow. Stilicho 
 and other barbarians who rose to power had been ruined by 
 the patriotic hatred of the Romans, i.e. the native Italians. 
 16 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Orestes is ruined by refusing the demand of his barbarian 
 troops — mostly Scirians and Herulians, formidable in their 
 numbers and influence. Their demand was that one-third 
 of the land should be given over to them — which meant that 
 Italy would henceforth be to a large extent populated by 
 barbarians. 
 
 A rebellion hereupon breaks out under the leadership of 
 Odovacar (Odoacer), an officer of the Herulian troops and 
 probably the son of Edeco, the Scirian barbarian already 
 mentioned as one of Attila's envoys to the Byzantine 
 court of Theodosius II. Orestes flees to Ticinum (later Pavia), 
 which is captured and sacked. He escapes to Placentia 
 (Piacenza), but is there overtaken and slain. The life of 
 Augustulus, who had taken refuge in Ravenna, is spared by 
 Odovacar. What befell him has already been told in the 
 Preface, and a fuller description of the place of his imprison- 
 ment will be found elsewhere. 1 With the fall of Augustulus 
 in 476 may be considered to have fallen the Western Empire — 
 that is, the ancient Imperium Romanum. 
 1 See end of Part I. 
 
 J 7 
 
ROMAN EMPERORS 
 
 PROM DIOCLETIAN TO ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS 
 
 abdicate 
 
 / Diocletian "l 
 \ Maximian / 
 / Constantius I (Clilorus) 
 L Galerius 
 
 r Constantine I (the Great) 
 I Severus 
 I Licinius 
 
 J Maximian (reassumes purple) 
 I Maxentius (his son) 
 *■ Maximin 
 C Constantine II 
 -j Constans 
 V Constantius II 
 
 Julian 
 
 Jovian 
 
 305-476 
 
 3°5 
 
 305-6 
 305-" 
 306-37 
 306-7 
 
 307-23 
 306-10 
 306-12 
 308-14 
 337-40 
 337-50 
 337-61 
 361-63 
 363-64 
 
 (Sole Emperor for fourteen years) 
 
 (Sole Emperor for eleven years) 
 
 Western Empire 
 
 Valentinian I 364-75 Valens 
 
 f Gratian 367 (375)-83 
 
 \ Valentinian II 375-92 
 
 [Maximus (Britain & Gaul) 383-88] 
 
 Theodosius I 392-95 
 
 (also Emperor of East) 
 [Eugenius 393-94] 
 
 Honorius 395-423 
 
 Eastern Empire 
 
 Theodosius I 
 
 Theodosius II 
 
 (also Emperor of East) 
 
 Valentinian III 425-55 
 
 (under regency of his mother 
 Galla Flacidia until 440) 
 
 Petronius Maximus 
 
 Avitus 
 
 Majorian 
 
 Libius Severus 
 
 Anthemius 
 
 Olybrius 
 
 Glycerius 
 
 Julius Nepos 
 
 Romulus Augustulus 
 
 455 
 
 455-56 
 457-61 
 461-65 
 
 467-72 
 472 
 
 473-74 
 474-75 
 475-76 
 
 Arcadius 
 Theodosius II 
 
 423-25 (and Pulcheria, his sister) 
 
 Marcian 
 
 (and Pulcheria till 453) 
 
 364-78 
 
 378-95 
 
 395-408 
 408-50 
 
 450-57 
 
 18 
 
 Leo I (the Thracian) 457~74 
 
 [Elected by the barbarian general 
 Aspar, whom he kills in 471] 
 
 Leo II 474 
 
 Zeno 474-91 
 
 [Zeno was Leo II's father, an 
 Isaurian, originally named Tras- 
 callisaeus. He married Ariadne, 
 daughter of Leo I andVerina. He 
 succeeded — having perhaps mur- 
 dered — his own son, who died soon 
 after accession.] 
 
l 9 
 
FAMILIES OF VALENTINIAN I AND 
 THEODOSIUS I 
 
 Count Gratian 
 of Pannonia 
 
 Valentinian I [d. 375) 
 m. Marina (Severa) m. Justina 
 
 Valens 
 (<*■ 378) 
 
 Gratian (d. 383) 
 m. Constantia, dt. 
 of Constantius II 
 
 Galla ; m. Theodosius I 
 
 Valentinian II 
 
 {d. 392) 
 
 Theodosius 
 
 (general of Valentinian I) 
 
 executed 376 
 
 I 
 Theodosius I (d. 395) 
 m. Aelia Flacilla {d. 386) m. Galla (d. 394) 
 
 I sister of Valentinian II 
 
 Arcadius {d. 408) 
 m. Eudoxia, 
 daughter of a 
 
 Frankish general 
 
 Hdnorius (d. 423) 
 
 m. two daughters 
 
 of Stilicho 
 
 Galla Placidia (d. 450) 
 
 m. Athaulf and then 
 
 Constantius ni 
 
 (d. 421) 
 
 Pulcheria (d. 453) Theodosius II 
 m. Marcian (d. 450) 
 
 (d. 457) m. Athenias 
 
 (Eudocia) 
 
 Eudoxia 
 m. Valentinian III 
 
 Honoria Valentinian III (d. 455) 
 (6. 418) m. Eudoxia, daughter of 
 Theodosius II 
 
 Eudocia 
 m. Hunneric, 
 son of Gaiseric 
 
 Placidia 
 
 m. Olybrius 
 
 (Emperor, 472) 
 
 Note ai,so 
 
 Honorius 
 brother of Theodosius I) 
 
 I 
 Serena m. Stilicho 
 (killed 408) I (killed 408) 
 
 Euctierius 
 (killed 408) 
 
 Maria 
 
 (m. Emp. Honorius ; 
 
 d. about 400) 
 
 20 
 
 Thermantia 
 
 (f». Emp. Honorius ; 
 
 divorced 408) 
 
CHAPTER I 
 WHY THE EMPIRE FELL 
 
 THE subject of this volume divides itself naturally 
 into five parts. The first extends to the fall of the 
 so-called Western Roman Empire — that is to the 
 deposition of Romulus Augustulus in the year 476 and the 
 extinction in Italy, for over three centuries, if not for ever, of 
 that title of Roman Emperor which had been borne, rather 
 discontinuously it must be allowed, and often with no lineal 
 or legal right, by about seventy successors of the great 
 Augustus, not counting numerous and sometimes simultaneous 
 usurpers both in Italy and in other parts of the West. 
 
 But when we speak of the fall of the Western Empire it must 
 be remembered that by the year 476 the Empire of the West, 
 which in the time of Constantine had comprised half the 
 Roman world — namely, the six vast ' dioceses ' of Britain, the 
 two Gauls, Spain, Italy, North- West Africa — now no longer 
 existed. 1 Britain had been abandoned to the Picts and Scots 
 and Angles and Saxons, the fifteen provinces of Gaul were occu- 
 pied by independent kingdoms of Franks and Visigoths and 
 Burgundians and Alemanni, Spain was ruled by Visigoths and 
 Suevi, and Africa together with Sardinia and Sicily was in 
 the power of Gaiseric the Vandal. Therefore when Odovacar 
 deposed the boy-Emperor Augustulus the so-called Western 
 Empire consisted only of Italy, with the provinces of Noricum 
 and Rhaetia to the north of the Alps ; to which perhaps we 
 may add the tract of Dalmatia, on the east coast of the 
 Adriatic, whither an expelled Roman Emperor (Nepos) had 
 retired, and where he was supported in his little imperium in 
 1 See Maps I and II. 
 
 21 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 imperio by the then ruling power in Constantinople, the 
 Dowager-Empress Verina. 
 
 The deposition of Augustulus may thus be regarded as the 
 abolition of the name of what had in reality already ceased 
 to exist — that mighty Empire of which Rome was the centre 
 and which in the days of Trajan (c. ioo) extended from the 
 Caspian to the Atlantic and from the deserts of I/ibya to the 
 highlands of Caledonia, and included also a great province, 
 that of Dacia, beyond the Danube, although Augustus, a 
 century earlier, had wisely chosen this river as the north- 
 eastern boundary of the Roman world. 
 
 And it was from this quarter that trouble came. Trajan's 
 annexation of Dacia (the country between the Theiss and the 
 Pruth) created an artificial frontier of great extent which 
 proved indefensible against the innumerable hordes of bar- 
 barians ever urged westward and southward by fresh waves 
 of hostile migration from the far East. The Emperor Aurelian 
 (c. 272) found it necessary to surrender the province to the 
 Visigoths on the condition that they should not pass the 
 Danube. He thus purchased a precarious truce of about a 
 hundred years, interrupted by several campaigns in the time 
 of Constantine, who on one occasion inflicted a crushing defeat 
 on the barbarians and a loss, it is said, of 100,000 men. About 
 370 these Dacian Visigoths, as we have already seen (p. 7), 
 were driven by the advancing hosts of the Huns across the 
 Danube and were allowed to settle in Thrace ; but shortly 
 afterwards they rebelled and routed the imperial army in a 
 great battle near Hadrianople, in which the Eastern Emperor, 
 Valens, disappeared. 
 
 This was the serious beginning x of those barbarian invasions 
 which were the immediate cause of the downfall of Rome and 
 which play such a large part in the early history of medieval 
 Italy. In another chapter I shall speak of the origin and the 
 character of these northern and eastern races. Here I shall 
 
 1 The first invasion of Italy by a Germanic people was by the Quadi and 
 Marcomanni, who after years of conflict were repelled by M. Aurelius in 174. 
 They were probably driven south by the Goths from Scandinavia. 
 22 
 
WHY THE EMPIRE FELL 
 
 touch briefly on certain characteristics of the later Roman 
 Empire which seem to have accelerated its dissolution by- 
 making it more and more incapable of resisting the tide of 
 barbarian conquest. 
 
 A world-empire, such as was the dream of Alexander and such 
 as Rome seemed at one time not unlikely to realize, must ever 
 be a construction doomed to collapse under its own super- 
 incumbent mass. It is true that the Romans were, if we except 
 Germany, practically the masters of the world — terrarum 
 domini — for some five centuries, from the sack of Carthage 
 in 146 B.C. to the battle of Hadrianople in A.r». 378 ; but for 
 how many centuries has stood the Colosseum since Rome fell ? 
 
 The dream of a permanent world-empire may one day be 
 realized in some such form as the Federation of the great 
 nations and the Parliament of Man, but freedom and self-rule 
 combined with voluntary submission to a central government 
 in matters of common interest must doubtless be the essential 
 characteristic of any such system ; and this characteristic was 
 conspicuously absent in the case of the Roman Empire. 1 The 
 whole structure, composed of many and diverse races, was held 
 together solely by the military and administrative authority 
 of a single city, and existed mainly for the advantage of that 
 one city, into whose treasuries from all quarters of the known 
 world continually poured tribute and taxes and spoils of war. 
 Hither from three continents Rome's triumphant generals were 
 wont to bring countless captives home to grace their chariot- 
 wheels and to fill the public coffers or the purses of their captors 
 with the proceeds of their ransom or of their sale as ; slaves ; 
 for the social system of Imperial Rome — indeed, of the whole 
 Empire — was built up to a very large extent on the perilous 
 foundation of domestic slavery. Gibbon asserts that in the 
 time of the Emperor Claudius the population of the Empire 
 amounted to about 120 millions, of whom about sixty millions 
 were slaves ; and in the time of Diocletian, according to Bryce, 
 
 1 As I had lived many years in Germany, and was still living there, I neces- 
 sarily thought while writing this passage (in May 191 4) of the fictitious and 
 temporary fabric of the modern German (or rather, Prussian) Empire. 
 
 ^'^ 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 two-thirds of the whole population of the Empire were of 
 servile origin. 
 
 The plunder and tribute of foreign countries and the im- 
 portation of innumerable slaves tended more and more to the 
 elimination of the Roman middle class, and, while favouring 
 enormously the enrichment of the home and provincial official, 
 the army contractor, and the great landowner, caused the 
 formation of a huge class of dependents and serfs on the vast 
 estates in the country and of a poverty-stricken city-rabble 
 ever more miserably enslaved by the richer classes, more hope- 
 lessly entangled in the toils of usurers and more eager but more 
 powerless to rise against their oppressors, who knew full well 
 how to gain their acquiescence and their applause by the largess 
 of bread and circus games. At the head of this social system 
 stood a monarch invested with powers almost absolute, sur- 
 rounded by a dense phalanx of hereditary land-proprietors 
 and officials and with a great army at his beck and call. 
 
 And the nature of this army afforded yet another danger 
 to the Empire. In the days of the ancient monarchy and the 
 early Republic the whole male population formed the ' exer- 
 citus ' and almost every adult citizen was a soldier. In later 
 days too, in the days when Cannae was fought and Carthage 
 was sacked, as also in the days of Caesar, the army of Rome 
 was composed exclusively of Roman citizens — of the Romans 
 themselves or their allies — of citizens who owned and cultivated 
 Italian soil, who took part in the great assemblies which gave 
 laws to the Roman world, and who might be called from the 
 plough or the workshop to die for Rome or to lead her army 
 to victory. 
 
 As the bounds of the Empire extended it became ever more 
 difficult to find enough recruits. By Marius the riff-raff of the 
 Roman plebs and the off-scourings of the allies were enlisted 
 as mercenaries ; by Marcus Aurelius the privilege of serving 
 was extended to the free population of all the Roman world ; 1 
 
 1 Claudius II (268-70) incorporated in the legions a large body of van- 
 quished Goths, and a few years later the Emperor Probus distributed 16,000 
 Germans among the imperial forces. 
 24 
 
WHY THE EMPIRE FELL 
 
 soon slaves were admitted, and finally barbarians, and these 
 ere long formed the greater part of the standing armies which 
 Rome had to support, and on which she had to rely for the 
 maintenance of her authority in the distant provinces of three 
 continents. 
 
 To pay for these great mercenary armies taxes were con- 
 stantly increased until the burden became almost intolerable, 
 and until the one apparent function of the Government was to 
 extort money. 
 
 lastly, one of the chief causes which conduced to the dis- 
 solution of the Empire was the marvellous growth and the 
 final triumph of Christianity, the deep-lying and vital principles 
 of which were subversive not only of paganism as a recognized 
 religion but of the very foundations on which was built up 
 the whole social system, perhaps one might say the whole 
 civilization, material and intellectual, of the Roman world. 
 In his great work on the City of God St. Augustine doubtless 
 voiced the feelings of Christendom when he spoke with awe of 
 the sack of Rome by Alaric as an act of God's wrath against 
 the pagans who trusted still in their idols. Nor did he speak 
 with awe alone, but almost with exultation ; and it is indeed 
 true that, as in the days of Noe, some great deluge of disaster 
 was sorely needed. Not only did both peasant and high-born 
 senator, as we shall later see, cling tenaciously to the old super- 
 stitions and the old worship of i dei falsi e bugiardi long past 
 the times of Julian the Apostate and even up to the days of 
 St. Benedict, but the moral sense as well as the religious 
 instincts had sunk, in spite of the example of many noble 
 characters and the well-meaning but ill-directed efforts of 
 Stoicism, even of such Stoicism as that of Epictetus and of 
 Marcus Aurelius, to a level from which nothing could rescue 
 them but that new order of things which had been foretold 
 not only by Jewish prophets but perhaps by a sibylline utter- 
 ance of Virgil himself. 1 And doubtless many besides Virgil, 
 even if they did not dimly foresee the coming of the New Age, 
 
 1 Virg., Eel. iv. : Magnus ah integro saeclorum nascitur ordo . . . ' The 
 great order [series] of the ages is born anew . . .' 
 
 25 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 longed for a better state of things. This is very plainly seen 
 in the case of Tacitus, who in his Germania describes with 
 enthusiasm the nobler traits in the character and life of the 
 Germani and seems to forebode the coming downfall of the 
 Empire. 
 
 And however terrible were the sufferings brought upon Italy 
 by foreign invasion and domination, some at least of her so- 
 called barbarian invaders were of noble and virile stock, and 
 although they probably did not influence the future Italians 
 as much as is sometimes supposed, having been in most cases 
 a body of warriors and officials numerically small in comparison 
 with the native population, they infused new blood and in- 
 vigorating energy and instituted the beginnings of the new 
 order of things, thus laying the foundation of the political, 
 artistic, intellectual, and religious civilization of modern 
 Christian Europe, whereas the Eastern Empire, though its 
 existence was prolonged for nearly a thousand years, sank ever 
 lower into degeneracy and finally fell a prey to the Turk. 1 
 
 It is indeed true that, ere this new order of things could 
 prevail, Italy had to pass through dark- ages compared with 
 which the age of- Hadrian and the Antonines, or even the age 
 described by the Satires of Juvenal, was enlightened and 
 humane ; and it is true that the discords between the various 
 schools of the new religion surpassed in violence and virulence 
 everything of the kind in classical times and that the perse- 
 cutions of Christians by Christians proved more terrible and 
 revolting than all the martyrdoms from the time of Nero to 
 that of Diocletian. But perhaps in order to reach a higher 
 stage of evolution it is ever needful to revert for a time to a 
 lower. 
 
 1 With whom that self-styled Caesar, the pious lord of the modern Huns, is at 
 present leagued against European Christendom. 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE BARBARIANS 
 
 THE invaders of Italy have been many. In the course 
 of this volume we shall meet, as well as less impor- 
 tant tribes, the Visigoths, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, 
 I/ombards, Franks, Saracens, Normans, French, and Spaniards, 
 besides the Byzantines of the Eastern Empire and the Germans 
 of the so-called Holy Roman Empire. In the first Part, how- 
 ever, we shall be limited to the first three of these invaders, 
 and in the present chapter I shall give some information 
 about them, after having cast a glance backward for a few 
 moments into the past. 
 
 In very early ages Central Europe was occupied by Aryan 
 and perhaps other races, who are said to have come originally 
 from the East — from Northern India and from lands beyond 
 the Volga and the Ural Mountains. Some 1500 years before 
 the Christian era the Achaeans (fair-haired leaders perhaps 
 of darker Eastern tribes) poured down from the north into 
 Greece. They were followed by the Dorians, another Central 
 European Aryan people, and about three centuries later we 
 hear of all Asia Minor being deluged by the Cimmerians, 
 a people of Eastern origin, who have bequeathed their name 
 to the Crimea and were perhaps of the same great family as 
 the Celts, or Gauls, who captured Rome in 390 B.C., and 
 who from an early age occupied the north of Italy (the Gallia 
 Cisalpina or Togata of the Romans). These Celts, or Gauls, 
 were also closely related to the Cimbrians (Cymry ?), whose 
 mighty hordes overwhelmed Gaul and Spain early in the 
 second century before our era and were finally vanquished 
 by Marius in a great battle fought near Vercelli (101 B.C.). 
 
 27 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Allied to the Cimbrians were the Teutons, a Germanic people, 1 
 who were conquered also by Marius at Aquae Sextiae (Aix), 
 in Gaul. The south of Gaul was then formed into a Roman 
 province (whence the name Provence), and Julius Caesar 
 subdued the rest of the Gallic land, which together with 
 Britain formed one of the four vast ' Prefectures ' of the later 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 Caesar also routed the Germani, led by Ariovistus, and 
 chased them across the Rhine ; but he prudently desisted 
 from attempting the conquest of Germany, and made the 
 Rhine the east boundary of the Roman territory. Drusus, 
 the stepson of Augustus, carried war into the heart of Germany, 
 and advanced as far as the Elbe ; but some eighteen years 
 later (a.d. 9) a Roman army of three legions under Varus was 
 annihilated by the Germans under Arminius (i.e. Hermann, 
 ' Army-man ') at the battle in the Teutoburger Wald, a wooded 
 tract some hundred miles north-east of Cologne ; and although 
 another . imperial prince, Germanicus, succeeded in restoring 
 the Roman prestige by reoccupying most of the country, he 
 was recalled by the jealousy of his uncle Tiberius, and no 
 further attempt was made to incorporate Germany in the 
 Empire. Except for the temporary annexation of Dacia, 
 which has been mentioned, the policy adopted by Augustus 
 after the defeat of Varus was continued by his successors, and 
 the well-fortified 2 frontiers afforded by the Rhine and the 
 Danube proved an impregnable bulwark during about two 
 hundred and fifty years — until that fatal permission given 
 to great multitudes of Visigoths to cross the Danube which 
 ended in the disaster of Hadrianople in 378. 
 
 1 The words ' Germanic ' and ' German ' are often of uncertain meaning 
 in English. The Goths, Pranks, Angles, and other tribes were of ' Germanic ' 
 stock, but the word ' Germans ' should properly be used only of the * Germani,' 
 i.e. the inhabitants of the ' Germania ' of classical times, about whom we 
 learn so much from Caesar and Tacitus. 
 
 * One of the most interesting of these forts is at Kaiseraugst (Colonia 
 Augusta), some twelve miles upstream from Basel, built in 27 B.C. — the 
 year in which the first Emperor received his title 'Augustus.' It was 
 provided with a spacious and massive theatre, lately fully excavated and 
 restored. 
 
 28 
 
THE BARBARIANS 
 
 When this disaster was mentioned before (pp. 7 and 22) it 
 was explained that the Goths were forced across the Danube 
 by the advancing hosts of the Huns. I shall now briefly 
 explain who these Goths were, and how they and the Vandals 
 and several other peoples who had settled in Central Europe 
 were driven southwards and westwards by the wild hordes of 
 this Tartar race, the Huns, and hurled against the frontiers 
 of the Western Empire — a movement of such magnitude and 
 such consequence that it is known as the Migration of Nations 
 — the Volkerwanderung. Then, in later chapters, we shall 
 follow in fuller detail the three great barbarian invasions of 
 Italy which were the result of this movement — that of the 
 Visigoths under Alaric, that of the Huns themselves under 
 Attila, and that (from Africa) of Gaiseric and his Vandals. 
 
 The Goths were a Germanic race which is believed to have 
 come to Central Europe from Scandinavia, 1 where the name 
 Gothland still exists. If this be so, and if it is true that every 
 nation speaking a language belonging to the great Aryan 
 family came originally from the regions beyond the Caspian, 
 it would follow that the ancestors of the Goths, at some 
 distant epoch in the past, made their way through Russia to 
 Scandinavia. But, however that may be, in the age of the 
 Antonines, when we first have trustworthy mention of them, 2 
 they are in the country of the Vistula, south of the Baltic, 
 and about seventy years later (c. 250) we find that they have 
 migrated to the region of the Borysthenes (Dnieper) and the 
 north-west shores of the Euxine, and are proving so trouble- 
 some to Roman Dacia that the Emperor Decius heads a cam- 
 paign against them and is slain, together with his son, in battle. 
 
 At this time the Gothic nation consisted of East Goths, West 
 Goths, and those Gepidae 3 whom we shall find in later times 
 
 1 The old northern mythology of Valhalla is certainly far grander in its 
 Scandinavian than in its Germanic form and would seem to point to Scandi- 
 navia as its home. But this may be due to the fact that paganism lasted 
 far longer in Scandinavia and developed a fine literature in the Eddas. 
 
 » Many older legends were given by the historians of the Goths, Cassio- 
 dorus and Jordanes (see Index), who describe how they crossed the Baltic. 
 
 8 Jordanes asserts that ' Gepidae ' means ' Loiterers,' and that the ship 
 carrying this part of the nation across the Baltic ' lagged behind.' 
 
 29 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 occupying the regions of Dacia and Pannonia vacated by 
 the Ostrogoths and Visigoths on their migrations further 
 south and west. It was of course the West Goths who first 
 came into collision with the Romans in Dacia. After the 
 defeat and death of Decius a determined assault was made 
 on these Visigoths by the Emperor Claudius II, whose - litera 
 laureata ' to the Roman Senate affirmed that he had routed 
 320,000 of them and had destroyed 2000 of their ships ; and he 
 received from the Senate the title ' Gothicus' ; but nevertheless 
 about two years later (272) his successor, Aurelian, deemed it 
 necessary to surrender the province to the barbarians, who 
 founded there a very remarkable Gothic empire — a complex 
 of the three great Gothic kingdoms. In the north (now 
 Hungary) were the Gepidae, to the east (Moldavia and Bess- 
 arabia) were the Ostrogoths, and in Southern Dacia (now 
 Rumania) were the Visigoths. 
 
 The Ostrogoths, who rose to power and formed a kind of 
 Pan-Gothic supremacy under their celebrated king Hermanric, 1 
 remained for a long time pagans, uninfluenced by Roman 
 civilization, as also did the Gepidae in Northern Dacia ; but 
 the Visigoths, being in closer touch with the Empire, became 
 rapidly Romanized and Christianized — of which fact evidence 
 still exists, for the modern Rumanians are to a large extent 
 descendants of the Visigoths who remained behind here in 
 Dacia (c. 378) when many of their fellows crossed the Danube 
 and marched with Alaric down into Italy and eventually 
 found their way to Gaul ; and these modern Rumanians, in 
 spite of all deutsch influence and all Turkish oppression, 
 though hemmed in on ail sides by Magyars and Slavs (or 
 Slavicized Scythians, to give the Bulgars their real lineage), 
 
 1 Hermanric = ' Army-man-prince.' The word ric [rik, rich], found in 
 Alane, Theoderoe, etc., meant ' mighty ' ; e.g. Gott der riche, ' God the Mighty.' 
 The Nibelungenlied word Recke, a prince or hero (nowadays a ' giant '), is 
 evidently connected with it, and also possibly the Latin rex. Hermanric's 
 dominions, says Gibbon, ' extended from the Baltic to the Euxine.' He 
 lived over 100 years, and he was the ancestor, through the Atnala family 
 (see Index), of Theoderic the Great. He seems to have been a kind of emperor 
 of all the Goths, the Visigoth rulers having at that time only the title of 
 ' Judge.' 
 
 3° 
 
THE BARBARIANS 
 
 have preserved till the present day much of the Roman char- 
 acter in their language, literature, customs, and sympathies. 
 
 Among the civilizing influences brought to bear on these 
 Visigoths was that of a great missionary — the Apostle of the 
 Goths— Bishop Ulfilas (Vulfila). He was himself of Gothic 
 origin, but he received a Greek and Roman education at Con- 
 stantinople and devoted the rest of his life (from about 335 
 to 380) to converting his countrymen and to translating the 
 Bible into Gothic. About 177 pages of a magnificent fifth- 
 century manuscript of what is almost certainly his translation 
 is still to be seen at Upsala. It is written in letters of silver 
 and gold on purple parchment, and contains more than half 
 the Gospels. Other Gothic manuscripts exist which give 
 what are possibly portions of his translation of St. Paul's 
 Epistles and of the Old Testament. 1 
 
 For this version of the Bible he used partly letters of his 
 own invention, partly Greek and I/atin, and partly Runic 
 script. This script had existed already for many centuries among 
 the Goths, probably introduced into northern lands by river- 
 traders from the Greek colonies on the Euxine, or by Phoeni- 
 cian navigators, or possibly brought by the ancestors of these 
 northern Aryan peoples from their original home in the far 
 East. 
 
 When Ulfilas was still a young man and was being educated 
 at Constantinople he had doubtless come under the personal 
 influence of Arius, whose doctrines were strongly favoured by 
 Constantine during the latter years of his reign. Hence it came 
 about that from the teachings of the Apostle of the Goths 
 and other missionaries all the barbarian nations of Central 
 Europe except the Franks were first converted from their 
 northern or eastern paganism to Arianism ; and it was not 
 until considerably later that Catholicism prevailed over this 
 widespread form of heterodoxy. But, whatever may be 
 thought of the merits of Ulfilas as a Christian missionary and 
 
 1 It is said that he would not translate the books of Samuel and the Kings 
 lest they should encourage war 1 As he lived till 380 he was probably among 
 the fugitives who crossed the Danube in 378. 
 
 3 1 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 a disseminator of the knowledge of the Bible, there can be 
 no doubt as to the value of his work from a literary point of 
 view. ' When we examine these precious relics of the fourth 
 century which bear the name of Ulfilas, we often meet the 
 very words with which we are so familiar in our English 
 Bible, but linked together by a flexional structure that finds 
 no parallel short of Sanscrit. This is the oldest book we can 
 go back to written in a language like our own. It has there- 
 fore a national interest for us. . . . It is one of the finest 
 specimens of ancient language.' 1 
 
 We must now turn from the Goths to another nation, 
 possibly also of Germanic stock, but more probably Slavonic — 
 the Vandals. During the existence of the great Gothic king- 
 dom, or empire, from about 250 to 400, they seem to have 
 lived in the upper regions of the Elbe and the Oder, in which 
 countries their descendants (the Wenden) and relics of then- 
 language (wendisch) perhaps still exist. 
 
 At the coming of the Huns (who, as we have seen and shall 
 see, brought the whole of Central Europe into violent com- 
 motion, causing the Goths to invade the Roman Empire and 
 also probably the Angles and the Saxons to invade Britain) 
 the Vandals seem to have fled from their homes in what is 
 now Saxony and Silesia and together with the Suevi (Swabians), 
 the Alans, 2 and the Burgundians to have joined Alaric and 
 his Visigoths in their first, unsuccessful invasions of Italy. 
 Here, near Florence, the leader of this confederate army, 
 Radegast, was captured and slain by the Roman general 
 Stilicho (405). However, as we have seen, Stilicho had con- 
 sidered it necessary to withdraw the Roman legions not only 
 from Britain but also from the Rhineland, and the great 
 host of pagan s Vandals and their allies, being repulsed from 
 Italy, passed over the Rhine (406) and devastated (says 
 
 1 The Philology of the English Tongue, by J. Earle (Oxford Press). Quoted 
 by Count Balzani. 
 
 * A mysterious people, perhaps of Turkish stock, driven westward by the 
 Huns. 
 
 3 Radegast, when on one campaign he nearly reached Rome, vowed to 
 sacrifice the Roman senators to some northern gods — Thor and Woden perhaps. 
 
 32 
 
THE BARBARIANS 
 
 Gibbon) the greater part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. 
 Many flourishing cities were sacked, thousands of Christians 
 were massacred in the churches, ' the rich and extensive 
 country, as far as the ocean and the Pyrenees, was delivered 
 to the barbarians, who drove before them in a promiscuous 
 crowd the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with 
 the spoil of their homes and altars.' 
 
 From these regions the Vandals and Suevi were not long 
 afterwards ejected by the Visigoths, who, as we shall see later, 
 after their sack of Rome in 410, made their way to the south 
 of Gaul and founded a great Visigoth kingdom, whose 
 capitals were Aries and Toulouse. In Spain, whither they 
 were driven, the Vandals x settled for some time (the name 
 Vandalusia, or Andalusia, being a relic of this sojourn), until 
 the Visigoths followed them over the Pyrenees and harassed 
 them for some years (c. 415-20). Then they seem to have 
 been reorganized by the famous Gaiseric, who, perhaps on the 
 invitation of the Roman general Boniface, crossed with the 
 whole of his people to Africa. Thence, perhaps on the invita- 
 tion of the Dowager-Empress Eudoxia, Gaiseric, who had 
 built a powerful fleet, sailed across to South Italy and sacked 
 Rome (455). But this is anticipating — for in another chapter 
 I shall have to treat fully the subject of the Vandals in Africa 
 and at Rome. 
 
 We have now to hear about the Huns — who they were and 
 whence they came. Their invasions of Gaul and of Italy 
 under Attila will be described later. Here we will follow 
 their history, as far as it is known, from early times down to 
 445, when Attila, the ' Scourge of God,' came into power. 
 
 Except the Basques and a few other strange ingredients, 
 such as relics of Saracen domination and the Jews, the popula- 
 tion of Europe consists of two great families. To the Aryan 
 (or Indo-European) belong the Celtic, the Greek, the I^atin, 
 the Germanic, and the Slavonic races. To the Turanian (or 
 Mongolian) belong the Turks, Hungarians (Magyars), Finns, 
 and Bulgarians — the last being Slavicized Sarmatians or 
 
 1 The Suevi founded a kingdom in what is now Portugal. 
 
 c 33 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Scythians, who were originally Mongols and, to judge from 
 the description given by the great physician Hippocrates, 
 were evidently like the Huns in appearance and in habits. 
 
 The following Table shows what is believed to be the lineage 
 and the relationships of the Hunnish race : 
 
 Turanian or Tartar 1 
 
 Mongolian Turkish Finnish (Lapp), 
 
 (later the Grand | Ugrian race 
 
 Mogul Empire) 
 
 Huns Avars 
 
 (Old Hungarians) 
 
 Finns Bulgars Magyars 8 
 
 Seljukian and 
 Ottoman Turks 
 
 According to old Chinese records, the ' Hiong-nu ' were a 
 great and restless nation that had existed in Central Asia 
 from some 2000 years before our era — say, before the days of 
 Abraham. It was to keep them out of China that the Great 
 Wall was built. In a later age, after many severe conflicts, 
 the Chinese crushed them (c. a.d. 90) and many of them 
 migrated westwards. For some 300 years they lived between 
 the Ural and the Volga, probably kept back by the Alans of 
 the Don, a Turkish race already mentioned. These finally 
 they conquered, and with them they marched again westward. 
 The terror inspired by the approach of these Asiatic savages 
 is reflected vividly in the chronicles of Jordanes, who likens 
 them to beasts walking on their hind legs and to the hideous, 
 misshapen wooden images erected on bridges. Nations, he 
 says, whom they would never have conquered in fair fight 
 fled horrified from them. ' They are more savage than 
 savagery itself. They use no condiments, nor do they cook 
 
 1 * Tartar ' is an incorrect form of the word ' Tatar,' due to the Greek and 
 Latin word ' Tartarus ' (Hell). For the general adoption of ' Tartar,' with 
 its infernal associations, we are indebted, it is said, to St. Louis. 
 
 2 The modern Hungarians, who falsely assert their descent from the 
 Huns, are Magyars who about a.d. 900 drove out the older inhabitants of 
 Hungary — probably the Avars. The name Hungar, or Ongair, given by the 
 Slavs to the newcomer, has probably nothing to do with ' Hun,' but means 
 of Ugrian, or Ogrian, race. 
 
 34 
 
THE BARBARIANS 
 
 their food with fire, but eat raw flesh, after having kept it 
 some time beneath their legs on the backs of their horses ; for 
 they are ever on horseback. They are small, agile, and strong. 
 Their faces — though one can scarce call them human faces — 
 are shapeless collops of flesh with two black sparkling points 
 instead of eyes. They have very little beard, for they gash 
 the faces of their infants with knives to accustom them to 
 wounds even before they taste their mothers' milk, and flatten 
 their noses with irons to make them appear more terrible to 
 their enemies. They derived their origin from the commerce 
 of evil spirits and the witches expelled from the forests by the 
 Goths, for whose overthrow they were generated and born. 
 These same evil spirits showed them the road they should 
 take in order to attack the Goths ; and it happened in this way. 
 Some Huns when hunting came upon a deer which kept 
 turning back and seeming to invite them to follow. They did 
 so, and when- the deer, as it went forward, had shown them 
 how to cross over the Maeotic swamp, [Sea of Azof], it 
 suddenly disappeared — which was a manifest proof that it 
 was truly one of those evil spirits that were hostile to the 
 Goths.' 
 
 The onset of the innumerable host of the Huns was irre- 
 sistible. The aged Ostrogoth king Hermanric was slain — or 
 slew himself — and his warriors were enrolled in the Hun 
 army. Then the Dniester was crossed and the Visigoths were 
 attacked. Some escaped northward to the Carpathians ; 
 others fled southward, communicating such panic to their 
 fellow-countrymen in i/ower Dacia that a vast multitude of 
 perhaps a million, amongst whom were 200,000 armed men 
 under their Captain or ' Judge,' Eritigern, flocked in terror 
 across the Danube. The Romans — that is, the military powers 
 of the Eastern Empire — after attempting vainly to stem the 
 torrent, finding it impossible even to number and disarm 
 them, allowed the Visigoths to settle in Moesia and Thrace. A 
 terrible famine then broke out, of which the Roman officials 
 took advantage. They bought from the starving fugitives 
 not only costly objects but also thousands of slaves by means 
 
 35 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of putrefying or repulsive meat, such as the flesh of dogs 
 and vermin and sick cattle. Driven to despair, the Visigoths, 
 in spite of the efforts of Fritigern, turn to plundering the 
 country for the sake of food, and soon a fight takes place 
 between the barbarians and the imperial troops while their 
 generals are banqueting together — much in the same way as 
 in the Nibelungenlied the men of Gunther and of Attila begin 
 the quarrel which ends in the terrible catastrophe. Then 
 follows, as we already know, a great battle not far from 
 Hadrianople: The Emperor Valens disappears and the imperial 
 army is routed with great carnage (378). 
 
 But to return to the Huns — they seem to have found 
 Northern Dacia suited to their needs, for during the next 
 fifty years or so they remained quietly there, possibly how- 
 ever harrying, annexing, or driving northwards and westwards 
 various nations of Germany, such as the Saxons and the 
 Franks. With the Eastern Empire they cultivated friendly 
 relations. Hunnish soldiers at times fought as allies of the 
 imperial legions, and they also improved the occasion by 
 learning and importing into their home army Roman weapons, 
 discipline, and tactics, and doubtless also Roman officers. 
 
 The sudden and threatening expansion and aggressiveness 
 of the Hunnish empire when Attila became the sole king, in 
 445, will be described in a later chapter, when I undertake to 
 relate his invasion of Gaul and of Italy. 
 
 36 
 
CHAPTER III 
 CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 THE period that will chiefly occupy us in the next two 
 chapters extends from the official recognition of 
 Christianity by Constantine — the so-called ' Peace of 
 the Church ' — until the extinction of paganism in the Empire, 
 which we may place about the end of the reign of Theodosius I 
 (395) or the beginning of the fifth century ; for paganism was 
 by then practically extinct, although, as we have seen already, 
 survivals were to be found even at Rome in the days of 
 Alaric and of St. Augustine, and in obscurer resorts till much 
 later, as at Cassino, where St. Benedict, it is said, about the 
 year 529 overthrew a temple in which the country-folk, 
 ' deluded and ill-disposed,' as Dante calls them, still sacrificed 
 to the sun-god Apollo or some such ' demon.' A consecutive 
 account of the historical facts of this period, from Constantine 
 to Honorius, has been already given in the Outline, so that 
 it will not here be necessary to restate them or to explain 
 their sequence while attempting to describe briefly the won- 
 derful and rapid growth of Christianity till its complete 
 triumph over paganism. 
 
 Under Nero (54), Domitian (81), Decius (250), and other 
 Emperors, even under Trajan and Marcus Aurelius himself, 
 the Christians had suffered many and terrible persecutions. 
 That instituted in 303 by Diocletian, at the instigation of 
 the ' Caesar ' Galerius, was the most terrible of all — especially 
 in the East, where Galerius ruled ; but even in Gaul and 
 Britain great horrors were perpetrated, for the kindly Con- 
 stantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine the Great, though 
 he did what he could to alleviate the sufferings of the persecuted, 
 
 37 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 was obliged to publish, and carry out the bloody imperial 
 edict. 1 
 
 As for Diocletian, he seems to have been weak rather than 
 cruel. It was apparently with great unwillingness that 
 he at last gave way to the importunities of Galerius. His 
 proclivities seem to have been towards a philosophic and 
 simple mode of life, if we may judge from the fact that when 
 (like Charles the Fifth) he voluntarily abdicated at the zenith 
 of his power and retired to his Dalmatian villa and gardens 
 near Salona, 2 his one ambition seems to have been to grow 
 prize vegetables. Urged by the ambitious Maximian to 
 reassume the imperial purple and diadem, he is said to have 
 answered, ' You wouldn't talk so if you had seen my splendid 
 beans and cabbages.' And yet this is the man whose name 
 — like that of Nero or Philip of Spain — is wont to awaken within 
 us scarce any feelings but those of horror. 
 
 The story of Constantine's relations with Christianity, as 
 told by his contemporary, Bishop Busebius of Caesarea, the 
 father of ecclesiastical history, and as retailed by later writers, 
 is such a tissue of legend and truth that it is very difficult 
 to disentangle the facts from the fictions. I shall relate both 
 without too anxiously attempting to discriminate them. 
 
 First then a few words about his mother, Helena — St. Helen 
 of England, as she is not infrequently called. She shares 
 with St. Alban, according to some writers, the glory of being 
 one of the native saints of the early British Church, before 
 the coming of the pagan ' English/ and nearly three centuries 
 before the coming of the younger St. Augustine. Some also 
 assert that she converted her illustrious son, and that thus the 
 glory of establishing Christianity in the Empire is primarily 
 due to a British woman. But Eusebius, our chief authority, 
 tells us that she was herself converted in later life by Con- 
 stantine. Nor is her origin at all certain. Some say she was 
 a native of Bithynia, in Asia Minor ; others that she was the 
 
 1 The names of St. Maurice (Switzerland) and St. Alban (England) are 
 connected with this persecution. 
 
 * The remains of this enormous ' villa ' accommodate much of the modern 
 town of Spalato. 
 
 38 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 daughter of the somewhat legendary King Coel (the ' old King 
 Cole ' of ballads ?) and was born in his city of Colchester ;, 
 others that her father was a York innkeeper ; and it is con- 
 jectured that while serving in the army of Maximian, in the 
 years preceding the dramatic usurpation, of Carausius in 
 Britain, Constantius met Helena at Colchester or at York. 
 But if this were so, by the year 272 Helena had followed her 
 husband to the Eastern Empire ; for it seems certain that 
 Constantine was born in this year at Naissus, in Moesia — and 
 not in Britain, as some have imagined. 
 
 Before Constantius returned (in 293) to Britain, invested 
 with the powers of a ' Caesar,' Helena had been repudiated 
 (p. 1). During the years of her humiliation she probably 
 lived in the East, as her son Constantine did ; but when he 
 was named as successor by his father and proclaimed Emperor 
 by the troops (305) instead of the son 1 of her high-born rival 
 Theodora, she must have regained prestige. About 326, soon 
 after the foundation of New Rome (Constantinople), she was 
 at Jerusalem, where, according to the legend, she discovered 
 the Holy Sepulchre under a temple of Venus which had been 
 founded by Hadrian ; and she built (or induced Constantine 
 to build) on the site of the demolished temple a church which 
 perhaps in part still exists and is the earliest specimen a of an 
 important building erected for Christian worship, except the 
 Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Moreover, Helena is 
 said to have discovered, buried on Mount Calvary, the True 
 Cross. All three crosses were found, it is said, and also the 
 original superscription ; but as this was lying detached it was 
 necessary to discover by some other means which of the three 
 
 1 A child of twelve ; later the unambitious ' Patrician ' Julius Constantius, 
 father of the Emperor Julian. 
 
 2 Some believe this to be the round Church of the Resurrection, almost 
 entirely destroyed in 1808 by fire. Others believe the ' Dome of the Rock ' 
 (Mosque of Omar), which is said to stand on the site of Solomon's Temple, 
 to have been originally the Constantine Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; but 
 the present building dates mainly from the seventh century and is probably 
 of Mohammedan origin, covering the rock from which Mohammed flew to 
 heaven. It can be recognized in Raffael's Spozalizio and other pictures. 
 Constantine built several other churches in Jerusalem. 
 
 39 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 crosses was that on which the Saviour suffered. A dying 
 woman was therefore brought, and was restored to health by 
 touching the true relic. Although the discovery of the Cross 
 was accepted as a fact both by the Eastern and the Western 
 Churches, there is no mention of it in the contemporary 
 ecclesiastical chronicler, Eusebius, nor is it noticed in the 
 journals of a Gaulish pilgrim who was at Jerusalem seven 
 years after Helena's visit. 
 
 The conversion of Constantine himself is by ecclesiastical 
 writers often attributed to a vision of the Cross 1 which he 
 beheld above the noonday sun — some say near Andernach, 
 some near Verona, some elsewhere — when marching from the 
 Rhineland to Rome in order to attack Maxentius. Eusebius 
 asserts that Constantine assured him with a solemn oath that 
 this vision had appeared to him and to his whole army, and 
 related how on the following night Christ Himself appeared to 
 him and, pointing to a cross, bade him inscribe it on the 
 shields of his soldiers and use it as his ensign of war. Thus, 
 it is said, originated the celebrated standard to which the 
 puzzling name labarum was given. It consisted of a silken 
 flag embroidered with the portrait of the Emperor and sur- 
 mounted by a golden crown, or circlet, in which was enclosed 
 the mystic monogram formed out of a cross and a kind of 
 crook, which may represent the two initial letters of Christ's 
 name {i.e. the Greek letters X and P). 
 
 Some three years after the battle at the Red Rocks near 
 Rome, in which Maxentius, attempting to fly over the Milvian 
 Bridge, was drowned (unless perhaps his decapitated body 
 was hurled thence into the river), Constantine erected a 
 triumphal arch, still to be seen at Rome, on which a most 
 inartistic carving represents the battle. 2 On this arch there is 
 
 1 Bxplaiued by some as a solar-ray phenomenon. Possibly also the labarum 
 was originally a solar symbol, such as 
 
 monogram 
 
 X 
 
 2 See Fig. 2 and explanation. 
 40 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 also an inscription which in somewhat ambiguous language 
 seems to attribute the victory to the inspiration of the Divine 
 Being {Instindu Divinitatis) . Unless these words are a later 
 insertion, they might seem to confirm the assertion that he 
 attributed his victory to the favour of the God of the Christians, 
 who had given him the Cross as his ensign and had assured him 
 by a supernatural vision that in this sign he would conquer. 1 
 But it is difficult to say whether Constantine at this time, 
 or indeed at any time, sincerely accepted, or publicly pro- 
 claimed, the sole truth and efficacy of the Christian religion. 
 That he did not admit the claims of Catholic orthodoxy is 
 certain. The legend that he and his son Crispus were baptized 
 by Bishop Silvester in the Lateran Baptistery before their 
 departure in 323 for the campaign against I/icinius and the 
 capture of Constantinople — the scene of which baptism is 
 depicted in one of the Vatican frescoes — is not credible ; it 
 doubtless first arose at the same time as the still more celebrated 
 legend of Constantine's notorious Donation to Silvester, of which 
 we shall hear when we reach the times of Charles the Great. 
 Moreover, it seems indubitable that towards the end of his 
 life he conspicuously favoured Arius himself and that he 
 received the rite of baptism, when he was on his death-bed, 
 from the hands of an Arian prelate, Eusebius of Nicomedia, 
 who had been exiled when the Council of Nicaea condemned 
 Arianism, but had been recalled and reinstated by the Emperor. 
 Amid so many conflicting accounts it is impossible to feel any 
 certainty. On the one hand we are told that Constantine 
 showed great favour to his Christian subjects ; that he 
 abolished crucifixion because of his reverence for Christ ; that 
 shortly after his victory over Maxentius he issued the famous 
 Edict of Milan, recognizing Christianity as the State religion ; 2 
 that he took a zealous part in doctrinal discussions, and 
 
 1 The labSmm, the cross, and the monogram are found on coins of the Christian 
 Emperors, and the well-known words In hoc signo vinces or vincas occur. 
 
 » The ' Peace of the Church ' celebrated last year (1913) its sixteenth 
 centennial. But the fact of the promulgation of any edict is now becoming 
 a subject of doubt, and it seems likely that in any case nothing more than 
 tolerance and religious liberty was proclaimed. 
 
 4* 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 even preached on the most sublime and abstruse subjects of 
 theology ; * that he proclaimed to the world that neither his 
 person nor his image should ever again be seen within an 
 idolatrous temple ; that he issued medals, pictures, and coins 
 (some of which exist) which represented him bearing the 
 Christian ensign and exhibiting a devout and suppliant posture 
 before symbols of the Christian religion ; that he insulted 
 the many pagan members of the Roman Senate by refusing 
 to take part in a procession in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus ; 
 that he summoned the Council which defined our faith ; that, 
 lastly, his statue erected in Rome represented him holding a 
 cross and bore an inscription that attributed his victories to 
 its influence. 
 
 On the other hand it is asserted that, probably till a late 
 period in his life, he was a devout worshipper of the sun-god — 
 of Apollo, or of Mithras ; 2 that on coins he represented himself 
 with these heathen deities ; that he proclaimed the apotheosis 
 of his father Constantius, thus adding him to the conclave of 
 the Olympian divinities ; that he legalized divination by 
 pagan augurs ; that he introduced pagan elements into the 
 new religious system, identifying the I/ord's Day with what he 
 calls in his Edict the ' ancient and venerable day of the Sun,' 
 and fixing for Western (perhaps only Roman) Christianity 
 the festival of Christ's birth at the season of the new birth of 
 the sun, just after the winter solstice. 3 lastly, a very curious 
 
 1 In one of his extant Orationes ad Sanctos he appeals to the evidence of 
 Virgil's famous Fourth Eclogue, in which the pagan poet utters what is very 
 like a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. It is just possible that Virgil 
 may have had access to so-called Sibylline Books, of which 2000 were burnt 
 by Augustus and some of which may have contained extracts from the Jewish 
 prophets. St. Augustine and other Early Christian writers. quote the Sibyllae 
 with reverence. In Italian art they were frequently depicted with the 
 Jewish prophets or with angels, as in the Sistine Chapel and in a fresco by 
 Raffael in S. Maria della Pace at Rome. 
 
 2 For many ages the worship of the sun-god was confused with that of 
 Jehovah and of Christ. Cf. Greek Eelios (Helios) with Jewish El, EUas, etc. 
 Even to-day the Greek islander confuses Helios with Elias. In Ireland 
 St. Patrick had to preach against sun-worship. 
 
 3 On coins of Constantine the sun is entitled ' the unconquered comrade,' 
 an expression used in the cult of Mithras, the sun-god, alluding to the yearly 
 recovery of his power after the solstice. 
 
 42 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 proof of his strangely impartial zeal, or indifference, may be 
 adduced: on a lofty column (a part of which still exists at 
 Constantinople under the name of the Burnt Pillar) was set 
 a great bronze statue, some say the work of Pheidias himself, 
 brought from Athens. This statue, which represented Helios 
 with a radiate crown (such as that which on coins is given 
 to the colossal sun-god of Rhodes), Constantine adopted as a 
 portrait of himself in the double character of the sun-god and 
 of Christ, substituting in the place of the original spiked solar 
 rays perhaps the nails of the Cross. 1 
 
 We may perhaps regard such acts as due to policy, or toler- 
 ance, or a curious combination of zeal for the external forms 
 of both paganism and Christianity, but it is difficult to 
 believe that Constantine was actuated by any of the nobler 
 teachings of either religion. Indeed, we cannot but be 
 shocked at the cold-blooded inhumanity of the man who, 
 amidst all his religious professions, after murdering his political 
 rival (I/icinius) and his family, caused his own son and his own 
 wife a to be executed, and that, too, on charges which seem 
 to have been unfounded. 
 
 In the year 325, which intervened between these two bloody 
 acts of Constantine, he presided at the great Council which he 
 had summoned to meet at Nice (Nicaea, in Bithynia) to 
 determine the momentous questions that had arisen between 
 the followers of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, and those who, 
 led by Athanasius, later Archbishop of Alexandria, claimed 
 under the name of Catholics to represent the one universal 
 Christian Church. 
 
 Constantine accepted and signed the decree of the Nicene 
 
 1 These great nails (used for crucifixion) were discovered, according to the 
 legend, by Helena. Constantine is said (but it seems incredible) to have 
 used one to form a bit for his war-horse. 
 
 2 For Crispus and his stepmother Pausta, whose three sons succeeded 
 Constantine as Emperors, in spite of the shameful death of their mother, 
 see p. 4, and Table, p. 19. The aged Helena, Constantine 's mother, still 
 smarting doubtless under her humiliation caused by Theodora, the sister of 
 Pausta, is believed to have inflamed Constantine against his wife. She was 
 steamed to death in a hot bath. In Raff ael's Baptism of Constantine there is a 
 finely conceived (of course imaginary) portrait of Crispus. 
 
 43 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Council— the condemnation of Arianism. But this heresy 
 prevailed for yet many years in Constantinople and most of 
 the Eastern Empire, being adopted even by the Synod of 
 Jerusalem, the very home of Christianity, as well as by the 
 Goths and Vandals in the West and in Africa ; and, as we 
 have already seen, Constantine himself ere long relapsed from 
 his temporary adhesion to Catholicism and was finally baptized 
 by an Arian bishop. To discuss the question which so inflamed 
 the Arians and the Catholics, and which caused for five centuries 
 (until the coming of the Franks) such bitter and miserable 
 strife and schism in the Church, lies beyond the range of this 
 volume. All know that it consisted in different views of the 
 nature of Christ, in regard to His consubstantial identity with 
 the Eirst Person of the Trinity and His existence as the I/)gos 
 from all eternity, and that the Athanasian Creed contains a 
 full, if not an entirely intelligible, statement of the Catholic, 
 as contrasted with the Arian, view. Moreover, most know 
 that there was also a moderate party of semi-Arians, who, 
 while denying the homo-ousia (identical essence) of the Son 
 and the Father, admitted their homoi-ousia (similar essence) — 
 the distinction between which terms we may leave to theo- 
 logians, merely citing the very true remark of Gibbon that 
 ' sounds and characters which approach the nearest to each 
 other frequently represent the most opposite ideas.' Perhaps 
 I may add that, although Gibbon seems himself to be entirely 
 unconscious of the importance of the question at issue when 
 he tells us that ' the profane of every age have derided the 
 furious contests which the difference of a single diphthong 
 excited among the Homo-ousians and the Homoi-ousians,' 
 nevertheless I think most of us-must agree with him when he 
 notes that as soon as the Christians found themselves secure 
 from external persecution x they began to persecute each 
 other, ' being more solicitous to explore the nature than to 
 practise the laws of their Founder.' 
 
 The Alexandrian priest whose teachings in the space of 
 
 1 Note also the violent recrudescence of internal discord on the restoration 
 of Christianity by Jovian. 
 
 4+ 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 about six years (319-25) had been so widely accepted by 
 minds incapable of grasping the doctrine of the Three in One — 
 the same kind of minds as those which later, in the great 
 iconoclastic controversy, could not comprehend the subtle 
 distinction between the cult of images and idolatry — was, in 
 consequence of the Nicene verdict, excommunicated and 
 exiled, together with many Arian prelates ; and all Arian 
 writings were condemned to the flames. But, as we have 
 seen, both Arius and his followers, such as Bishop Eusebius of 
 Nicomedia, were soon recalled, and during the last years of 
 Constantine's reign he seems to have been entertained with 
 distinct favour at the imperial court. In 336, the last year 
 of Constantine's reign, orders were given for the public 
 admission of Arius to the Eucharist in the Cathedral of Con- 
 stantinople, but on the day fixed for the ceremony he suddenly 
 expired, in consequence, it was said, of intestinal rupture — 
 an occurrence which reminded his adversaries of the fate of 
 Judas, but which perhaps was due to poison. 
 
 Athanasius survived his great rival thirty-seven years. He 
 lived to see four Emperors succeed Constantine on the Eastern 
 throne. Four times he was driven from Alexandria by his 
 religious adversaries. He was deposed by Constantius, and, 
 after restoration by Constans, was again deposed by Julian 
 and restored by his great patron and admirer Jovian, 1 and 
 once more perhaps was exiled by Valens. But he survived all 
 these dangers — aided once, if not twice, it is said, by miracu- 
 lous disappearance and supernatural transportation into the 
 deserts of the Thebais when on the point of being captured. 
 At the age of eighty he died in peace at Alexandria, the 
 patriarchal throne of which city he had occupied, inter- 
 ruptedly, for forty-six years. 
 
 These quarrels between Trinitarians and Arians may seem 
 to have little or no connexion with Italy, but we shall see ere 
 long how they led directly to that conflict between the civil 
 and the ecclesiastical powers, 2 between Emperors and Popes, 
 
 1 Jovian's reverence for Athanasius almost amounted to deification. 
 
 * It should be here noticed that by the foundation of Constantinople, 
 
 45 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 which plays so important a part in Italian history ; and before 
 dismissing the subject it will be better to say how in the 
 Western Empire the schism was finally healed. 
 
 We have already seen that the Goths and Vandals and 
 other barbarians were primarily converted by Arian mission- 
 aries. The great kingdoms of the Visigoths in Gaul and Spain, 
 of the Vandal Gaiseric in Africa, and of the Ostrogoth Theo- 
 deric in Italy were all, so to speak, hotbeds of Arian heresy 1 
 until the extinction (534 and 553) of the two latter supremacies. 
 Some thirty years later the royal heir of the Visigoth throne in 
 Spain renounces Arianism and rebels against his father, and is 
 executed. (He was afterwards canonized as St. Hermenegild.) 
 His brother succeeds to the throne and induces the whole 
 nation to embrace Catholicism. Then, about 603, by the 
 influence of Queen Theodelinda, herself influenced by Pope 
 Gregory the Great, the Lombards, hitherto Arian, become 
 orthodox Catholics. Meanwhile the Visigoths and other 
 inhabitants of Gaul have been converted to the Trinitarian 
 creed by the Franks, and some time before the descent of 
 Pipin and Charles the Great into Italy Arianism is eradicated. 
 
 But, having turned aside to note the end of this fratricidal 
 conflict — the most momentous of the many 2 which disturbed 
 
 where Constantine erected fourteen important churches and decorated his 
 new buildings with many marbles and ancient works of art from Greece, 
 Rome felt herself not only deprived of her position as political metropolis, 
 but was also aggrieved, as the seat of the successors of St. Peter, by the rival 
 patriarchate — and still more by the attempt of Constantine (oblivious appa- 
 rently of ' Donations ' and other such concessions) to constitute himself the 
 Head of the Church. ' The prerogatives of the King of Heaven,' as Gibbon 
 says, ' were settled, or modified, in the cabinet of an earthly monarch,' instead 
 of in that of the Bishop of Rome. This seems to be the real beginning of 
 the great feud — which has continued for nigh sixteen centuries. The next 
 important step was the election by Constantius, Constantine's son, of an 
 antipope (Felice), followed by the triumphant return of the deposed and 
 exiled Pope Liberius and the flight of the Emperor's protigS. 
 
 1 The persecution of the ' Catholics ' by Gaiseric and his successors was 
 of the most terrible nature. The name ' Catholic,' claimed by the Trini- 
 tarians, who were for centuries greatly outnumbered, first acquired some 
 justification on the disappearance of Arianism. 
 
 s Even to name the heresies against which Athanasian orthodoxy had to 
 contend is here impossible. Alexandria was constantly the arena of bloody 
 conflicts — some of the bloodiest of which are recalled by the names of Hypatia 
 and of Cyril, the patriarch and saint, her murderer. 
 
 46 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 the peace and imperilled the existence of the Church — let us 
 now return to our theme, the fight against the common foe, 
 paganism, the final overthrow of which was effected long 
 before the total disappearance of the Arian heresy. 1 
 
 And first a few words about a form of paganism that proved 
 perhaps a more dangerous, certainly a more subtle, adversary 
 than the gross superstitions of the vulgar or the seductive 
 magnificence of the heathen ritual. 
 
 Some of the abstruser doctrines of Athanasian Christianity, 
 such as those concerning the Trinity and the Logos," have what 
 appears to be a curious affinity to doctrines of certain ancient 
 Greek philosophers — Pythagoras and Plato, for instance — 
 whether because similar forms of thought are wont to spring 
 from the deeper instincts and convictions of human nature, 
 or because Christian theologians adopted forms which gave 
 striking expression to their conceptions of the Godhead. 
 Alexandria, the city of Athanasius and of Arius, was the home 
 of what is called Neoplatonism. A century before their day 
 Plotinus founded this system of thought, which on a ground- 
 work of Platonic and Pythagorean principles was built up by 
 him and his celebrated disciple Porphyry into a philosophical 
 theology hostile to that of the Church. By these teachers and 
 others of the same school Neoplatonism was imported into 
 Rome and Athens, where it quickly took firm root and proved 
 a serious danger to Christianity. Theodosius publicly burnt 
 Porphyry's notorious treatise against the Christian religion ; 
 but the noxious growth still survived until, in 529, Justinian 
 eradicated it by abolishing the schools of Greek philosophy. 
 Neoplatonism, as taught by Plotinus, borrowed, but grievously 
 misinterpreted, 2 the imaginative description of the human 
 
 1 In passing we may here note that it was not till the tenth or even the 
 eleventh century that Great Pan was truly dead — that the Gotterdammerung 
 had deepened into night and the Olympian gods had fled gibbering to dark 
 places underground. It was only then that Christianity extended itself 
 over such regions as Bulgaria, Hungary, Saxony, Denmark, Scandinavia, 
 and Russia. Irish and early British — and even the Anglican — Christianity 
 was, as we shall see, much earlier. 
 
 2 ' Plotinus refused to permit his picture to be taken, because it would 
 perpetuate the image of a body he deplored, and avoided all mention of 
 
 47 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 body as the prison-house of the soul which is given by Plato 
 in the Phaedo. The contempt and disgust that these false 
 Platonists felt for what St. Francis so affectionately called 
 ' brother ass ' doubtless tended to produce, under the influence 
 of Oriental excitability, the insanities of Egyptian and Asiatic 
 asceticism — a result probably far more pernicious than any 
 caused by the bitterest hostility of those who, like Julian the 
 Apostate, openly assailed Christianity, or even of those later 
 Neoplatonists who proclaimed a rival Gospel, bringing forward 
 Pythagoras himself as Antichrist. 
 
 It has already been briefly told (p. 5) how Julian came to 
 the throne. As his short reign of about eighteen months is 
 conspicuous for his attempt to re-establish paganism, I shall 
 give some space to its consideration, omitting the much longer 
 reign of the weak, deceitful, and inhuman Constantius as of 
 little consequence in regard to our present subject, except so 
 far as he follows his father's example in matters ecclesiastical, 
 declares for Arianism, persecutes Athanasius at Alexandria, 
 and elects an antipope at Rome, thus causing one of the first of 
 those Roman riots that become of such frequent occurrence. 
 
 It will be remembered that Julian was imprisoned and then 
 exiled to Athens by his step-cousin, Constantius. Here he 
 spent six months, studying philosophy, doubtless under Neo- 
 platonic teachers, and indulging his enthusiasm for the art 
 and literature of ancient Greece. 1 Although as early as 351, 
 when a lad at Ephesus, he had secretly received initiation into 
 the mysteries of the ancient Chthonian or Orphic religion, it 
 was probably at Athens that Julian, then about twenty-five 
 years of age, first definitely laid aside his profession of Chris- 
 tianity. In this he had been educated by Eusebius, that 
 notorious Arian bishop whom we have already met at the 
 bedside of the dying Constantine. Eusebius inspired his 
 
 the date or locality of Ms birth, as things too dark and miserable to be 
 remembered ' (Archer Butler). 
 
 1 Fellow-students of Julian's at Athens were St. Basil and the learned 
 and eloquent Gregory of Nazianzus (in Cappadocia), afterwards Patriarch 
 of Constantinople, hermit and saint, whose scathing account of Julian's 
 personal character is doubtless due to the Emperor's apostasy. 
 48 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 youthful catechumen with so much zeal that, it is said, he was 
 accustomed to read the lessons in the Cathedral of Nicomedia. 
 
 Dramatic events led to his accession. After his recall to 
 Milan, his marriage with the sister of Constantius, and his 
 appointment as Caesar to the prefecture of Gaul and Britain- 
 events which he himself humorously relates, describing his 
 embarrassment at the sudden metamorphosis ] — he develops 
 great vigour and genius as a commander. He routs the 
 Alemanni near Strasburg and sends their king to Constantius 
 He subjugates the Franks on the Lower Rhine, and then, crossing 
 the river by Mainz, devastates the barbarian lands, rivalling 
 the fame of Marius and Caesar. He rebuilds seven cities 
 between Mainz and the North Sea, and takes up residence at 
 Paris, his ' dear Lutetia,' as he calls it, then a stronghold on 
 the Seine island, connected by wooden bridges with the Campus 
 Martius, the palace, the theatre, and the baths (now the Musee 
 de Cluny) to the south of the river — the ' Quartier Latin ' of 
 to-day. 
 
 Suddenly, as a bolt from the blue, arrives an order from 
 Constantius (who is dominated by his court officials — mostly 
 eunuchs) that the bulk of the Gallic legions are to march at 
 once — to Persia ! The troops forthwith besiege their general 
 in his palatium with tumultuous shouts of ' Julianus Augustus,' 
 and finally raise him on a shield and proclaim him Emperor. 
 He professes great distress ; but the fatal word, has been 
 uttered and the soldiers are inexorable. He therefore sends 
 word to Constantius, now at Antioch, humbly begging for 
 confirmation of the title. But Constantius furiously demands 
 instant resignation. Then Julian issues the famous proclama- 
 tion in which he commends his fortune to " the immortal gods,' 
 thus breaking at once his allegiance to the Emperor and to 
 Christianity, and, collecting a large army at Basel, a sends forces 
 by different routes into Italy, while he himself with 3000 men 
 
 1 The ceremony of shaving his philosopher's beard and exchanging his 
 Socratic cloak for the military and royal accoutrements of a prince of the 
 Empire amused for a few days, says Gibbon, the levity of the court. 
 
 a See p. 28, footnote. The name Basilea is first mentioned some years 
 ater (374). 
 
 d 49 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 plunges through the heart of the Marcian (Black) Forest, 
 reaches the Danube, and in eleven days, on a flotilla that he 
 had seized, arrives at Sirmium and enters Illyricum. 
 
 Constantius marches forth from Antioch, vowing to come 
 over and ' hunt ' the usurper, ut venaticiam praedam ; but at 
 Tarsus he dies of fever, and Julian enters Constantinople, 
 where the imperial army declares in his favour, though the 
 eunuchs had set up a rival candidate. He at once gets to 
 work to rescue the court, " as from the jaws of a many-headed 
 Hydra' (to use his own expression), exterminating multitu- 
 dinous satellites, spies, informers, eunuchs, and other ministers 
 of luxury and vice. During the few months of his sojourn in 
 the capital he displays the greatest zeal for the revival of the 
 old religion, and, while professing a philosophic tolerance and 
 at times conferring favours on other creeds, he is distinctly 
 hostile x to the exclusive claims of Christianity and especially 
 severe against Athanasius as the leader of what he deems 
 the most exclusive and intolerant of all sects. He commands 
 the rebuilding and reopening of all heathen temples, or their 
 restoration from the service of Christ to that of the Olympian 
 deities ; he recalls all banished Arian prelates ; he abolishes 
 the Christian labarum and the Cross ; he re-establishes the 
 colleges of augurs and flamens, and as Supreme Pontifex 
 presides at pagan ceremonies ; he spends enormous sums on 
 hecatombs offered to the heathen gods, but at the same time 
 he writes an epistle to the Jewish people assuring them that 
 he reverences their ' Great Deity ' and will protect them 
 against the ' Galilaeans ' who have forsaken the one true God ; 
 he even undertakes to rebuild the Temple on Mount Moriah, 
 intending to outrival Solomon himself not only (as Justinian 
 afterwards claimed to have done when he had finished S. 
 Sofia) in the magnificence of the edifice, but also in the number 
 of dedicatory victims — which in Solomon's case amounted to 
 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep ! But it is said that, when 
 excavations were being made for the purpose of laying the 
 
 1 Fragments survive of Julian's Treatise against the Christians, composed 
 amid preparations for the Persian War. 
 
 5° 
 
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 O 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 new foundations of the Temple a violent explosion and earth- 
 quake x caused such alarm that the work was abandoned. 
 
 How far Julian was supported by the genuine paganism or 
 the temporizing apostasy of his subjects it is difficult to learn, 
 for it is as perilous to trust the adulatory records of his friend 
 and adorer, Iyibanius, the Greek rhetorician and writer (the 
 teacher, by the way, of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom), as to 
 accept the hostile testimony of Gregory of Nazianzus and 
 other ecclesiastic chroniclers. Evidently the enthusiasm of 
 Julian for the old religion was greatly due to his ardent love 
 for ancient art, literature, and philosophy and to the resentful 
 refusal of his mind to submit to the haughty dogmas of a 
 priesthood which regarded the wisdom of Socrates and the 
 art of Homer with equal contempt. But — such is the infirmity 
 of human nature — he himself, a disciple of Plato, a learned 
 scholar, a gifted orator, a remarkable writer of both classical 
 languages, a model of temperance and chastity, 2 fell a prey to 
 the grossest and most foolish superstitions. He was honoured, 
 he believed, by the intimate friendship and the manifest 
 presence of the gods themselves ; he consulted them through 
 auguries and oracles and recognized their will in prodigies and 
 their voice in omens. 
 
 His enthusiasm for the heroes of classical antiquity induced 
 Julian to compete with Alexander the Great, as he had already 
 attempted to rival the exploits of Caesar in Gaul. 8 Ever since 
 
 1 Probably a fiction invented by Gregory Nazianzen, but recounted by 
 many writers. 
 
 1 ' The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics,' says Gibbon, ' the 
 curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared so ridiculous 
 in the person of Constantine the Great, were rejected by the philosophic 
 mind of Julian.' He is said to have generally slept on the ground, even 
 amid the magnificence of the Constantinople palace. His contempt of 
 bodily ease led to indecent neglect of cleanliness. In his Misopogon (' The 
 Beard-hater,' i.e. the hater of philosophers, a satire against the people of 
 Antioch, who had derided his habits and slovenly appearance) he descants 
 with delight and with pride on the length of his nails and the inky black- 
 ness of his hands and his shaggy ' populous ' beard. 
 
 a In his Epistles and Dispatches to the Senate he affects Caesar's style, 
 and is said (by I<ibanius) to have composed an account of his Gallic wars in 
 imitation of Caesar's Commentaries. Most of his writings are in Greek. Our 
 knowledge of his Gallic and Persian campaigns comes mostly from the I,atin 
 work of Ammianus. 
 
 51 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the days of the Emperor Alexander Severus (c. 226; Persia 
 under her Sassanidae kings had given great trouble to the 
 Romans. The present monarch, Sapor (Shapur) II, was 
 the ninth of that great dynasty. He had already reigned 
 more than half a century, 1 and was to live till the fourth year 
 of the reign of Theodosius and to see six Emperors succeed to 
 the throne of the Eastern Empire. He had driven Constantius 
 and the imperial forces out of Mesopotamia, and threatened 
 to expel them from Asia. The campaign of Julian against 
 Sapor, for which vast preparations were made, ended, as we 
 have seen, in his death ; and it nearly ended in the annihila- 
 tion of his army. How Jovian succeeded in rescuing the 
 remnant by an inglorious and disastrous retreat, and how 
 during his short reign he gained the loud acclamations of all 
 his Christian subjects by the re-establishment of their religion 
 and the gratitude of the anti-Arians by the restoration of 
 Athanasius to the patriarchal throne of Alexandria, has been 
 related (pp. 5-6). 
 
 During the reigns of Valentinian and Valens, already 
 sketched in the Historical Outline, perhaps the most important 
 incident as regards religion was the conversion of the Visigoths, 
 or the beginnings of their conversion, by Ulfilas (d. 381), 
 although by the Trinitarians it was probably regarded as a 
 somewhat Pyrrhic victory for Christianity. Valentinian seems 
 to have been tolerant, or perhaps indifferent, in doctrinal 
 matters, and to have earned respect at first for his manly and 
 temperate character. In his later years, however, his naturally 
 choleric disposition gained the mastery and converted him 
 into a furious tyrant, whose victims were put to death by 
 thousands on charges of treason and of magic. 2 
 
 The hysterical terror caused by a belief in witchcraft pro- 
 duced also on the feeble-minded Valens a similar effect. From 
 the extremities of Asia, we are told, young and old were 
 
 1 He was crowned king before his birth, the Magi placing the crown on 
 his mother's body. 
 
 * A wave of superstitious dread of witchcraft and books of magic seems 
 at this time to have swept over the Roman world. To such waves is largely 
 due the total destruction of many works of philosophy. 
 
 52 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM 
 
 dragged to the tribunal of Antioch, where the Emperor was 
 wont to hold his court. So many were the prisoners that the 
 imperial troops scarce sufficed to guard them, and in outlying 
 provinces the fugitives, it is said, outnumbered the rest of the 
 population. 
 
 But Valens did not limit himself to such atrocities. Three 
 years after his accession he had been baptized by the Arian 
 Patriarch of Constantinople. The imperial neophyte soon 
 developed into a bigoted sectarian and a cruel persecutor of 
 ' Athanasian heretics,' as he termed them, and soon the 
 Eastern Empire was in a ferment with tumults. These lasted 
 till at Caesarea Archbishop Basil — once the fellow-student of 
 Julian at Athens and later renowned as hermit and as founder 
 of the only monastic order of the Eastern Church — defied the 
 Emperor, much as St. Ambrose afterwards at Milan defied 
 Theodosius, and with similar success; for we are assured 
 that Valens was so impressed that he swooned in the sight 
 of all the congregation when repelled from the altar and 
 atoned for his cruelties by granting Basil a large estate on 
 which to found a hospital. Valens disappeared, as has been 
 related, in the great battle of Hadrianople in 378. 
 
 In the West Valentinian had been succeeded by his son 
 Gratian, a genial and sport-loving youth of sixteen, 1 who 
 accepted as his colleague his four-year-old step-brother, 
 Valentinian II, assigning to the child and his mother Justina 
 the prefecture of Italy, and retaining that of the Gauls for 
 himself. He was still a young man of twenty-four years 
 when he was slain at I^yon by the usurper Maximus, and was 
 apparently far more interested in his deer-forests and bear- 
 preserves than in heretical subtleties, so that during his reign 
 of eight years the early Gallican Church seems to have had 
 respite from sectarian discords, though it did not slumber softly 
 in the arms of orthodoxy (to use Gibbon's phrase), for it 
 actively expended its zeal in destroying the relics of heathen- 
 
 1 Evidently also not without some literary education, for his tutor was 
 one of the last true poets in the Latin language, Ausonius, whom Gratian, 
 or his father, raised to the highest official dignities. 
 
 S3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 dom and of classic art. At Rome, moreover, Gratian (appa- 
 rently in conjunction with Justina and her son) seems to 
 have done much to eliminate paganism, for we hear of his 
 suppressing the ancient college of priests, Vestal Virgins, and 
 augurs, and demolishing the images of the gods. 1 
 
 When Valens disappeared Gratian selected as the Augustus 
 of the Eastern Empire a valiant soldier of Spanish birth, 
 Theodosius, who had served in the imperial army in Britain, 
 and had been made Duke of Moesia. The father of Theodosius, 
 after brilliant campaigns in Britain and in Africa, had been 
 executed at Carthage, apparently on some frivolous charge of 
 treason brought against him by Justina. On the disgrace 
 and execution of the elder Theodosius the son had withdrawn 
 to his patrimony in Spain, where he intended to devote himself, 
 like Xenophon or Cincinnatus, to the improvement of his 
 land and to the society of the country folk. Hence after 
 four months he was called by Gratian to fill the throne left 
 vacant by the death of Valens. 
 
 Eor seventeen years (378-395) Theodosius was the real ruler 
 not only in the Eastern Empire but, as patron of the young 
 Valentinian and his mother and as conqueror of Maximus and 
 Arbogast, 8 also in Italy and the far West, although he was 
 undisputedly sole Emperor only for the last year of his reign. 
 
 During these seventeen years, which form the subject of 
 the next chapter, paganism died out rapidly, and although we 
 meet later some curious survivals, we may consider that the 
 end of the reign of Theodosius, or the end of the fourth 
 century, brought about the extinction of the old religion in 
 the Empire and left the Trinitarian, or Athanasian, Church — 
 especially the so-calied Catholic Church in Italy — in a position 
 of dignity and influence in regard to the civil power. 
 
 1 He first caused consternation among the pagans at Rome by refusing 
 indignantly the office of Pontifex. His zeal for demolishing pagan buildings 
 and images was doubtless fired by the Gallican saints, Hilary of Poitiers and 
 Martin of Tours. 
 
 2 See Historical Outline, p. 8. 
 
 5+ 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 THE first duty of the new Emperor of the Eastern 
 Empire was to avenge the defeat of Hadrianople. 
 Before setting out against the Visigoths from Thessa- 
 lonica, where he had reconstituted the imperial army, Theo- 
 dosius underwent the rite of baptism and issued to his troops, 
 or perhaps read to the congregation assembled to view the 
 ceremony, 1 the following edict, in the name, it is said, of the 
 three Emperors, Gratian, Valentinian, and himself : 2 ' It is our 
 pleasure that all our subjects adhere to the religion taught to 
 the Romans by St. Peter. . , . According to the teaching of 
 the Apostles and the doctrine of the Gospels, we are to believe 
 in the one Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost, of majesty co-equal in Holy Trinity. We will that 
 the followers of this doctrine be called Catholic Christians, and 
 brand all others with the infamous name of Heretics, and 
 declare that their conventicles shall no longer usurp the name 
 of Churches.' We should note here the assumption of the 
 three temporal lords of the Roman Empire that they possessed 
 the right not only to insist on the acceptation of the Christian 
 religion, but to give their own version of apostolic teachings. 
 Not less than fifteen severe edicts of this nature, directed 
 against heretics, were issued by Theodosius, and enforced with 
 heavy — sometimes with capital — punishment. The office of 
 
 1 Possibly in the circular, domed Church of St. George, the most ancient 
 perhaps of all extant pre-Byzantine churches, dating from 400 or a little 
 earlier. 
 
 a But the young Valentinian was, like his mother, a zealous Anan at this 
 time ; so perhaps the * our ' is the imperial plural. 
 
 55 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Inquisitors of the Faith, a name so justly abhorred, was first 
 instituted, it is said, in his reign. 1 
 
 The campaign against the Visigoths, who evaded a general 
 battle, ended in a compact by which the barbarians were 
 allowed to settle south of the Danube as allies (foederati) of 
 the Empire on the condition that they should in case of need 
 supply a contingent of 40,000 men. Some twenty years later 
 the last of the Roman poets, Claudian, deplored the existence 
 of this great standing barbarian army as a danger certain to 
 cause the ruin of the Empire ; and such it proved, for only 
 six years after Claudian's lament these Visigoths, as we shall 
 see, captured Rome. 
 
 In the next year (383) Gratian was slain at I,yon, whither 
 he had fled from Paris — betrayed by his own legions and 
 captured by the cavalry of Maximus the usurper, who had 
 led over from Britain so vast a number of followers that, as 
 has been already said, it was afterwards ' remembered as the 
 emigration of a considerable part of the British nation.' In 
 connexion with this exodus may be mentioned here the 
 legend of St. Ursula, the princess of Brittany, and her 
 eleven thousand British virgins, who are said to have made 
 their way as pilgrims up the Rhine and over the Alps to Rome, 
 and on their return to have been massacred by Huns, or 
 Frisians, near Cologne — where their skulls are yet to be 
 seen. 2 It seems not unlikely (though uncertain dates make it 
 doubtful) that the source of this legend was the fate of a large 
 convoy of British damsels, perhaps under the charge of a lady 
 of Brittany, who were intended as wives for some of the 
 100,000 followers of Maximus, and who may have been driven 
 by contrary winds into the Rhine, and have fallen into the 
 hands of Salian Franks or savage Frisians — such as some 
 
 1 In passing we may note that the first human victim legally done to 
 death on account of his heretical tenets was a Spaniard, Priscillian, exe- 
 cuted by order of Maximus, the usurper who for four years lorded it in 
 Britain and Gaul (see p. 8). 
 
 z And yet some believe that *XI. M. V.' in the old record only means ' XI 
 martyr virgins ' ! And other sceptics reduce the eleven thousand to one virgin 
 martyr named ' Undecimillia ' ! 
 
 5* 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 four centuries later killed the great English missionary, 
 St. Boniface. 
 
 Had Maximus been content with his usurped Empire of 
 Britain and Gaul and Spain, he might have been known in 
 af tertimes as one of the most successful of Western Emperors, 
 for he ruled a vast realm and possessed a powerful army, 
 levied mainly from the warlike tribes of Germany. Moreover 
 he obtained recognition from Theodosius, who found it prudent 
 to allow his claims to the countries north and west of Italy. 
 But he was led to attack Italy itself, incited perhaps not only 
 by insatiable ambition, but also by the hope, or the certainty, 
 that the Catholic majority among the Italians would gladly 
 shake off the rule of the boy-Emperor Valentinian — or rather 
 that of his mother Justina, who was strongly attached to the 
 Arian heresy in spite of the eloquence and the miracles of the 
 great Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose. Sending forward a body 
 of troops on the pretence of lending them to Valentinian, the 
 usurper seized the Alpine passes and soon appeared before 
 Milan with a great army. 
 
 On his approach Justina fled with her son — now a youth of 
 fifteen years — leaving St. Ambrose 1 to face the enemy. The 
 fugitives reached Aquileia, but, not feeling secure, took ship 
 and, coasting round Greece, arrived after a wearisome voyage 
 at Thessalonica. Here they were visited and welcomed by 
 Theodosius ; but the formidable resources of Maximus made 
 the Eastern Emperor hesitate to accede at once to the entreaties 
 of Justina. Soon, however, his hesitation was overcome by 
 the charms of her daughter, the sister of the youth Valentinian, 
 the Princess Galla, already renowned for her youthful beauty, 
 and to become still more renowned as the mother of Galla 
 Placidia, of whom ere long we shall hear so much. Theodosius 
 was a widower, having lost his first wife, the mother of his 
 two sons, some two years before. He determined to marry 
 the young and fascinating princess ; and after the wedding he 
 set forth with an army in which there were strong contingents 
 
 1 St. Augustine, now aged thirty-three, and lately converted by St. Ambrose, 
 was baptized by him at Milan jn this very year (387). 
 
 57 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 not only of the Visigoths but also of Huns and of Oriental 
 races. 
 
 He found Maximus with his Gallic and German forces on 
 the further banks of the Save, 1 and by a bold frontal attack 
 his cavalry, after swimming the river, put the enemy to 
 flight. Maximus fled to Aquileia, the town near the Adriatic 
 shore which is famous as the scene of so many conflicts, and 
 on the arrival of Theodosius, who seems to have swooped 
 down from the Julian Alps like an eagle after a wounded hare, 
 the usurper was ' dragged from his throne, rudely stripped of 
 the imperial ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple 
 slippers, and conducted like a malefactor to the camp and 
 presence of Theodosius, at a place about three miles distant 
 from Aquileia. The Emperor showed some disposition to 
 pity and forgive the tyrant of the West . . . but the feeble 
 emotion was checked by his regard for public justice and the 
 memory of Gratian, and he abandoned his victim to the pious 
 zeal of the soldiers, who drew him out of the imperial presence 
 and instantly separated his head from his body.' 2 
 
 After this victory Theodosius took up his residence for 
 more than two years (388-91) in Italy, being practically the 
 sole overlord of both the East and the West, though he recog- 
 nized the rule of Valentinian and Justina (who, however, died 
 soon after her return to Italy). From Milan the two Emperors 
 in the spring of 389 visited Rome, where they made a triumphal 
 entry, and, it is believed, began the erection, on the site of a 
 church built by Constantine, of what was until 1823, when it 
 was burnt, the grandest of all the ancient basilicas of Rome — 
 that of S. Paolo fuori le mura. 3 
 
 In 390 we find Theodosius again in Milan, and it was then 
 that occurred the dramatic scene which we associate with the 
 well-known basilica of S. Ambrogio. 
 
 Some three years earlier there had been a serious anti- 
 Catholic and anti-taxation riot at Antioch. The mob had 
 overthrown the statues of the Emperor and his sons and had 
 
 1 Perhaps the decisive battle was fought later on the Drave. 
 » Gibbon, ch. xxvii* * See Fig. 4 and explanation. 
 
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THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 dragged them with contumely through the streets. Terrible 
 was the wrath of Theodosius. The city was degraded and 
 chastised, and a great number of prisoners awaited torture 
 and death. But a suppliant petition was sent to Constanti- 
 nople and — partly by the influence of St. Chrysostom, who 
 has given us a vivid picture of these days and whose wondrous 
 eloquence sustained the despair of his fellow-citizens — the 
 order for the execution was deferred till the answer arrived ; 
 and the answer was a general pardon. 
 
 But the riot of Antioch doubtless rankled in the mind of 
 Theodosius, and when, in 390, a tumult occurred at Thessa- 
 lonica, the wealthy naval and military centre of the Macedonian 
 province, the results were far more tragic. The trouble was 
 caused by the imprisonment of a charioteer who was greatly 
 in favour with the public. There was a collision between the 
 populace and the authorities ; officials were killed and their 
 bodies ignominiously treated. Theodosius on this occasion 
 rejected all appeals for mercy, He planned a most dastardly 
 and iniquitous revenge. The Thessalonians were led to believe 
 that the incident had been condoned and were invited in the 
 name of the Emperor to an exhibition of games in the Circus, 
 and here they were assailed by armed men and massacred 
 indiscriminately. Seven thousand — some say fifteen thousand 
 — perished. The guilt of this almost incredible atrocity is 
 aggravated by the fact that Theodosius was especially fond 
 of Thessalonica and of its bishop, who some years before had 
 baptized him there, doubtless in the presence of many of these 
 same Thessalonians. 
 
 The name of St. Ambrose has already been mentioned. 
 He is known to many as the spiritual father of the elder 
 St. Augustine, as the possible author (with Augustine) of the 
 Te Deum, as the writer of noble I^atin hymns, and as the 
 inventor of the Ambrosian musical ritual and that system 
 of antiphonal chanting on which, and on the Gregorian modes, 
 the ' plain song ' of the Anglican Church is founded. 1 But 
 
 1 ' The Ambrosian chant, with its more simple and masculine tones, is 
 still preserved in the Church of Milan. In the rest of Italy it was superseded 
 
 59 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 all who know Milan, 1 when they hear the name of St. Ambrose 
 think also of the basilica of S. Ambrogio and its old doors 
 of cypress-wood, although, alas ! it is uncertain whether we 
 still possess even the fragments of those doors that were 
 shut in the face of Theodosius the Great. 
 
 Ambrose was the son of a prefect of Gaul of noble Roman 
 descent. He was born at Treves in 340, and became the 
 magistrate of a district that included I/iguria and Milan, in 
 which city he was so popular that on the death of the bishop 
 (in 374) he was acclaimed as his sucpessor by the voice 
 of the whole people, and ' to his own surprise and to that of 
 the world/ says Gibbon, ' was suddenly transformed from a 
 governor into an archbishop before he had received the 
 sacrament of baptism.' And well was the choice of the people 
 justified, for there is in the annals of the medieval Church no 
 personality that more strongly appeals to us. It is true that 
 most of us have to put gently aside such stories as that of his 
 dream and the discovery of the sacred skeletons which by 
 their miraculous aid saved him from the wrath of Justina 
 and from exile — even though we may have been shown the 
 bones themselves of Gervasius and Protasius 2 in the crypt of 
 S. Ambrogio. But no one can fail to be impressed by his 
 splendid courage and his noble impulses. In him the Christian 
 Church first stepped forward to champion the cause of justice 
 and humanity against the legalized tyranny of the civil power. 
 His calm defiance of Theodosius was, as Milman says, ' a 
 culminating point of pure Christian influence.' If only the 
 Church had chosen such influence as its sole ideal ! 
 
 On several occasions Ambrose had already displayed his 
 
 courage. Once, when Justina had demanded imperiously 
 
 certain churches in Milan to be given over to the Arians, and 
 
 had sent her Gothic soldiers to occupy one of these churches, 
 
 by the richer Roman chant, introduced by Gregory.' (Milman.) Among the 
 Milanese of the present day the memory of St. Ambrose is kept green especially 
 by the fact that by his permission they are allowed three extra days of Carnevale 
 before Ivent. 
 
 1 Or even only Van Dyck's picture in our National Gallery — a small copy 
 of Rubens' fine picture at Vienna. 
 
 8 Four French cathedrals and many churches are dedicated to these saints. 
 60 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 he met them at the church door with his thunders of excom- 
 munication and so dismayed them that the queen-regent held 
 it wiser to withdraw her demands. 
 
 When Ambrose heard of the Thessalonian massacre he at 
 first retreated into the country and avoided Theodosius. 
 Then, feeling further silence to be cowardly, he sent him a 
 letter in which, in his own name and that of other bishops, he 
 expressed abhorrence of the atrocious deed and added that 
 such blood-guiltiness should betake itself to prayer and 
 penance and not dare to approach the altar, and that he 
 himself had been warned by a vision not to offer the sacrifice 
 of the Eucharist in the presence of one whose hands were 
 stained with the innocent blood of thousands. 1 
 
 Modern scepticism sees in this letter the origin of what it 
 holds to be a picturesque fiction, namely, the tradition that 
 when the Emperor with his retinue approached the portal of 
 the cathedral he found the great wooden doors fast closed 
 against him — or that, as others relate, he found Ambrose him- 
 self before the portal, once more defending the house of God 
 from pollution with the thunders of excommunication. 2 More- 
 over, says the tradition, when Rufinus, the notorious minister 
 of Theodosius, was sent to expostulate and to intimate that 
 his master had the power to force his entrance into the church, 
 the saint undauntedly replied : ' Then he will have to pass 
 over my dead body.' 
 
 Whether or not we are to believe this dramatic story, there 
 seems no doubt (for it is attested by Ambrose himself and by 
 Augustine and by others) that on further reflexion, impressed 
 by the courage of Ambrose, and doubtless also influenced by a 
 consciousness of the inhumanity to which he had been impelled 
 by passion, Theodosius did public penance in the cathedral 
 and, attired as a penitent, prostrated himself, repeating the 
 words of the Psalmist : ' My soul cleaveth unto the dust : 
 
 1 This letter is extant (Ep. Ambr. 951). We might wish that on this 
 occasion he couldjhave managed without a vision. 
 
 2 This probably took place inside the fine atrium which still (in part at 
 least) exists in front of the narthex (penitents' portico) of the church. Others 
 transfer the scene to the old Basilica Porziana (S. Vittore). 
 
 6l 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 quicken thou me according to thy word.' When we think of 
 this scene and remember the edict issued a few years before 
 by Theodosius in which he arrogated to himself, as if he were 
 both spiritual and temporal overlord, the right to dictate a 
 creed to the Roman Empire and to define the nature of the 
 Trinity, we are conscious that a new and already mighty 
 power had arisen and extended itself with almost incredible 
 rapidity since the day when Constantine first granted protec- 
 tion to the weak and persecuted Church. And when again 
 we think of the Emperor Henry at Canossa, or of Frederick 
 Barbarossa kneeling in the porch of St. Mark's at Venice, how 
 vividly it makes us realize the difference between the motives 
 and ideals of St. Ambrose and those of Hildebrand or Pope 
 Alexander ! 
 
 In the following year (391) Theodosius returned to Con- 
 stantinople and entered in triumph through the Golden 
 Gate, which had been erected in his absence to commemorate 
 his victory over Maximus. This gate was afterwards used 
 specially for the state entry of the Emperors. It still exists, 
 and possesses some very fine columns ; but it has been blocked 
 up. A tradition is said to persist among the Turks that 
 through this gate some day will enter a Christian conqueror — 
 a contingency that some years ago seemed a possibility, and 
 now (March 1915) seems more possible than ever ! 
 
 In 392 Valentinian II was found strangled in his bedroom 
 at Vienne. The deed was doubtless committed or instigated 
 by Arbogast, a pagan Frank who had risen to the chief 
 command of the imperial legions in Gaul, and had assumed 
 such a disloyal and insolent attitude that the young monarch, 
 a few days before his murder, had snatched a sword from a 
 soldier and was with difficulty restrained from plunging it 
 into the heart of the traitor. Arbogast, not venturing to 
 assume the purple, proclaimed as Emperor of the West a 
 rhetorician named Eugenius, his former secretary. 
 
 Valentinian's sister, Galla, whom Theodosius had married, 
 and for whom he had the deepest affection, urgently incited 
 her husband to avenge the murder of her brother. But 
 62 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 Arbogast had a large army, and in the name of his imperial 
 puppet he had made himself master of Rome and the Western 
 Empire. 1 It was therefore necessary for Theodosius to collect 
 a large force before venturing once more on an Italian cam- 
 paign. But ere he formed any resolution the pious Emperor, 
 says Gibbon, 2 was anxious to discover the will of Heaven. 
 ' Since the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of 
 Dodona and Delphi, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who 
 possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles and 
 the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one of the favourite 
 eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, embarked for 
 Alexandria, whence he sailed up the Nile as far as the city of 
 I^ycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais. 
 In the neighbourhood of that city, and on the summit of a 
 lofty mountain, the holy John had constructed with his own 
 hands an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above fifty years, 
 without opening the door, without seeing the face of a woman, 
 and without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire 
 or any human art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer 
 and meditation, but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly 
 opened a small window and gave audience to the crowd of 
 suppliants who flowed from every part of the Christian world. 
 The envoy of Theodosius approached the window with 
 respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the event 
 of the civil war, and soon returned with a favourable oracle, 
 which animated the courage of the Emperor by the assurance 
 of a bloody but infallible victory. The accomplishment of 
 the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human 
 prudence could supply.' 
 
 Ere these preparations were finished Theodosius was afflicted 
 by the loss of his young and beautiful wife, who died in giving 
 birth to her only child, the Princess Galla Placidia. This, 
 however, did not make him relinquish his design, and on 
 September 6, 394, the rival armies met on the river Frigidus, 
 
 1 Ambrose is said to have rejected the gifts of Eugenius and to have with- 
 drawn from Milan till the return of Theodosius. 
 
 2 Accounts are given both by Christian and by pagan writers. Even Dean 
 Milman allows the fact. 
 
 63 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 not far from Aquileia. For two days the battle raged. Teri 
 thousand of the Gothic auxiliaries of Theodosius * perished in 
 vainly assaulting the ramparts of the enemy ; but at length, 
 aided by a violent Bora (a storm-wind from the north) and by 
 the desertion of some Gallic troops of Arbogast, the Eastern 
 army put the foe to flight. Eugenius was caught and decapi- 
 tated. Arbogast, after wandering for several days in the 
 mountains and finding escape impossible, fell on his sword. 
 How Theodosius died four months later at Milan, leaving the 
 Empire to his two sons, Honorius and Arcadius, has been 
 already related (p. 9). It is said that he had ordered a 
 splendid exhibition of Circensian games as a public welcome 
 for Honorius, who was a lad of about ten years, and that he 
 himself was present at the morning performance, but was 
 compelled to absent himself in the afternoon and expired 
 during the following night. 
 
 The character of Theodosius seems easily read from his 
 actions ; but we cannot feel sure that those actions are always 
 accurately stated and always placed in quite a fair light by 
 contemporary writers. On the one hand we have his eulogists, 
 the Christian I,atin poet Prudentius and the Catholic or 
 Trinitarian Fathers, such as Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 379), 
 Jerome, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine; and on 
 the other the chief chronicler of this period, the pagan 
 Zosimus, a ' partial and malignant historian,' as Gibbon 
 justly says, 'who misrepresents every action of this reign.' 
 But even Zosimus has the grace to allow that Theodosius 
 was ' one of the greatest of the Roman princes,' and in spite 
 of the horror that is excited in our minds by the Thessa- 
 lonian massacre, not unlike the astonishment and horror with 
 which we read of the persecution of Christians by Marcus 
 Aurelius, we cannot, I think, fail to feel that in his nature, 
 side by side with strange superstitions and savage impulses,, 
 there must have been much that was noble and admirable. 
 
 1 This army, commanded partly by the famous Stilicho, was also on this 
 occasion largely reinforced by Visigoths (among whom was the young Alaric) 
 and by Orientals, who ' gazed on each other with mutual astonishment.' 
 64 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 It is, however, more satisfactory to state facts, when one can 
 discover them, than to attempt to analyse character and 
 attribute motives. I shall therefore only add here a few 
 facts connected with the extension of Christianity in this reign 
 and the final extinction of paganism. 
 
 Among the numberless incidents, more or less attested, that 
 stand at the service of the historian of Christianity during 
 this period perhaps the one that will best serve our purpose, 
 being typical of many others and indicative of the whole 
 religious movement, is what happened in connexion with a 
 statue of Victory which Julius Caesar brought from Tarentum 
 and erected in the Roman Senate-house — a grand figure with 
 expanded wings and a laurel crown in her outstretched hand. 
 At the altar that stood before this Victory the senators took 
 the oath of allegiance, and on it were offered solemn oblations 
 of wine and incense before the Senate began its deliberations. 
 The statue, together with the altar, seems to have been 
 removed by Constantius, and perhaps sent to adorn Con- 
 stantinople. The altar was restored by Julian, and again 
 removed by Gratian, 1 restored (c. 393) by Eugenius, who was 
 perhaps a pagan, or by Arbogast, who certainly was one, and 
 once more removed by Theodosius shortly before his death, or 
 else by Honorius. Thus during about half a century we can 
 trace the varying fortunes of the battle between Christianity 
 and paganism. Four times were deputations sent by the 
 adherents of the old religion to solicit from various Emperors 
 the restoration of the altar. An interesting account of one 
 of these visits to the imperial court is extant, written by 
 Symmachus, a Roman of noble birth distinguished for his 
 eloquence and for the high office that he had held as pontiff 
 and augur and proconsul of Africa and prefect of Rome. 
 This deputation was sent to the court of Theodosius and 
 Valentinian in Milan, and the rhetoric of Symmachus (who in 
 his oration makes Rome herself plead her own cause before 
 the two Emperors) was met and overcome by the eloquence 
 
 1 Gratian, as we have seen, gave over Italy to Justina and Valentinian. 
 But he seems to have interfered a good deal. See p. 54. 
 
 E 65 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and sarcasm of St. Ambrose, who, as we learn from his account, 
 derided the idea of Roman victories having ever been granted 
 by the gods of Olympus, and asked whether Jupiter still spoke 
 by the voice of the legendary geese which saved the Capitol. 
 
 But the victory of Ambrose and Christianity on this occasion 
 by no means extinguished paganism. How slowly and with 
 what great difficulty it was eradicated is very evident. In 
 spite of the severe code of Theodosius, which threatened death 
 or confiscation for the treasonable crimes of sacrifice and 
 entrail-divination, in spite too of much ruthless destruction and 
 alienation of the old temples, pagan ceremonies, so modified 
 as to evade the law, continued for many years to be performed 
 both publicly and privately, the hereditary pagan priesthoods 
 continued to be held by the noblest families, and the worship of 
 the sun-god Mithras and of the Great Mother, Cybele, and of 
 other strange deities, continued to defy proscription. 
 
 It is stated that on one occasion when Theodosius was in 
 Rome (perhaps on his triumphal visit to the capital with 
 Valentinian in 389) he formally proposed to the Senate the 
 question whether Christ or Jupiter should be accepted as 
 the God of the Romans, and that ' on a regular division of 
 the assembly Jupiter was condemned and degraded by the 
 sense of a very large majority.' But doubtless — if the story 
 be true — the imperial presence accounted for this sudden 
 change of faith, for it is a striking fact that in spite of all 
 the opportunities offered by persecution the pagans did not 
 court martyrdom ; they ' desisted with plaintive murmurs,' as 
 Gibbon says, from those rites which in the awe-inspiring 
 presence of their Emperor they had themselves condemned — 
 or, more probably, in many cases, they continued to practise 
 them in secret. 
 
 I^et us now note how temples disappeared and churches 
 increased. In the reign of Gratian (c. 380) there still existed in 
 Rome, it is said, 424 temples devoted to the worship of the 
 ancient deities, while, according to the Notitia Urbis, a descrip- 
 tion of Rome written about this date, there was ' not one 
 Christian church worthy to be named among the edifices of the 
 66 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 city ' ; and although there certainly did exist some Christian 
 churches, and some of no mean size, 1 these words doubtless 
 give a true picture of their comparative insignificance. 
 
 At the end of the reign of Theodosius we find a very different 
 state of things. Theodosius was a Spaniard, in feeling if 
 not by descent, and in Spain orthodox Christianity had be- 
 come supreme with scarcely an effort, and viewed with equal 
 disdain the present impotence and the past glories of paganism. 
 And if we ask how it was possible that the Romans themselves, 
 both in the mother-city and in the provinces, could have so 
 ruthlessly destroyed the splendid monuments of their ancestors, 
 we may find a sufficient explanation not only in the dangerous 
 encouragement given by such memorials of the pagan Empire 
 and the possibility of another imperial apostate, but also in 
 the horror and dread with which most Christians of these ages, 
 as also in later ages, regarded heathen temples as the haunts 
 of malignant demons 2 and the images of the heathen gods as 
 dangerous fetishes. Indeed, with the average Christian of 
 early days the belief in the actual existence of the old gods 
 
 1 E.g. the original edifices of the Lateran Baptistery (S. Giovanni in Fontt, 
 where Constantine, as once believed, was baptized by Silvester) ; 5. Clemente 
 (of which the present underground basilica is probably a reconstruction) ; 
 the old basilica of S. Pietro in Vaticano (in which Charles the Great was 
 crowned in 800), built on the site of the great circus where St. Peter is said 
 to have been crucified ; the basilica of S. Paolo fuori le mura, first built 
 on the spot where perhaps St. Paul suffered, near the Via Appia ; 5. Croce 
 in Gerusalemme, said to have been built by Helena to receive the True Cross, 
 which she had found at Jerusalem (the superscription is still among the 
 many relics preserved in this church !) ; 5. Maria Maggiore, first built by 
 Pope I/iberius in 350, and originally called S. Maria ad Nives on account of 
 a legend ; S. Pudenzia and S. Prassede, both originally of the second century ; 
 S. Maria in Trastevere, first built perhaps c. 250 and afterwards the first church 
 in Rome dedicated to the ' Mother of God,' whose cult was late ; S. Lorenzo 
 and S. Agnese, both extra muros and both perhaps built by Constantine. 
 The church of S. Costanza (notable for its ancient mosaics) was at this time 
 the mausoleum of Constantia, daughter of Constantine the Great. It was 
 first dedicated as a church in 1256. Of very early date is S. Maria Antiqua, 
 originally the Library of the Palace of Augustus, and lately excavated. 
 
 a This probably explains the fact that, although many churches were built 
 on the sites and adorned with the marbles of ruined temples, but few temples 
 in Rome (many, however, in Syria and other provinces) were converted 
 into churches. The Pantheon, now the only complete ancient building 
 in Rome, stood unused for many years. It was given by Phocas to the Pope 
 and was dedicated to all the saints in 609 under the name S. Maria ad Martyres. 
 
 6 7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 was probably more real than it was in the case of the pagans 
 themselves. 
 
 This destruction of ancient shrines and images, against 
 which Iibanius, the learned teacher of Chrysostom, vainly 
 protested in his fervid oration Pro Templis, was not limited to 
 Rome. The many monuments of classical antiquity 1 which 
 adorned Constantinople had been stolen from Greece and Rome. 
 This was bad enough ; but elsewhere innumerable beautiful 
 buildings and works of art were annihilated by monks and 
 other fanatics, who were incited and supported by the edicts 
 of Theodosius and by the commissioners whom he sent to 
 distant provinces to carry out his edicts. The work of 
 vandalism 2 began, it seems, in Syria, where a certain Bishop 
 Marcellus, after demolishing with immense labour the great 
 temple of Zeus in Apamea, attacked with his band of fanatics 
 other towns for a similar purpose until he was seized by 
 the enraged inhabitants and burnt alive. In Gaul the soldier- 
 Bishop of Tours (c. 370) , the famous St. Martin, to whom some 
 160 English churches are dedicated, captained great throngs 
 of monks and other zealots from place to place, annihilating 
 all relics of pagan architecture and art in spite of apparitions 
 of the old gods in hostile demon-shapes. In Alexandria, after 
 bloody fighting between the pagans and Christians, the 
 patriarch, the notorious Theophilus, sacked and demolished 
 the huge temple of Serapis, which was regarded as the chief 
 stronghold of Egyptian paganism — and it is possible that 
 
 1 Many splendid columns from ancient temples and many great works of 
 art. One of the most interesting of these was, and still is, the pedestal of 
 the tripod offered by the Greeks to Delphi after the battle of Flataea (see 
 Ancient Greece, in this series, p. 272). The Athene Parthenos of Fheidias was 
 also taken thither. It was destroyed (1204) by the Latin Crusaders — who 
 proved worse barbarians than the Vandals or Huns had ever done. 
 
 * I quote, once for all, a demurrer for what it is worth : ' The popular 
 notion, which ascribes to the early Church the wanton destruction of ancient 
 monuments ... is very far from being justified. . . . Most of the temples 
 were in use in Rome long after the recognition of Christianity . . . and 
 when they were finally closed they were long kept in repair at the expense of 
 the Christian State.' (I<owrie, Christian Art.) Gregorovius, however, a great 
 authority, speaking of Gregory the Great, gives Christian fanatics the chief 
 guilt. 
 
 68 
 
w 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 < 
 
 to 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 one of the two great Alexandrian libraries perished with the 
 Serapeum. 1 
 
 While speaking of these distant parts of the Empire in 
 which the old gods — Olympian, Oriental, and Northern — were 
 disappearing before the new religion, I may perhaps mention 
 the early Christian Churches of Britain and Ireland. Into 
 Britain Christianity was first introduced by the Romans, but, 
 of course, not by the papal Roman Church. Of this period 
 hardly anything is known, and we have to content ourselves 
 with little more than legends about St. Alban and St. Helena — 
 unless, indeed, one prefers to treat seriously the old fables 
 about Joseph of Arimathea. But it is certain that great 
 Christian communities, mainly monastic, existed in very early 
 days at various centres, of which Avalon (the Saxon Glaston- 
 bury) and Bangor (on the Dee) are the most famous. 2 
 
 Not many years after Stilicho had withdrawn the Roman 
 legions from Britain (c. 405) Christianity was almost extir- 
 pated from the country by the Angles and the Saxons, and 
 the Irish Church was cut off from Christendom for about 
 150 years by a wedge of savage paganism. We shall see later 
 how these Angles and Saxons were converted by the younger 
 St. Augustine (c. 600), the missionary sent by Gregory the 
 Great. The remnants of the ancient British Church held out, 
 it is said, obstinately against the papal supremacy proclaimed 
 by Augustine, professing the jurisdiction of their own Bishop 
 of Avalon (Glastonbury) ; and a sinister tradition accuses 
 the saint (falsely, we may hope, as Augustine died in 604) of 
 having incited the terrible massacre of the monks of Bangor 
 when the Britons were routed by the Saxons near Chester in 
 607. The extraordinary missionary zeal in a somewhat later 
 
 1 Probably neither was the original library of the Ptolemies. One was 
 burnt by the Arabs in 651. 
 
 2 Prom Britain proceeded St. Patrick, to whom the conversion of Ireland 
 is mainly accredited. He was born in North Britain ; captured by Irish pirates ; 
 a slave six years in Ireland ; escaped to Gaul, where he was apparently under 
 St. Martin of Tours ; returned (c. 432) through Britain, probably via Bangor 
 (Iscded) , to Ireland. Note that neither the ancient Irish nor the British Church 
 can be proved to have beenfbundedbythe papal Roman Church. There was 
 probably Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick's dayi 
 
 69 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 age both of the ancient Irish and the younger Anglo-Saxon 
 Church will be described when we reach the days of the later 
 Lombard kings and of Charles the Great. 
 
 That sublime and simple precepts and doctrines should in 
 course of time suffer from gross and grotesque caricature 
 seems due to incorrigible tendencies of human nature, and if 
 in the case of Christianity such results are especially painful 
 and astounding, we must seek whatever consolation we can 
 find in the words — perhaps of Gregory the Great — corruptio 
 optimi pessima, or in Shakespeare's version, ' lilies that fester 
 smell far worse than weeds.' It lies, of course, far beyond 
 my scope to trace in detail the evolution of medieval religion * 
 in Italy, but I shall attempt to point out certain striking 
 religious phenomena which appeared in the period that we 
 are considering and which strongly influenced the course of 
 Italian art and Italian history. 
 
 Of these remarkable phenomena I select two, namely, the 
 superstitious veneration paid to ' relics,' and the almost 
 incredible enthusiasm excited by the ascetic, or anchoret, 
 movement. 
 
 Reverence felt for the relics of what in its day has been 
 great or beautiful is of course an admirable emotion, differing 
 totally from mere antiquarian enthusiasm. But the medieval 
 veneration for so-called sacred relics was founded on, or very 
 closely combined with, a superstitious belief in the miraculous 
 properties of such relics, and involved a fetish-worship quite 
 as gross as that of the older religion. 2 
 
 1 A subject that connects itself with this theme is, of course, the assimilation 
 by the Church of external features of pagan cults and rituals — a matter that 
 will force itself on our attention when we arrive at the unsuccessful attempt 
 to prevent the revival of image-worship. In passing, one may note such 
 revivals of old superstitions as the so-called coat of St. John, shaken out 
 at the door of the tateran Church to bring rain in times of drought — perhaps 
 with the same success that attended the lapis manalis of ancient Rome or 
 that nowadays attends the arts of the African rain-doctor. 
 
 * Even in prehistoric Cretan shrines have been found fetish objects that 
 point towards belief in miraculous cures, such as models of hands, feet, etc. — 
 evidently thank-offerings like those still seen in Roman Catholic churches. 
 In Grecian history we find much of this nature connected with the Orphic 
 and other mysteries. See, too, the stories about the Aeacid idols of Aegina 
 (e.g. Ancient Greece, in this series, p. izi). 
 
 70 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 Doubtless some genuine relics did exist, but the demand 
 became so important that innumerable new discoveries were 
 made, often (as in the case of St. Ambrose already mentioned) 
 aided by dreams and visions ; and the supply that met the 
 demand was enormous. The True Cross, discovered on Cal- 
 vary by Helena, afforded, it is said, enough wood to build 
 a warship— a fact that led to the fabrication of a legend 
 affirming its ' vegetative,' or self-renewing, powers. Astound- 
 ing stories of the miracles effected by bones and hair and 
 drops of blood, and sacred oil, and many other objects, were 
 spread abroad, and increased still more the demand. Every 
 town longed to possess some such treasure. No church was 
 built until some relic * had been secured. 
 
 The origins of the great ascetic movement may be sought 
 in the far East, where the Indian fakir and the Thibetan 
 monk and other such lusus naturae seem to have existed from 
 time immemorial ; or perhaps it is more correct to say that 
 the tendency to such aberrations, which seems to be latent in 
 the Oriental character, generated such results as the Jewish 
 anchorets of the Dead Sea, the Essenes, and the Egyptian 
 Therapeutae, whose monasteries preceded those of the Chris- 
 tians by many years, and that the first movement among the 
 
 1 About 750 (in the pontificates of the brothers Stephen II and Paul I) 
 long lines of wagons, says Gregorovius, used to bring constantly into Rome 
 from the Campagna and the Catacombs immense quantities of skulls and 
 skeletons, which the Popes sorted, labelled, and sold for exportation. It 
 should be noticed, however, that the spoliation of tombs and the breaking 
 up of bodies into smaller relics for exportation and sale to pilgrims had little 
 vogue at Rome till about the eighth century. Early churches were built 
 over the tombs of martyrs, and great care was taken not to disturb the tomb, 
 which was often visible through a lattice in the high altar — the ' window of 
 confession.' Handkerchiefs, etc., placed in contact with the tomb became 
 charged with the miraculous powers of genuine relics. They were called 
 ' brandea ' and used for exportation. 
 
 In the greatest book of the early Christian Church, the De Civitate Dei, 
 St. Augustine asserts that innumerable miracles were effected in Africa by 
 such ' brandea ' from the tomb of St. Stephen, whose body had been dis- 
 covered (by a vision) near Jerusalem. In his own diocese, he affirms, more 
 than seventy miracles took place by such means, including three resurrections 
 from the dead ; also the trade in sacred oil (from the lamps burning before 
 the tombs of saints) was very great. Over seventy little vials {ampullae) of 
 miracle-working oil were secured by Theodelinda for her Monza Cathedral, 
 and some of them are still there. See Fig. 20 and explanation. 
 
 7* 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Christians of Egypt and Syria was, partly at least, due to 
 the influence of Neoplatonic philosophy, the eccentricities of 
 which have been noted. 
 
 About the year in which Constantine the Great assumed 
 the purple (305) a youthful religious enthusiast known as 
 Antony of the Thebais, in Egypt, retired to a solitary life in 
 the desert. His example was soon followed, and ere long 
 many thousands of fanatics, who called themselves desert-men 
 (eremites), or recluses (anchorets), began to people the great 
 sandy and rocky wastes of the Nile country, until it was 
 believed that their number equalled the population of all the 
 towns and cities of Egypt. It is needless to attempt any 
 description of the well-known horrors and insanities of anchoret- 
 ism, and useless to waste astonishment over this monstrous 
 parasitic growth which threatened the very existence of Christ's 
 religion The solitary system in course of time proved almost 
 impossible. The cell of every well-known hermit was sur- 
 rounded by the huts or cells of his adorers ; a ' solitary ' of 
 Gaza, Hilarion, is said to have had a retinue of nearly three 
 thousand ; and ere long an anchoret named Pachomius found 
 it more consonant with the precepts of the Gospel to gather 
 together — perhaps on an island of the Nile — about fourteen 
 hundred of his fellows as ' coenobites ' (dwellers together), 
 whom he formed into a monastic establishment — not, of 
 course, a monastic Order, such as Benedict founded later. 
 Monasteries now became very fashionable, and the fashion 
 spread with great rapidity through the whole of Christendom, 
 from the deserts of Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia x to the wilds 
 of Gaul and Britain, where the life of the solitary desert recluse 
 was rendered by the climate difficult of imitation, and a more 
 humanized form of asceticism took permanent root. 
 
 Antony had gained the friendship of Athanasius (who 
 afterwards wrote his life) , and about the year 340 the Alexan- 
 drian patriarch introduced to the Pope at the Vatican some 
 of Antony's disciples. The strange and savage appearance of 
 
 1 Abyssinian monasteries still obey a ' rule ' said to be very similar to that 
 of Antony or Pachomius. 
 
 72 
 
THEODOSIUS THE CATHOLIC 
 
 these ' Egyptians/ we are told, excited at Rome first horror, 
 then disdain, then enthusiastic imitation. Senators and noble 
 matrons vied with each other in turning their splendid palaces 
 and villas into monasteries, and the Church soon realized that 
 it must adopt and cherish the new movement. In the East 
 S. Basil, himself once a solitary, was a zealous founder of 
 religious houses ; St. Martin of Tours, the exterminator of pagan 
 temples, or perhaps his patron St. Hilary of Poitiers, was the 
 founder of the earliest monasteries in Gaul ; in Britain, as we 
 have seen, there were in the fifth century, if not earlier, great 
 monastic institutions at Avalon and Bangor (Iscoed). 
 
 We have wandered of late rather far from Italy ; but a 
 clear realization of the immense strength of some of these 
 religious currents will allow us perhaps to hold on a better 
 course our piccioletta barca. 
 
 73 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 STILICHO, ALARIC, AND PLACIDIA 
 
 395-450 
 
 WE have seen (p. 9) that Theodosius the Great divided 
 the Empire between his two sons, Arcadius and 
 Honorius, aged respectively eighteen and ten 
 years, and appointed Rufinus and Stilicho as their guardians. 
 The former presided, at Constantinople, over the imperial 
 finances, and acted as guardian of the youth Arcadius, while 
 Stilicho had the child Honorius under his charge and was 
 magister utriusque militias (commandant of both the cavalry 
 and the infantry), having his headquarters at Rome. 1 The 
 odium incurred by the extortion of taxes on the one hand 
 and, on the other, the advantages possessed by a popular 
 commander of the imperial army soon brought it about that 
 the rivalry of the two regents should end in the extinction 
 of Rufinus, whose murder by Stilicho's Gothic troops has 
 been related. 
 
 In this chapter, after giving a few details about Stilicho and 
 his remarkable career (395-408), I shall relate some of the 
 many picturesque incidents connected with the invasion of 
 Alaric and the fortunes of Galla Placidia, trusting that the 
 framework of facts given in the Historical Outline will help 
 to keep all in a fairly lucid order. 
 
 It will be remembered that great multitudes of Visigoths 
 had been allowed to settle south of the Danube, and we have 
 heard several times of their supplying very large contingents 
 to the imperial armies. The Gothic soldier who murdered 
 
 1 The two halves of the Empire were not yet distinctly separate. See CoJtt 
 Plate 1, 10, where the two Emperors sit side by side. 
 
 74 
 
STILICHO, ALAR1C, & PLACIDIA 
 
 Rufinus in the presence of the Emperor Arcadius, at a review 
 near Constantinople, had exclaimed as he stabbed his victim : 
 ' With this sword Stilicho smites thee ' — words fraught with 
 significance, for it was Gothic swords which were now to 
 decide the fate of the Empire. Ere long these Gothic troops, 
 whose captain, Gainas, was devoted to Stilicho, became 
 dominant at Constantinople; but finally a serious tumult 
 having been caused, incited partly by St. Chrysostom, the 
 patriarch, who was naturally hostile to these insolent Arian 
 barbarians, they were driven from the city. Gainas was killed 
 by the Huns while trying to cross the Danube, but his men 
 rejoined their fellows, the Visigoths of Thrace and Moesia. 
 
 These Visigoths were now beginning to prove very trouble- 
 some. For the last five years (since about 395) they had been 
 under the rule of Alaric, of whom we have already heard at the 
 battle on the Frigidus, where, as a young man, he fought for 
 Theodosius against Arbogast. Alaric's restless and dangerous 
 hordes the crafty Rufinus had tried, it is said, to incite against 
 Stilicho and the Western Empire, in order to avert the peril 
 from the Eastern capital. Stilicho too (himself a Vandal) had 
 used them against Rufinus; but he had then opposed and 
 defeated Alaric in the Peloponnese when he invaded Greece. 1 
 
 Excited and incensed by such unwise treatment, the Visigoths 
 determined to move once more southwards and now decided on 
 the invasion of Italy as being likely to prove the most easy and 
 profitable undertaking. What the real object of Alaric was, 
 one cannot say. He, as afterwards Odovacar and Theoderic, 
 had a superstitious reverence for the Empire, and probably 
 the idea of seizing the imperial power never entered his imagina- 
 tion. The chief task imposed upon him was evidently that of 
 providing a new home for the excited multitudes who looked 
 to him for guidance, and who doubtless fiercely demanded 
 plunder. Also, if we are to trust a tradition handed down 
 by the poet Claudian, Alaric was urged Rome-wards by a voice 
 which constantly promised him that he should some day 
 
 1 In this invasion Alaric took, but did not pillage, Athens, though he 
 probably burnt the celebrated temple at Eleusis. ■ 
 
 75 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 reach the Eternal City : Penetrabis ad Urbem ! At first, how- 
 ever, he met once more his master in Stilicho. 
 
 After defeating Alaric in Greece (396) Stilicho had further 
 distinguished himself by crushing a rebellion in Africa which 
 had been incited by a Moorish chieftain, Gildo. He himself, 
 though a Vandal, was married to the niece and adopted 
 daughter x of the great Theodosius, the Spanish lady Serena, 
 whose beauty and virtues are extolled in a poem by Claudian 
 About 399 their daughter Maria was wedded to her half -idiotic 
 and cold-blooded cousin, the Emperor Honorius, and Stilicho 
 thus became still more powerful. 2 
 
 His splendid defence of Italy against the Visigoths under 
 Alaric and against the vast horde of Rhaetian barbarians 
 under the savage Woden-worshipper Radegast, whom he cap- 
 tured and slew at Eiesole, has been already briefly described 
 (pp. 10, 32) . Here I shall note one or two occurrences which are 
 of importance from a higher point of view than that of the 
 chronicler of wars and politics. 
 
 When Stilicho and Honorius entered Rome in triumph in 
 404, after the defeats of the Goths near Turin and Verona, a 
 great gladiatorial show was given in the Colosseum — f or even 
 yet, a century after the Peace of the Church, in spite of the 
 protests of nobler natures (such as the poet Prudentius), and 
 in spite of several partial prohibitions by some of the Emperors, 
 such atrocities were still frenetically applauded in the city 
 that claimed to be the centre of the Christian world, although 
 in Constantinople they had been abolished, or had never been 
 known, 3 and although Theodosius the Catholic had already 
 
 1 See geneal. table p. 20 ' An old inscription gives Stilicho the singular 
 title of pro-gener D. Theodosii.' (Gibbon.) Singular enough ; for progener 
 means one's granddaughter's husband. Gibbon writes (xxix) as if Serena 
 were wedded to Stilicho when she was a ' princess ' at Constantinople, viz. 
 after 395. If so, Maria married Honorius when she was about four years of 
 age — rather too young perhaps, though he was only fourteen. 
 
 ' Note that also Rufinus in Constantinople had tried to marry his daughter 
 to his ward, Arcadius, but had been outwitted by the eunuch officials, who 
 substituted the daughter of a Frank general, Eudoxia, afterwards the,' Jezebel ' 
 denounced by St. Chrysostom. 
 
 3 Constantine- the Great in the same year as that of the Council of Nice 
 issued an edict disapproving of these spectacles in ' time of peace.' Even 
 
 j6 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 (in 394) suppressed even such innocent pagan amusements as 
 the Olympian games. 
 
 If we may trust the writer Theodoret, this gladiatorial show 
 was the last which ever took place in the Empire. A monk 
 from the East had travelled all the way to Rome for the 
 purpose of protesting by some act of daring against these 
 brutal exhibitions, and beneath the tiger-gaze of the many 
 thousands of excited spectators who, tier upon tier, fill the 
 vast spaces of the Colosseum he rushes across the arena and 
 parts the combatants. With a roar of indignation the whole 
 amphitheatre demands his death — and he sinks overwhelmed 
 by a tempest of missiles. But his prayer is granted. His 
 splendid act of courage has so deeply impressed the spectators 
 that their fury gives place to admiration and to veneration ; 
 and Honorius, it is said, issued a proclamation abolishing for 
 ever these human combats. 1 The monk, Telemachus, has 
 been sainted, but certainly he has not received due recognition 
 in art or otherwise. Perhaps this is because the story is a 
 little doubtful — although by no means so doubtful as that of 
 many a popular saint — or else because he only died for 
 humanity, not for a theological dogma. 
 
 The campaigns of Stilicho are the theme of Claudian's 
 ' servile muse,' as it is perhaps rather unjustly called by 
 Gibbon. Claudian wrote both in Greek (being a native of 
 Alexandria) and in Latin, but except for a few Greek epigrams 
 his fame 2 rests on his Latin poems, especially on the fine 
 poem in Latin hexameters describing the Gothic War, called 
 
 this is a proof of a vast change in his sentiments, for before his adoption of 
 Christianity he had in the arena at Treves (Trier) exhibited so many of his 
 barbarian captives that they ' tired out by their multitude the ravening wild 
 beasts.' Cicero tells us that even in his days such shows seemed ' cruel and 
 inhuman to some people ' ; but he defends them (Tusc. ii, 12), as many 
 nowadays defend war, as a fine discipline and school of manly virtue. 
 
 1 Fights between wild beasts still continued, but seem to have been sup- 
 pressed by the ' barbarian ' Theoderic and other Gothic, Lombard, and Frank 
 conquerors, who substituted tournaments. In the East they were forbidden 
 by a Council about 700. Bull-fights are one of the most revolting and con- 
 temptible relics of such savagery. 
 
 a He also wrote the Praise of Serena, The War against Gildo, various political 
 poems and many epigrams, and the hymeneal hymn for Honorius and Maria. 
 
 77 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 by him the Getic War ; for, as we shall see was also the case 
 with the later writers Cassiodorus and Jordanes, the Goths 
 were falsely believed to be identical with the ' Getae,' who 
 were Thracians or Dacians of classical times. Claudian's 
 poetry reminds one of the splendid colouring of the later 
 Venetian painters, or of Rubens. It is to a great extent free 
 from the turgidity and extravagance of I^ucan, with whose 
 Pharsalia we are naturally inclined to compare the Getic War, 
 and if we consider that Latin was not Claudian's mother- 
 tongue — for he tells us himself that he first ' drank of Roman 
 fountains,' and first wrote Roman verse, in 395 — we cannot 
 but be astonished at the wonderful ease and vigour of his 
 style and at the occasional soarings of the imagination which 
 lift him for the moment almost to the side of Virgil and 
 I/Ucretius. 
 
 A most interesting episode in the campaigns of Stilicho is 
 his relief of Florence when it was besieged by Radegast and 
 his motley host of barbarians in 405, for it is perhaps the 
 earliest important event of which we have any full account 
 connected with medieval Florence — if we can regard Florence 
 of the year 405 as already medieval. 
 
 Florence was probably first founded by the Etruscans of 
 Faesulae (Fiesole), relics of whose huge walls still exist. In 
 later classical times it was a Roman military colony of some 
 importance, and was perhaps refounded, or expanded and 
 re-fortified, by Julius Caesar. When this scene took place at 
 the beginning of the fifth century it seems to have been four- 
 square, like most Roman castra, and to have possessed a 
 citadel, forum, amphitheatre, and temples — one of which was 
 dedicated to the three divinities, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, 
 and another to Mars, 1 the tutelary deity of the city — this last 
 building being perhaps the original edifice of what later was 
 Dante's bel San Giovanni and now is the Baptistery. As this 
 siege is mentioned neither by Machiavelli nor in ordinary 
 
 1 See Dante, In,, xiii, 143, and Par. xvi, 47. And for the old statue of 
 Mars, famous for its connexion with the great Florentine feud, and known by 
 all who know the Ponte Vecchio see Par. xvi, 145. 
 
 78 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 accounts of Florence, it may be well to give here what Gibbon 
 says : * The siege of Florence by Radagaisus [Radegast] is one 
 of the earliest events in the history of the celebrated republic. 
 . . . Florence was reduced to the last extremity, and the 
 fainting courage of the citizens was supported only by the 
 authority of St. Ambrose [who had died some eight years before 
 and] who communicated in a dream the promise of a speedy 
 deliverance. On a sudden they beheld from their walls the 
 banners of Stilicho, who advanced to the relief of the faithful 
 city' — and ere long enclosed and besieged the besieging 
 barbarian host, encamped on the ' dry and stony ridge ' of 
 Faesulae, as it is called by Orosius. 1 ' The method of sur- 
 rounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, 
 which Stilicho had twice employed against the Gothic king, 
 was repeated on a larger scale . . . and the imprisoned 
 multitude of horses and men was gradually destroyed by 
 famine rather than by the sword. ... A supply of men and 
 provisions was introduced into the walls of Florence and the 
 famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The 
 proud monarch of so many warlike nations was reduced to 
 confide either in the faith of a capitulation or in the clemency 
 of Stilicho. But the death of the chieftain, who was igno- 
 miniously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and of 
 Christianity. The famished Germans were sold as slaves. . . . 
 Stilicho informed the Senate and the Emperor of his success 
 and deserved a second time the glorious title of Deliverer of 
 Italy.' 
 
 The reasons that led to the fall and death of Stilicho were 
 manifold. For several years his enemies had spread the 
 accusation that after defeating Alaric he had favoured his 
 escape, both in Greece and also in Italy, and had even agreed 
 to acknowledge him as the governor of the prefecture of 
 Illyricum ; and the charge, which was possibly true, was 
 
 i The Spaniard Orosius (author of seven hooks of history in defence of 
 Christianity) and his friend St. Augustine wrote, when they were together in 
 Africa, an account of this siege. See De Civitate Dei, v, 23. Dante alludes 
 to Orosius probably when he speaks of ' him from whose latin Augustine 
 drew supplies ' {Par. x, 120). 
 
 79 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 rendered all the more difficult to repel since he himself was a 
 barbarian by birth, and as such was suspected and disliked by 
 the Roman part of the army, as also by both the nobles and 
 the commons of Rome. Honorius, too, ere long began to 
 suspect him, and, being childless himself, was the more ready 
 to listen to the rumour that the all-powerful general- hoped to 
 place his son Bucherius — who claimed blood-relationship with 
 the great Theodosius — on the throne of the Western or the 
 Eastern Empire. 1 Another charge was founded on the un- 
 deniable, though perhaps necessary, withdrawal of imperial 
 troops from Britain and Gaul, in consequence of which the 
 Rhine had been crossed by great hordes of savages, and 
 amidst the panic and disorder a dangerous ' tyrant/ Constan- 
 tine, had arisen in Britain and made himself master of Gaul 
 and Spain. 
 
 All these accusations were fomented by a rival of Stilicho's, 
 an officer of the imperial guard named Olympius, who stirred 
 up serious revolt among the troops stationed at Pavia. The 
 city was sacked, the friends of Stilicho were massacred, and 
 Honorius, who was present, made no effort to save them. 
 When Stilicho, who was at Bologna, learnt this he hastily 
 withdrew to Ravenna and sought sanctuary in a church- 
 evidently, I think, the cathedral, the Basilica Ursiana, 2 the 
 ancient campanile of which is still standing. A troop of 
 soldiers — sent by Olympius, or perhaps by Honorius himself — 
 soon appeared at the door of the church. The bishop was 
 induced by false promises to urge Stilicho to surrender him- 
 self. But no sooner had Stilicho crossed the threshold than 
 he was arrested, and, after restraining those of his friends 
 who were eager to attempt a hopeless rescue, he offered his 
 neck to the swords of his assassins. In the basilica of 
 
 1 Arcadius, the Eastern Emperor, died May i, 408, and Stilicho on August 
 23. Rumour said that Stilicho had planned to proclaim Eucherius in the 
 place of Arcadius' son, Theodosius II. Note that Maria had died and that 
 Stilicho had managed to marry his second daughter, Thermantia, to Honorius. 
 
 * Built by Bishop Ursus before 396 ; demolished c. 1734 to make room for 
 the present Duomo. The old campanile is probably Ursian. Close to the 
 campanile stands the famous Baptistery of the Orthodox, which in Stilicho's 
 day was probably still a Roman bath. See Fig. 10 and explanation. 
 
 80 
 

 o 
 o 
 « 
 
 pq 
 < 
 
 CM 
 
 i-r 
 P 
 
 ^ 
 
STILICHO, ALAkic, & PLACIDIA 
 
 S. Ambrogio in Milan there is, beneath the old Romanesque 
 pulpit, a sarcophagus which for many centuries has gone by 
 the name of the tomb of Stilicho — but modern antiquarians 
 tell us that it dates from the sixth century (see Fig. 6). 
 
 The death of Stilicho was followed by a murderous per- 
 secution of his adherents. His son Eucherius attempted to 
 escape, but was caught and killed. Thermantia was divorced. 
 Serena, being the cousin of Honorius, was granted reprieve, 
 but her fate was not long delayed, as we shall see. Claudian, 
 like Milton at the Restoration, was for a time in hiding and 
 indited pitiable (if they are not ironical) recantations of his 
 former scathing political epigrams. We hear no more of him. 
 His fate is unknown. 
 
 Honorius very soon discovered that by his murder of 
 Stilicho he had, as it were, cut off his own right hand. Sur- 
 rounded by his incapable and trembling satellites, he shut 
 himself up in Ravenna, the marshes and haven of which city 
 so often in the days of barbarian invasion offered a secure 
 defence landwards and an easy escape seawards. Here the 
 half-witted and malicious youth, now twenty-three years of 
 age, but wholly stunted in mind and devoid of natural affec- 
 tions, occupied himself with his poultry-yard while Alaric was 
 beleaguering Rome. When the Visigoth king sent envoys, the 
 Pope among them, to propose peace on the quite reasonable 
 condition that Noricum (Carinthia, Styria, etc.) should be 
 handed over to the Visigoths, he repelled them with fretful 
 disdain ; and when the news was brought that Rome had been 
 taken by Alaric he is said to have exclaimed : ' Impossible ! 
 Why, only quite a short time ago I was feeding it with my 
 own hands ' — for to him the only ' Rome ' of any importance 
 was one of his hens, to which he had given that name. 
 
 A tragic event that happened when Alaric first besieged 
 Rome was the murder by the Romans of Serena, widow of 
 Stilicho and cousin and mother-in-law (twice over) of Honorius. 
 She was accused, as her husband had been, of favouring 
 Alaric. Rumour attributed her death to the influence or 
 information of her cousin, the still youthful princess, Galla 
 
 f 81 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Placidia ; but there are many reasons for believing that 
 rumour lied. 
 
 When Honorius rejected the proposals of Alaric * and the 
 siege of Rome was renewed (409) the sufferings of the people 
 were terrible. The accounts make one recall the sieges of 
 Jerusalem and Numantia as related in the pages of Josephus 
 and I/ivy, or the not less harrowing scenes from the Ostro- 
 gothic war which we shall find later depicted by Procopius. 
 Men and women were murdered secretly and devoured ; even 
 mothers killed and ate their children. Driven at last to 
 despair, the Romans threatened to sally forth en masse and 
 overwhelm their besiegers ; but Alaric, hearing of this, 
 laughed aloud, it is said, and exclaimed ; ' The thicker the 
 crop, the easier it is to mow.' And when, feeling the truth 
 of the sarcasm, they wished to learn the terms of the victor, 
 he demanded all the gold and silver and movables of value 
 and all the foreign slaves in the city. ' What then will you 
 leave us, O king ? ' exclaimed the envoys. ' Your lives,' was 
 the answer. But Alaric's bark was worse than his bite. He 
 accepted a more reasonable Brandschatz, and for a time there 
 was truce. 
 
 In the intervals between his three sieges of Rome Alaric 
 exercised no little influence on the political state of the city. 
 His demands for enormous sums of money had caused 
 great spoliation of temples and other ancient treasures, so 
 that the animosity of the still very numerous pagans 2 against 
 the Christians was greatly embittered. Taking advantage of 
 this religious feud and that of the Arians against the Catholics, 
 
 1 Some of these incidents are referred sometimes to the first siege. For 
 Rome and its people at this epoch see Gibbon's picturesque descriptions 
 (ch. xxxi) or Gregorovius' great work on Rome in the Middle Ages. The 
 population may have been about two millions, and the exodus at this time 
 was enormous. St. Jerome tells us that all the East was filled with fugitives 
 from Rome. 
 
 * Rome seems to have appealed largely to the old gods to help her against 
 the Christian (Arian) barbarian Alaric. See p. 25. Zosimus, the ' malignant 
 pagan historian ' of whom we have already heard, asserts that even the Pope 
 was in favour of permitting Etruscan magicians to try their arts by which 
 they undertook to draw down lightning from heaven (like Numa) and direct 
 it against the barbarians — an anticipation perhaps of artillery. 
 82 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 and finding himself, as master of the port of Ostia, able to 
 dictate terms to the terrified Romans, Alaric even succeeded 
 in procuring the election of the Prefect of Rome, Attalus by 
 name, as a rival Emperor. Amidst tumultuous excitement of 
 the Roman populace Gothic troops were allowed to enter the 
 city and conduct the new Emperor to the imperial residence 
 on the Palatine. All Italy except Ravenna and Bologna 
 seemed to acclaim its new master. Alaric accompanied him 
 almost to the gates of Ravenna, and Honorius offered to 
 divide the "Western Empire with his rival — an offer that 
 Attalus disdainfully rejected, offering in return to allow 
 Honorius to spend the rest of his days in exile on some remote 
 island. But the goddess of fortune interfered. Auxiliaries 
 from Africa arrived at the port of Ravenna, and Alaric suddenly 
 withdrew his favour from Attalus and stripped him on the 
 plain of Rimini, before the whole army, of the imperial insignia, 1 
 which he sent to Honorius, offering again terms of peace. 
 Honorius and his ministers, however, once more refused to 
 entertain Alaric's overtures, and the Gothic king returned to 
 Rome, determined to revenge the insult by allowing his army 
 to sack the city. 
 
 But when at last, in 410, Alaric and his Visigoths entered Rome 
 — the Porta Salaria having been opened, it is said, by traitors 
 or slaves — he is said to have remained in the city only a few 
 days, and he showed far more clemency and magnanimity than 
 one might have expected. The Christian churches, such as 
 the old Vatican basilica of S. Pietro and the splendid, newly 
 built basilica of S. Paolo, were respected by him, as also was 
 the right of sanctuary. Doubtless the bloodshed and pillage 
 were considerable, and many citizens were enslaved ; but the 
 damage done by these barbarians to buildings and works of 
 art was incomparably less than that accomplished in Con- 
 stantinople by the French and Venetian ' Crusaders ' in 1204, 
 or in Rome itself by the Spanish Catholics and German 
 I/Utherans of Constable Bourbon in 1527. 
 
 The story of the death and burial of Alaric is well known, 
 
 1 For the later rather melodramatic fortunes of Attalus see p. 86 and n. 
 
 83 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 but why he so suddenly withdrew from Rome — what was 
 his object in hastening to the southernmost shores of Italy — 
 what plans of further conquest induced him to collect vessels 
 — whether it was Sicily or Africa that he had in view, and 
 where he hoped to find that home for his Visigoths which he 
 was for ever seeking, and which they ultimately found in 
 Gaul — are questions impossible to answer with any certainty. 
 According to Gibbon, his attempt to transport a part of the 
 army across the Strait of Messina was foiled by a tempest, and 
 his designs, whatever they may have been, were frustrated by 
 his sudden death. ' The ferocious character of the barbarians,' 
 Gibbon adds, ' was displayed in the funeral of the hero. By 
 the labour of a captive multitude they forcibly diverted the 
 course of the Busentinus [Busento], a small river that washes 
 the walls of Consentia [Cosenza, in Calabria]. The royal 
 sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of 
 Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed ; the waters were 
 then restored to their natural channel, and the secret spot * 
 where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was for ever 
 concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had 
 been employed to execute the work.' 
 
 Athaulf , or Adolf, the brother of Alaric's wife, took command 
 of the Visigoth army. Of the motives that caused him to 
 desist from hostility against Honorius and Italy a very interest- 
 ing picture is given us by St. Augustine's friend, the historian 
 Orosius, who when on a visit to St. Jerome in Palestine met 
 a pilgrim from Narbonne who had been a companion in arms of 
 the barbarian chief. At first, we are told, Athaulf had intended 
 to make himself Augustus and to set up a ' Gothia ' — a Gothic 
 Empire — in the place of the ' Romania.' But he had become 
 convinced that so wild and intractable were the Goths that 
 they could hope for no permanent state except one founded 
 on the laws and subordinate to the constitution of the Roman 
 Empire. He seems to have had no hope, such as Theoderic 
 afterwards vainly attempted to realize, that a new nation and 
 
 1 Tradition locates it at the junction of the Busento with the main stream 
 of the Crati (famous as the river of ancient Sybaris). 
 8 4 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 new constitution might be built up out of barbarian and 
 Roman elements. Possibly also personal motives induced 
 him to adopt a Roman policy, for he had fallen in love with 
 one of his Roman captives — the half-sister of Honorius, the 
 youthful Galla Placidia, who- — matre pulchrd filia pulchrior — - 
 had inherited her beauty from her mother Galla and from her 
 grandmother Justina. 1 Honorius would not consent to the 
 union of an imperial princess with a barbarian, but being at 
 the time hard pressed by the ' tyrant ' Constantine, of whom 
 we have heard, and a usurper named (once more) Maximus, who 
 had mastered Spain, he was glad to rid Italy of the Visigoths. 
 Athaulf and his army were therefore able to pass unimpeded 
 through the whole length of the peninsula and to enter Gaul, 
 under the condition that they should help to reconquer the 
 western provinces for Honorius. Meantime, although Maxi- 
 mus had been crushed and Constantine had been captured at 
 Aries and sent to Ravenna by a valiant general of Honorius 
 named Constantius, a third usurper had sprung up. He was 
 attacked and slain by Athaulf and his head was sent to 
 Honorius, who forwarded it to Carthage in order to demonstrate 
 to that somewhat disloyal city what fate was to be expected 
 by rebels. But in spite of such gruesome presents Honorius 
 still refused to sanction the marriage, and offered to send a 
 very large quantity of grain to the Visigoths, who were in 
 great need of food, if Athaulf would renounce the fair Placidia. 
 This offer, however, fell through, so Athaulf determined to take 
 a bold step. He made himself master of the cities of Narbonne, 
 Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and even tried to capture Marseille 
 from the imperial troops, commanded by Boniface — of whom 
 we shall hear much a little later. Then he celebrated his 
 wedding with his by no means reluctant lady-love at Nar- 
 bonne. 2 ' The marriage,' says Villari, ' was solemnized with 
 
 1 Jordanes extols her beauty ; but Gibbon remarks on the ' expressive 
 silence of her flatterers.' Her coins give little information that can be relied 
 upon (see Plate I, coin n). 
 
 ! Jordanes, who gives a graphic description of the marriage in his History 
 of the Goths, makes it take place at Porli (or at Imola), in Italy. But that 
 may have been the betrothal, for the chief ceremony seems to have been 
 
 8 S 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 genuine Roman pomp and ceremony. . . . The barbarian 
 Athaulf wore a Roman tunic. Before the bride, who was 
 decked out in splendid Roman attire, knelt fifty youths,, each 
 of whom held two golden basins, one filled with pieces of gold, 
 the other with jewels and other precious things — spoils from 
 the sack of Rome. And to add solemnity to the ceremo- 
 nial I/atin verses were recited — the impressive 1 effect being 
 heightened by the fact that this hymeneal song was declaimed 
 by Attalus, the mock-Emperor, whom Alaric had elected and 
 soon afterwards deposed.' 
 
 Not long after the wedding, which took place in January 
 414, Athaulf led strong bodies of his Visigoths across the 
 Pyrenees, thus invading the territory of the Vandals, Suevi, 
 and Alani, who (as we saw in ch. ii.) had occupied the 
 greater part of Spain and had by their devastations caused 
 most terrible famines, accompanied by outbreaks of pestilence. 
 At Barcelona Athaulf was assassinated. His successor — 
 possibly his murderer — Singeric, who detested the Roman 
 name, treated Galla Placidia with contumely, making her 
 march on foot in a gang of captives ; and he is said to have 
 slaughtered the children born to Athaulf by a former wife. 
 But after a reign of seven days he too was assassinated, and 
 his successor, the bold and energetic Wallia, made terms with 
 Honorius, undertaking to conquer the whole of Spain for 
 the Empire — a promise that he fulfilled before repassing the 
 Pyrenees and founding (c. 420) the great Visigothic kingdom 
 of which the capital and royal residence was Tolosa (Toulouse). 
 
 But we must return to Placidia, whose fortunes will take 
 
 us back to Italy. The compact of Wallia with Honorius 
 
 (c. 416) included the ransom of the imperial princess, whom 
 
 Athaulf's death had left as a widow of about twenty-nine 
 
 at Narbonne, in South-west Gaul, where later the Pranks captured a vast 
 Gothic treasure, evidently partly ' spoils from the sack of Rome.' 
 
 1 One feels inclined here to substitute the word ' ludicrous.' It may be 
 better to get poor Attalus off the stage in a footnote. Either he was sent 
 back by Athaulf or else, while attempting to escape, he was caught at sea 
 by the fleet of Honorius, who exposed him in triumph lying bound in a cart, 
 then cut off two of his right-hand fingers and sent him to one of the I,ipari 
 islands. 
 
 86 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 years of age. Once more Honorius offered a large quantity 
 of wheat for his sister ; or perhaps the famine in Spain caused 
 Wallia to suggest this welcome form of payment. Six hundred 
 thousand measures were considered a fair equivalent, and 
 Galla Placidia returned to Ravenna. Here she found that 
 Honorius and his ministers had formed the plan of marrying 
 her to the general Constantius, whose exploits in Gaul were 
 lately mentioned. He was a rough soldier, evidently without 
 the natural refinement of the barbarian Athaulf, and the 
 princess seems to have accepted him with great reluctance. 
 But the marriage proved not unhappy. Constantius was 
 raised to the Augustan dignity as the colleague of Honorius. 
 Two children were born — Honoria and Valentinian — the one 
 afterwards famous for her romantic connexions with Attila, 
 the other the future Emperor Valentinian III. But in 421 
 Constantius died, and not long afterwards Galla Placidia 
 found the Ravenna court intolerable on account of the follies 
 of the weak-minded Honorius, and perhaps also because of his 
 hostility to the Eastern Empire. So she went to Constantinople, 
 taking her children with her. 
 
 At Constantinople was now reigning Theodosius II, who 
 in 408 (two years before the sack of Rome by Alaric) had 
 succeeded his father Arcadius, the brother of Honorius. 
 Theodosius had come to the throne when he was a child 
 of seven. He was now of age, but the regency had been 
 entrusted to his sister Pulcheria, and she, as has been 
 related in the Historical Outline, being a clever and strong 
 character, remained the real ruler of the Eastern Empire 
 during all his reign and still longer. 
 
 The Augusta of the West with her two infants was well 
 received by her niece and nephew, Pulcheria and the young 
 Theodosius, although it seems that they did not feel willing 
 to acknowledge her title, as neither the barbarian Athaulf 
 nor the rather rough-mannered soldier Constantius had been 
 approved of by the Byzantine court as a fit consort for a 
 member of the great Theodosian family. When therefore 
 some months later the news arrived that Honorius had died 
 
 87 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 at Ravenna, and that an usurper (John) was being supported 
 by the powerful influence and the Hunnish mercenaries of 
 Aetius, one of the chief generals of the army of the West, 
 while the other, Boniface — who was in Africa — favoured the 
 succession of the child of Placidia, it was but natural that 
 Pulcheria and Theodosius, though they sent troops to suppress 
 the usurper and thus openly declared for Placidia and Valen- 
 tinian, should for the time regard themselves as the sole 
 rulers of the reunited Roman Empire. But soon came the 
 news that John, the usurper, had been captured and beheaded 
 at Aquileia. Theodosius when he heard it was attending an 
 exhibition in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. He at once 
 stopped the horse-races and, ' singing, as he marched through 
 the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted the people from the 
 Hippodrome to the Church, where he spent the rest of the 
 day in grateful devotion.' Whether he was guided, as Gibbon 
 insinuates, by mere indolence, or by the wisdom and generous 
 motives of Pulcheria, it is pleasant to be able to record that 
 Theodosius did not take advantage of his position, but pro- 
 claimed the little Valentinian, now a child of six years, as the 
 Emperor of the West under the regency of his mother. 
 
 Valentinian III reigned for thirty years (425-55). The 
 chief events of his inglorious reign have been already briefly 
 narrated in chronological order, as far as order is possible with 
 so many diverse threads. During these thirty years scarcely 
 one incident occurred that redounds to his credit, and perhaps 
 only one act of his — the murder of Aetius — was of any his- 
 torical consequence. But great and momentous occurrences 
 took place. Of these I select for further description in the 
 next two chapters the meteoric career of Attila (445-52), and 
 the conquest of North Africa, Sicily, and Rome (455) by 
 Gaiseric. In the rest of this chapter I shall follow rapidly the 
 fortunes of Galla Placidia until her death in 450. 
 
 During just half of her son's reign Galla Placidia held the 
 regency. When he came of age in 440 she seems to have 
 continued to exercise influence, though she withdrew from 
 the actual administration of the State, She lived mostly at 
 88 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 Ravenna, probably paying not infrequent visits to Rome; 
 and during one of these visits she died. 
 
 Aetius and Boniface, the two chief generals of the army of 
 the West, were equally distinguished for their skill in war and 
 their manly virtues — qualities that have won them the title 
 of ' the last of the Romans.' We have seen (p. 12) how 
 Aetius favoured the usurper John of Ravenna, and even 
 brought an army of 60,000 Huns to support him, and how, 
 strangely enough, when he changed sides and dismissed his 
 Huns he was received by Galla Placidia with open arms and 
 became her chief adviser and the commander of her home 
 army, while his rival, Boniface, who had from the first declared 
 for Placidia and Valentinian, was so unjustly treated by her 
 that he invited Gaiseric and his Vandals to cross over from 
 Spain and make themselves masters of the African diocese. 
 It will be remembered also that, when the Vandals came and 
 Boniface, repenting too late, found it impossible to stem the 
 terrific flood of barbarian invasion, he returned to Ravenna 
 and fought a duel there with Aetius, who had hastened back 
 from Gaul to meet him. He seems to have vanquished 
 Aetius in this duel ; but he was wounded, and died shortly 
 afterwards (432) of the wound. 1 
 
 Placidia, it is said, proclaimed Aetius a rebel, and he with- 
 drew for a time to the camp of Rugilas, the king of the Huns 
 in Pannonia. According to the accounts followed by Gibbon, 
 he again appeared before Ravenna with a great army of 
 Hunnish warriors, and Placidia was forced to ' deliver herself, 
 her son Valentinian, and the Western Empire into the hands 
 of an insolent subject ' ; but according to other writers, Aetius, 
 being the only capable commander, was again voluntarily 
 accepted by the somewhat mutable Placidia as her magister 
 equitum peditumque. However that may be, he seems to have 
 1 A curious and somewhat legendary detail is recounted : that the dying 
 Boniface urged his wife to marry Aetius. Possibly some love-affair may 
 have lain in the background of their quarrels. But Professor Bury, following 
 Freeman, asserts that this duel is a legend and that the real fact was civil 
 war and a battle at Rimini, where Aetius ' was defeated . . . but proved 
 superior in strategy ' and appropriated the wife of Boniface, who had died of 
 chagrin I This seems to he making confusion worse confounded. 
 
 89 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 received the titles of Duke and Patrician and to have been for 
 over twenty years (432-54) the real ruler of the Western 
 Empire — or rather of what remained of the Western Empire, 
 for Britain had been abandoned, Southern Gaul formed the 
 independent kingdom of the Visigoths, who also were prac- 
 tically masters of most of Spain, while North Africa and Sicily 
 were in the power of Gaiseric, the Vandal. 
 
 It was during these years that Aetius accepted the help of the 
 Huns, commanded by Attila, against the Burgundians. It may 
 seem somewhat surprising that the supreme commander of the 
 Western Empire should have deigned to ask for aid from a 
 savage pagan folk so abhorred both by the Romans and by 
 all the German races, but Aetius, as we have seen, was a 
 personal friend of several Hunnish kings, and his son, Carpilio, 
 was partly brought up in the camp of the Huns. The Bur- 
 gundians, moreover, had been giving Aetius much trouble. 
 They came (c. 350) from the region of the Elbe, and, after 
 joining in Radegast's unsuccessful invasion of Italy (405), had 
 made Worms, on the Rhine, their chief town in 437* Aetius 
 is said to have routed and cut them to pieces, with the help 
 of Attila's Huns, killing 20,000, among whom was their king 
 Gundikar, and forcing the survivors to settle in the region to 
 the west of Switzerland — the later dukedom of Boufgogne. 
 This massacre is doubtless the historical fact that inspired the 
 finely dramatic but gruesome story of the ' End of the Nibe- 
 lungen,' told in the Nibelungenlied — of which we shall hear more 
 later. In passing we may here observe that the poet has 
 transferred the scene of the massacre from Burgundy and the 
 Rhine to the banquet-hall of Attila's palace, Etzelnburg, on the 
 Danube, and has wrongly introduced the great Ostrogoth king 
 Theoderic of Verona (' Dietrich von Bern '), who was not born 
 till after Attila's death, in the place of another Theoderic, a 
 Visigoth king, who probably on this occasion helped Aetius 
 to vanquish the Burgundians. The splendid and momentous 
 victory gained by Aetius over his old friend Attila some four- 
 teen years later will be described in the next chapter. 
 
 A year before this battle on the Catalaunian plains, where 
 90 
 
a 
 
 u 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 [/) 
 
 & 
 
STILICHO, ALARIC, & PLACIDIA 
 
 Attila's course of conquest was checked, Galla Placidia died. 
 She had built for herself at Ravenna a mausoleum, and her 
 body was carried thither from Rome. The mausoleum still 
 exists and is one of the most perfect architectural and artistic 
 survivals of this age to be found in Italy. It is a small cruci- 
 form building. The domed interior is richly decorated with 
 resplendent mosaics and golden stars on a dark blue ground — 
 reminding one, as Ricci says, in its diminutive size and form 
 and flashing colours of a humming-bird with outspread wings. 
 There are three great marble sarcophagi, nameless and empty, 
 except for a few crumbling bones (Fig. 7 and explanation). 
 These are believed to be the tombs of Placidia, of Constan- 
 tius III, her husband, and of Valentinian III, her son. That of 
 Placidia was evidently adorned with precious stones and covered 
 in front with silver (or golden ?) plates, like the splendid pala 
 of the high altar in St. Mark's at Venice ; but Benedictine 
 monks, robbing graves to build monasteries, competed with 
 Lombard barbarians in plundering the mausoleum. Tradition 
 asserted x that the body of the Empress was placed in the 
 sarcophagus clothed in her imperial robes and seated on a 
 throne ; and tradition seems to have been right, for in the 
 fourteenth century a hole was made, perhaps by wrenching 
 away some of the remaining metal-work, and through this 
 hole could be seen a mummy richly dressed and sitting on 
 a chair of cypress-wood — either Galla Placidia herself or 
 a figure placed there by the ecclesiastical authorities, who 
 were ever eager to obtain or fabricate relics. In 1577 some 
 children, trying to light up the interior of the sarcophagus 
 by inserting a taper through the hole, set fire to the dress of 
 the seated figure, and the whole was burnt to ashes, except a 
 few bones, which, according to a contemporary writer, ' proved 
 the body to have been of gigantic stature ' — a rather puzzling 
 statement ! 
 
 Ravenna is so intimately connected with Galla Placidia 
 
 1 See Muratori, Annates ad ann. 450, Gibbon, ch. xxxv, and Ricci's Ravenna 
 [Italia Artistica). A similar tradition existed about the tomb of Charles 
 the Great at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). 
 
 91 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 that a few words about the city will here be interesting. Of 
 ancient Etruscan and Roman Ravenna, which was furnished 
 by Augustus with a greatly enlarged harbour, the Portus 
 Classis, capable of holding 250 war-galleys, scarce a vestige 
 remains. The old port has disappeared, for the sea has 
 retreated a long way. The solitary basilica of S. Apollinare 
 in Classe fuori (built nearly a century after Placidia's death) 
 probably marks the spot where St. Peter's disciple was 
 murdered outside a gate of the naval town ' Classe ' ; but 
 it is now two miles inland. Not far distant is the great pine 
 forest (Pineta) which is so closely associated with Dante and 
 with Byron, and which is known to have existed in the days 
 of Odovacar, and doubtless existed also in the days of Placidia. 
 Galla Placidia built numerous churches in Ravenna — alas, 
 now mostly restored out of all recognition. The great cathedral 
 of Bishop Ursus, of which only the campanile still exists, 1 was 
 founded shortly before her birth and must have been in its 
 first splendour when she was a child. Also there was doubtless 
 some church already dedicated to St. Apollinaris, the friend 
 of St. Peter, for he was the martyr and patron of Ravenna. 
 The old Baptistery was still a Roman bath, for it was not 
 dedicated by Archbishop Neon till 450, the year of her death. 
 She possibly built S. Giovanni Battista, S. Teodoro (afterwards 
 Spirito Santo), S. Agata, and S. Croce (contiguous to her 
 mausoleum), and certainly did build S. Giovanni Evange- 
 lista — that is, the original basilica on the foundations of 
 which stand now the fine Romanesque campanile of the 
 eleventh and a church of the eighteenth century. This 
 basilica she founded in fulfilment of a vow made to St. John 
 when she was overtaken by a tempest on her voyage from 
 Constantinople to Ravenna. ' I will raise thee/ she exclaimed, 
 ' a temple gleaming with marbles on the shore where the ship 
 shall safely arrive.' Thereupon St. John appeared in dazzling 
 form and seated himself on the prow of the vessel and, extend- 
 ing his arms, allayed the fury of the waves. 
 
 1 The campanile was, of course, built later (see p. 282), but survived when the 
 old basilica was demolished to make room for the present unsightly cathedral. 
 92 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 WHAT is known about the earlier history of the Huns 
 has been already briefly related. It remains to 
 describe the events of the few years during which 
 they were the terror of Europe, led by Attila — the ' Scourge of 
 God ' — the devastator whose very war-horse left a trail where 
 no grass ever grew again — the murderer of men, who writhes 
 in the deepest pool of the infernal river of boiling blood— for 
 so has popular and poetic imagination depicted him. 1 
 
 Attila and Bleda, the nephews of that Rugilas who had 
 befriended Aetius, succeeded him as kings of the Huns. After 
 some twelve years (c. 445) Bleda was deposed and murdered — 
 probably by his brother Attila, who seems to have been 
 regarded by his savage subjects with superstitious reverence, 
 as being invincible by reason of the possession of an old sword, 
 discovered by a shepherd and supposed to be the sword of the 
 Hunnish war-god (called 'Mars' by the I/atin chroniclers). 
 As sole ruler of the Huns he rapidly and widely extended the 
 Hunnish kingdom, which had already swallowed up the nearer 
 nations of the Gepidae, Alani, Suevi (such as had not followed 
 the Vandals), and the Ostrogoths, and now, it is said, spread 
 its conquests, if not its permanent annexations, from Scandi- 
 navia to Persia, or even to the bounds of China. 2 Even 
 during the years when he shared the kingship with Bleda 
 
 1 Quell' Attila che fu flagello in terra . . . (Dante, Inf. xii, 134 et seq.). 
 The epithet Dei flagellum is not found in contemporary writers. The modern 
 Hungarians, who (falsely) claim descent from the Huns, assert, according to 
 Gibbon, that the title was given to Attila by a hermit in Gaul, and that he 
 adopted it. 
 
 8 This is rejected as gross exaggeration by Niebuhr and others. Perhaps 
 ' alliances ' would be truer than ' conquests.' 
 
 93 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Attila's growing power had become a spectre of dread to the 
 Empire. In the West he had indeed aided Aetius to vanquish 
 the Burgundians, as we have already seen ; but to the Empire 
 itself he was intensely hostile, feeling none of that reverence 
 for it which was felt by Alaric and by Theoderic the Great. 
 He had overrun much of its Eastern dominions, had scattered 
 Roman captives as slaves through many lands, and had 
 crucified on Roman territory the deserters from his own army 
 whom he had captured. Both to Valentinian III at Ravenna 
 and to Theodosius II at Constantinople the brothers had 
 sent insolent messages, 1 and a deprecating embassage from the 
 Eastern Emperor to the camp of the Huns had resulted only in 
 a demand for twice as much tribute as had been hitherto paid. 
 In 447 Attila, now sole king of all the Huns, advanced 
 up to the very walls of Constantinople and exacted a threefold 
 amount of tribute, which was paid by Theodosius, that ' meek 
 man and excellent illuminator of manuscripts,' 2 whose exac- 
 tions brought his own subjects to the brink of despair and 
 insurrection. And Attila's demands were not limited to such 
 tribute. A curious thread of romance is interwoven in this 
 story of savagery and bloodshed. It will be remembered that 
 Galla Placidia had two children — Honoria and Valentinian, 
 born respectively in 418 and 419. The daughter seems to 
 have been, in her way, as silly and as intractable as was the 
 son — perhaps spoilt as well as naturally sentimental and 
 squilibrata. At Ravenna the young Augusta — for this supreme 
 title was given her in early life — had got into trouble when 
 about sixteen years of age. She was therefore sent (c. 434) 
 by her mother to Constantinople, where she spent some 
 fourteen years ' in the irksome society of the sisters of Theo- 
 dosius [Pulcheria and her two younger sisters] and their 
 chosen virgins, whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, 
 
 1 Attila's messengers were bidden to use the formula, ' Attila, my lord and 
 thy lord, commands thee . . .,' and on one occasion he called Theodosius a 
 'wicked slave that was conspiring against his master.' There is a story 
 that at Milan Attila, seeing a picture of Huns or Scythians kneeling before 
 an Emperor, commanded a painter to reverse their positions. 
 
 2 Hodgkin's Italy and her Invaders. 
 
 94 
 
ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 and vigils she reluctantly imitated ' ; for the imperial Byzantine 
 court had been converted into something very like a monastery, 
 in which the ladies, who admitted no male visitors but priests 
 and bishops, divided their time between needlework and reli- 
 gious exercises, and the Emperor himself — a strenuously inert, 
 well-meaning, vacillating, aesthetic, and somewhat fanatic * 
 person — lived the life of a quasi-artistic, sport-loving, and 
 strictly orthodox Philistine. 'Hunting,' says Gibbon, 'was 
 the only active pursuit that could tempt him beyond the 
 limits of his palace ; but he most assiduously laboured, 
 sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp, in the mechanic 
 occupations of painting and carving, and the elegance with 
 which he transcribed religious books entitled the Emperor to 
 the singular epithet of Calligraphes, or Fair Writer. . . . Thus 
 the ample leisure which he acquired by neglecting the duties 
 of his high office was filled by idle amusements and unprofitable 
 studies.' 
 
 So maddened was Honoria by these surroundings that by 
 means of a trusty messenger she sent (c. 448) a ring to Attila, 
 begging him to claim her and add her to the number of his 
 wives. 2 At first he treated her appeal with disdainful ridicule, 
 but on reflexion it seemed to him a good pretext for demand- 
 ing together with the person of the imperial Augusta a 
 considerable portion of the Empire as her dowry. And the 
 existence of this pretext saved him the trouble of inventing 
 others when he decided to invade not only the Eastern Empire 
 but also Italy itself. 
 
 In connexion with this escapade of Honoria the following de- 
 scription 3 of Attila's person and character will be interesting. 
 
 1 It is to him that we owe the destruction of many Greek temples, e.g. 
 those at Olympia. Note that his wife, the beautiful but lowly born Athenais, 
 who at her baptism had taken the name of Budocia, and was mother of 
 Valentinian's wife Eudoxia, was already in exile in Palestine. 
 
 2 In the Nibelungenlied and the Waltarilied (known to readers of Scheffel's 
 Ekkehard) Attila, or Etzel, has one (chief ?) wife, Helche by name. On her 
 death he sues for Kriemhild, the Burgundian princess, who goes to Etzelnburg 
 to marry him. Priscus makes Cerca his chief wife — one of many. 
 
 * An amplified paraphrase is given by Gibbon (ch. xxxiv). The modern 
 Hungarians, proud of their (entirely imaginary) descent from the Huns, trace 
 Attila's pedigree back to Ham. 
 
 95 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 It is translated from the L,atin chronicler Jordanes, who, 
 as we have already seen, wrote a compendium of the 
 lost Gothic History of Cassiodorus, and Cassiodorus probably 
 obtained his materials for the portrait from Priscus, who 
 visited the Hun king and wrote an account of his visit. ' Attila,' 
 says Jordanes, ' was a man born for the desolation of nations 
 and as a terror to the world ; who, I know not by what ruling 
 of destiny, struck panic into all men by the dread-inspiring fame 
 that proceeded forth from him. He walked with haughty 
 step, turning his eyes hither and thither as if to show his 
 pride and power even by the movements of his body ; a lover 
 of war, but temperate in conduct ; exceeding strong in council ; 
 complaisant to suppliants ; ever the protector of him whom 
 once he had admitted into his confidence ; short of stature, 
 with broad chest, large head, small eyes, a thin beard sprinkled 
 with grey, squash nose, pallid complexion — all characteristic 
 of his race.' 
 
 Among the many embassies that passed between Attila and 
 Theodosius one is of unusual interest to us because we possess 
 a full account of this visit of Roman envoys to the residence 
 of the Hun king — in the Nibelungenlied called Etzelnburg, i.e. 
 Attila's stronghold — which was evidently l either on the 
 site of modern Pesth, or Buda, or somewhere between the 
 Danube and the Theiss. Attila had sent to Constantinople 
 two envoys, Edeco and Orestes (for whom see pp. 16, 17), to 
 demand Hun fugitives, and through their interpreter 2 a plan 
 for murdering Attila had been suggested to them by some 
 court official. They pretended to accept the proposal and 
 did accept a large bribe, a ' weighty purse of gold,' but resolved 
 to reveal the plot to their king. With them, on their return, 
 went as envoys, and of course unconscious of the plot, a 
 
 1 This seems confirmed by the Nibelungenlied, in which Kriemhild, coming 
 from Worms, joins Etzel (Attila) and travels with him through Vienna, and 
 then takes ship at Wieselburg and descends the Danube to Etzelnburg. The 
 great palace and banquet-hall are described in the poem. 
 
 2 The Huns despised Greek, preferring Gothic or Latin when not using 
 Hunnish. Latin was the official and military language in much of the Eastern 
 Empire. Edeco was probably a HeruUan or Scirian, and Orestes an Illyrican 
 of Roman descent. 
 
 96 
 
ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 ' respectable courtier ' named Maximin (afterwards Marcian's 
 minister) and his friend Priscus, the historian above mentioned, 
 of whose I^atin diary fragments have survived. They found 
 the country northwards all devastated by Attila's incur- 
 sions. Sardica (Sofia) and Naissus (Nissa, birthplace of Con- 
 stantine the Great) were destroyed and deserted, except 
 for a few sick folk crawling about amid the ruins. They 
 traversed the hilly region of what is now Serbia, finding the 
 country strewn with human remains ; they crossed the Danube 
 in dug-out canoes and arrived at Attila's camp. 
 
 But Attila was incensed at only receiving seventeen deserters. 
 He insisted on the envoys proceeding further northward — 
 some 250 miles further — to his great central camp, or strong- 
 hold, where his palace stood. They therefore followed guides, 
 by many a long detour, through interminable forests and over 
 innumerable rivers (tributaries of the Theiss, and the Theiss 
 itself) till they arrived. Attila's great palace was built of 
 wood, and, like the dwelling of an African chieftain, was 
 surrounded by a stockaded and turreted rampart, within 
 which his numerous wives had their separate houses. The 
 sole building of stone in the encampment was a hot-bath-house, 
 erected by a Roman architect. The envoys were entertained 
 at a feast in the banquet-hall of the palace. Attila with his 
 son and two barbarian magnates sat on a raised dais apart, 
 while the guests were seated at small tables — the imperial 
 envoys having to take the lower room and yield precedence 
 to various Gothic and other barbarian officials. Wine was 
 served to all others in cups of gold and a variety of food on 
 silver dishes, but on the royal table were only wooden cups 
 and platters, and flesh alone was served, for, to cite a peculiarly 
 Gibbonian phrase, Attila never tasted the luxury of bread. 
 Nor did he, as did his chief warriors, adorn his weapons and 
 the trappings of his horse with precious metals and stones ; 
 he proudly distinguished himself from others by the simple 
 garb and customs of his nomad ancestors, allowing no orna- 
 ment or bright colour to appear in his dress and accoutrements. 
 When the treacherous design against his life was revealed to 
 
 g 97 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Attila, he behaved with no little dignity and generosity, 
 accepting the assurances of the imperial envoys that they 
 were entirely innocent and sending them back unharmed. 
 Moreover, when Theodosius — to whom he forwarded a message 
 of withering scorn and reprimand — sent other envoys to 
 deprecate his wrath, he did not condescend to insist on the 
 punishment of the guilty courtiers. He even made some 
 important concessions, liberating Roman captives and giving 
 lip territory south of the Danube. 
 
 In 450, the year in which Galla Placidia died, Theodosius 
 was thrown from his horse and killed. Marcian, who suc- 
 ceeded him as the nominal husband of Pulcheria (p. 11), was 
 of a very different character. One of his first acts was to 
 put to death with the approval of Pulcheria (Pulcheriae nutu, 
 says a contemporary writer x ) the court satellite Chrysaphios, 
 who had plotted the assassination of Attila. But this act of 
 justice, prompted perhaps by the barbarian king's generous 
 behaviour, did not in the least mean pusillanimous submission ; 
 for when Attila again demanded tribute Marcian's reply, says 
 Priscus, was this : Quiescenti munera largiturum, helium 
 minanti viros et arma objecturum — ' If he kept quiet he would 
 confer liberal gifts on him, but if he threatened war he would 
 meet him with warriors and with arms.' 
 
 Attila threatened, fiercely and insolently — but he hesitated ; 
 and while he hesitated whether to attack Constantinople or 
 Ravenna news reached him from the far west and north — 
 perhaps, too, from the far south — which determined his course. 
 
 A new barbarian power had come on the scene — that of the 
 Franks, a tall, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed race, which had settled 
 on the I/>wer Rhine and Maas and in the country of the ancient 
 Belgae. On the death of their king Clodion his two sons 
 (or nephews) quarrelled. One appealed to Attila for aid ; 
 the other, Meroveus (perhaps Merowig, who gave his name to 
 the Merovingian dynasty), sought help from Aetius. Attila 
 determined to seize the opportunity of invading the Gallic 
 
 1 The cronachista arido, M 'arcellincf Conte , as Count Balzani calls him (Le. 
 Cronache italiane del medio evo). Gibbon cites him as ' Count Marcellinus.' 
 98 
 
ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 provinces of the Empire. Possibly he reckoned also on the 
 co-operation of the Visigoths, whose great kingdom in South 
 Gaul and Spain was ruled by Theoderic (the son, perhaps, of 
 Alaric). But the Visigoths were at that time intensely indig- 
 nant against Gaiseric, the Vandal king in Africa, who had 
 sent his son's bride, Theoderic's daughter, back to Toulouse 
 with her nose and ears cut off — having accused her of trying 
 to poison him. Theoderic was hoping therefore to secure the 
 sympathy and help of Aetius and his Romans against the 
 Vandal king, and the Vandal king not unnaturally appealed 
 to Attila and begged him to attack Theoderic and Aetius, 
 promising to land forces in the south of Gaul. 
 
 Attila therefore with his Huns and his Ostrogoths joined 
 forces with the Franks on the Neckar and, trusting to the 
 co-operation of the Vandals, crossed the Rhine near Speyer 
 and laid waste the Gallic provinces. Metz and Reims were 
 sacked. Troyes was saved, it is said, by its bishop, St. I^upus, 
 who seems to have exerted some strange influence on Attila 
 such as we shall find so difficult to explain in the case of 
 Pope I^eo. 1 From Paris (I/Utetia) St. Genevieve, either by 
 acting the part of a Joan of Arc or by somehow influencing 
 Attila, or the Fates, diverted the march of the barbarian 
 marauders. Orleans was besieged, and the walls were already 
 yielding to the battering-rams when, in answer, it is said, 
 to the prayers of the bishop, Anianus, the combined army 
 of Aetius and of Theoderic appeared. 
 
 Attila retreated to the vicinity of Troyes, and here, on the 
 Catalaunian plains {i.e. the champaign of Catalaunum, or 
 Chalons), between the Seine and the Marne, was fought (451) 
 a battle which probably saved all Western Europe from 
 Hunnish supremacy and from the overthrow, perhaps the 
 extinction, of Roman civilization and Christianity. 2 The battle 
 is described by Jordanes in his riassunto of the Gothic History of 
 Cassiodorus (c. 500), and Cassiodorus had doubtless conversed 
 
 1 Attila is said to have once remarked : ' I know How to conquer men, 
 but a wolf and a lion have known how to conquer the conqueror.' 
 
 * Written (in Germany) some months before September 19 14. History 
 repeats itself ! 
 
 99 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 with veterans who had fought on one side or the other. It 
 was ' so fierce, manifold, bloody, and obstinate ' (atrox, multiplex, 
 immune, et pertinax) ' that all antiquity could afford nothing 
 similar.' 
 
 The slain, says this writer, amounted to 162,000, not 
 counting 15,000 Franks and Gepidae killed in a preliminary 
 encounter. This may be exaggeration — to say nothing of the 
 300,000 of another writer — but that the fight was long and 
 terrible and bloody there can be no doubt. Attila, it is said, 
 had erected a pyre of wooden saddles and other equipments 
 with the intention of offering himself (and probably others) as 
 a burnt-offering to his gods in case of defeat — as the Cartha- 
 ginian Hamilcar is said to have done nine centuries before at 
 Himera ; but his defeat was not a rout. Both sides had 
 suffered very severely, and the Visigoth king, Theoderic, had 
 been slain by the javelin of an Ostrogoth. Attila was therefore 
 able to withdraw his forces unpursued beyond the Rhine, for 
 Aetius (who was afterwards, like Stilicho, on this account 
 accused of treason) shrank from attacking ' the wounded Hon 
 in his lair,' as Jordanes expresses it. 
 
 The wrath and resentment of Attila can be imagined. Once 
 more he sends imperious demands for the hand and dowry 
 of Honoria. He collects a still vaster army and in the spring 
 of the next year (452) sweeps down like a typhoon upon Italy. 
 His ultimate object was doubtless Rome, but first he meant 
 to reward his Huns and avenge their Gallic defeat by the 
 devastation and pillage of Northern Italy. Aquileia, which 
 had now become the richest and most populous city of the 
 North Adriatic coasts, was beleaguered by him for three 
 months and assaulted, says Jordanes, with all kinds of siege- 
 engines. But his efforts were in vain, and he had determined 
 to abandon the enterprise when, it is said, as he rode round 
 the walls, he observed that the storks, accompanied by their 
 young, were leaving the city, 1 whence he inferred that there 
 was no more food to be obtained. The siege was therefore 
 
 1 Before the usual time, I suppose ; at least storks and their young leave 
 Southern Germany every year about the end of August. 
 IOO 
 
ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 continued, and ere long Aquileia was taken by storm and 
 razed to the ground, so that less than a century later, in 
 the days of Jordanes, as happened to Sybaris in the days 
 of Herodotus, scarcely a vestige of the city was to be seen 
 I^ater it was rebuilt and became the seat of a powerful anti 
 papal patriarchate. But after its destruction by Attila 
 all its inhabitants fled for refuge to Grado, on the seashore, 
 or to those lagune-islands x which later formed a federation 
 and elected tribunes and then a supreme Duke (Doge), the 
 permanent site of whose palace was ultimately the Rivo Alto 
 (Rialto, or ' Deep Stream ') of Venice. 
 
 From Aquileia the Huns spread westwards. Altinum and 
 Padua were burnt to the ground. Verona, Vicenza, and 
 Bergamo were sacked. Even Milan and Pavia were probably 
 occupied and plundered. Then Attila seems to have collected 
 his forces near I^ake Benacus (I^ago di Garda) with the intention 
 of crossing the Apennines 2 and assailing Rome. 
 
 The feeble and cowardly Valentinian had fled from Ravenna 
 to Rome ; but also at Rome panic prevailed, for there was no 
 efficient army to stay the coming of Attila, and Aetius had 
 sent word that his Visigoth allies and his Gallic forces refused 
 to march to the relief of Italy. It was therefore decided to 
 send an embassy to deprecate the wrath of the king of the 
 Huns, and doubtless also to offer him a very large bribe — 
 probably under the conciliatory disguise of the oft-demanded 
 dowry of Honoria, or rather a douceur for her loss, since she 
 had been long ago, says Gibbon, married to some obscure and 
 nominal husband before being immured in a perpetual prison 
 to bewail her follies. 
 
 As chief envoy was chosen Avienus, a senator of high rank, 
 and the Bishop of Rome, I,eo the First (and the Great) , accom- 
 panied the embassy, which crossed the Apennines in 452. 
 They found Attila and his vast army encamped near the place 
 
 1 These islands had long been inhabited. For the story of Venice see 
 Part III, ch. iii. Aquileia is now a village of some nine hundred inhabitants. 
 
 a Dante wrongly states that Florence was refounded ' on the ashes left by 
 Attila ' (Inf. xiii, 149) . Attila was often confused with Totila, who did occupy 
 Florence, though he probably did not sack it. 
 
 101 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 where the river Mincio flows out of I^ago di Garda — where 
 Peschiera now stands — not far from ' olive-silvery ' Sirmio, 
 nigh which the villa of Catullus once stood, nor far from the 
 country, sacred to all lovers of Virgil, where the hills slope 
 gently down towards Mantua, and where ' with windings slow 
 wandereth the broad Mincius and borders his banks with soft 
 reeds.' 
 
 What took place at the conference is not known for certain, 
 but certain it is that after the conference, to the astonishment 
 of all Europe, Attila countermanded the march to Rome and 
 withdrew his army over the Alps towards Pannonia. Catholic 
 tradition ascribes this marvel to the effect which Leo, as the 
 Head of the Church and the vicegerent of the Deity, produced 
 on the awestruck mind of the pagan monarch ; and the case, 
 already mentioned, of St. Lupus at Troyes is adduced as sup- 
 porting the belief that some supernatural influence was at work, 
 although perhaps nowadays the apparition of the air-borne 
 Apostles, which is asserted by a later legend and has been so 
 grandly depicted by Raffael, may find few believers. 1 Possibly 
 Attila' s conduct may be explained without recourse to the 
 supernatural. Aetius possessed a powerful army, even without 
 his Visigoth allies, and Attila, had he pushed southwards, might 
 have found himself in a trap. The fate of Alaric, moreover, who 
 died so suddenly after sacking Rome, doubtless floated as an 
 ominous spectre before the superstitious imagination of the Hun, 
 and we may well believe that Leo did not attempt to exorcise 
 this spectre. Lastly, there can be no doubt that the almighty 
 influence of gold, or its equivalent, contributed largely to the 
 result. At the same time it is undeniable that the personal 
 influence of a strong character, inspired by absolute faith in 
 the Tightness of a cause and in the favour of heaven, some- 
 times verges on the miraculous ; and such a character was 
 Pope Leo the Great — straightforward, robust, inexorably firm, 
 imperturbably convinced of the supernatural powers of the 
 Church and of its divine foundation by the agency of 
 St. J?eter and St. Paul, whom he used to call the Romulus and 
 
 1 See Fig. 8 and explanation. 
 I02 
 
A 
 < 
 
 O 
 W 
 
 >-r 
 
 w 
 
 A. 
 O 
 
ATTILA THE HUN 
 
 Remus of Christian Rome. These qualities come out in his 
 writings. In his Discourses, as Villari says, he avoids all 
 abstruse theological questions. All is simple, clear, and 
 precise. Scarcely ever does he mention the saints or the 
 Virgin, but speaks a great deal about Jesus Christ. The 
 universal spiritual sovereignty of the Church — that is, of 
 the Roman Church — was the one object towards which all his 
 thoughts and actions tended ; but temporal power he leaves 
 wholly to lay authorities. 
 
 The fate of Alaric had perhaps deterred Attila from his 
 intended sack of Rome. But Attila' s renunciation did not save 
 him from a similar fate. Shortly after his conference with 
 the Roman envoys — where or when is uncertain, but probably 
 in the next year (453) after his arrival in Pannonia, or perhaps 
 at Etzelnburg — he died suddenly, at night, from the bursting 
 of a blood-vessel, after the festal banquet that celebrated his 
 marriage with a maiden named Idlico, the last of his very 
 numerous wives. A vague and probably ill-founded report 
 attributed to Idlico the crime, or glory, of having acted the 
 role of a Judith. 
 
 ' The body of Attila,' says Gibbon, ' was solemnly exposed 
 in the midst of the plain, under a silken pavilion, and chosen 
 squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in measured evolutions, 
 chanted a funeral song to the memory of the hero. The . . . 
 remains were enclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver, 
 and of iron, and were privately buried in the night ; the spoils 
 of nations were thrown into his grave ; the captives who had 
 opened the ground were inhumanly massacred.' 
 
 After the death of Attila the great Hun Empire seems to 
 have broken up and melted rapidly away. Ere forty years 
 had elapsed the Ostrogoths, led by the great Theoderic, were 
 making themselves masters of Italy, and the name of the 
 Huns is seldom heard again. 1 
 
 1 The Avars (perhaps descendants of the Huns, or else new Turkish invaders) 
 soon after occupy the Hun country. In 558-59 they with other Orientals 
 assault Constantinople. Two centuries and a half later they are conquered 
 by Charles the Great, and about goo the Magyars arrive from the East and 
 occupy the whole of Hungary. 
 
 IO3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 It may be interesting if I here note the tradition that I,eo, 
 on his return, set up as a thank-offering for the help of the 
 great Apostle the bronze statue of St. Peter — once perhaps the 
 statue of Jupiter Capitolinus, renamed after the saint, or recast 
 into his likeness. The figure, which is seated and has the 
 big toe of its extended foot worn with the kisses x of millions, 
 was first brought to St. Peter's (from the demolished monastery 
 of S. Martino) about the year 1610. It is believed by some 
 sceptics to be a product of the thirteenth century, a period 
 when imitations of classical work began ; but although it 
 may not be a recast of the Capitoline Jupiter, which was 
 probably destroyed or carried off by Gaiseric, it may date 
 from the days of the early Empire, for it is certainly not 
 Byzantine work and we hear of it about 725, during the 
 Iconoclastic conflict. 
 
 In the year after Attila's death (454) Aetius visited Rome 
 and was killed by Valentinian, as has been told in the Historical 
 Outline. The assassination of Valentinian himself, which took 
 place early in the succeeding year and was quickly followed 
 by the sack of Rome by Gaiseric the Vandal, may very reason- 
 ably be regarded as the real end of the Western Roman Empire. 
 But during the next twenty years the title of Augustus was 
 conferred, at intervals, on their proteges by the powerful 
 commanders of the Roman army, some of which commanders 
 were of pure barbarian origin. The main events of this 
 inglorious period have been already related and do not merit 
 further consideration. I shall therefore, after casting a brief 
 retrospect at the rise of the African empire of Gaiseric, which 
 was almost contemporary with that of Attila's empire in 
 Central Europe, describe somewhat fully the capture of Rome 
 by the Vandals, and then pass on to the deposition of Romulus 
 Augustulus by Odovacar. 
 
 1 Cicero (In Venem) tells something similar of a bronze statue of Hercules 
 at Agrigentum. 
 
 IO4 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 GAISERIC 1 TO ODOVACAR 
 
 IT will be remembered that in the year 429 the Vandals 
 under their king Gaiseric, perhaps invited 2 by the 
 Roman governor Boniface, the great rival of Aetius, 
 crossed over from Spain to Africa. The invasion of the 
 rich and fruitful provinces of North Africa scarcely needed 
 to be incited by a treasonable offer. In Spain the Vandals 
 had been much harassed by the Visigoths, whose king Wallia 
 . (p. 86) had subjugated the greater part of the country, but 
 Gaiseric, or Genseric, who, like the famous Spartan king 
 Agesilaus, was small and crippled (by a fall from his horse, it 
 is said), seems to have reorganized their army and even to 
 have ventured (428) a campaign against the Suevi, in what is 
 now Northern Portugal. In the next year we find him landing 
 on the coast of Africa, with a large force of fighting men and 
 a multitude of women and children — in all perhaps 80,000. 
 This landing of the Vandals on the coast of Africa is vividly, if 
 rather too iminaagtively, pictured by Gibbon. ' The wandering 
 Moors,' he says, ' as they gradually ventured to approach the 
 seashore and the camp of the Vandals, must have viewed 
 with terror and astonishment the dress, the arms, the martial 
 pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had landed 
 on their coast, and the fair complexions of the blue-eyed 
 
 1 For this name see note on Coin 16 of Plate I. 
 
 * This is stated by Procopius, the (Greek) writer to whom we shall soon 
 be indebted for much information. Such charges easily arise. Stilicho, 
 Boniface, Eudoxia, and Narses are all accused of this form of treason. Possibly 
 the Vandals, who were Arians, were invited by the Donatists (a kind of 
 Puritan sect) and other unorthodox Christians of Africa, who were fiercely 
 persecuted by the Catholics — an act which I fear St. Augustine, so tolerant 
 in early life, tried to justify. 
 
 IOS 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the 
 swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighbourhood 
 of the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some 
 measure been removed which arose from the mutual ignorance 
 of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any 
 future consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of 
 Rome, and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods 
 and valleys of Mount Atlas to satiate their revenge on the 
 polished tyrants who had injuriously expelled them from the 
 native sovereignty of the land.' 
 
 The most ghastly stories are told of the devastations and 
 inhumanities of the Vandals in Africa during the ten years 
 or so that elapsed before Gaiseric had overrun the whole 
 of the provinces of North-west Africa and had concentrated 
 his power in Carthage, whence with his powerful fleet he 
 swept the Western Mediterranean and annexed the Balearic 
 Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, and finally Sicily. Vandalism has 
 become a synonym for barbarism and atrocity, but it is just 
 possible that the contemporary account of the heretic Gaiseric 
 and his Vandals given by a friend and biographer of St. 
 Augustine and repeated by later writers may be exaggerated. 
 It is scarcely credible that invaders who meant to settle in a 
 country should burn and extirpate vines and fruit-trees and 
 olive-groves, and the pictures of them piling up the corpses 
 of slaughtered captives in order to scale the walls of a besieged 
 town, or leaving them to putrefy and cause pestilence, appear 
 somewhat imaginative. 1 
 
 If Boniface really did incite the Vandals to cross over to 
 Africa, he must have done so during the brief madness of anger, 
 or must have made some very serious miscalculation, seeing 
 that a year after their landing we find him fighting desperately 
 against them. Being defeated, he retired into the maritime 
 stronghold of Hippo, best known to many of us as the city of 
 
 1 And yet I remember something of the kind in Central Africa, where I 
 happened once to be in a stockade besieged by several thousand Machinga. 
 They threw numbers of dead bodies in the stream (the Ruaha) which supplied 
 us with water, and the stench of the decaying corpses of captives whom 
 they massacred around the stockade was sickening, 
 
 106 
 
GAISERIC TO ODOVACAR 
 
 St. Augustine. Here he was beleaguered by the Vandals. In 
 the third month of the siege St. Augustine died (August 28, 
 430), at the age of seventy-six. 1 After fourteen months the 
 besiegers began to suffer more from want of food than did the 
 besieged, who had free access to the sea. Troops moreover 
 were sent from Constantinople under the command of Aspar, 
 who with Boniface ventured to assail the Vandals. But they 
 suffered a severe repulse. Thereupon they embarked all their 
 troops and sailed off — Aspar to Constantinople and Boniface 
 to Ravenna, where, strangely enough, he was received in 
 a most friendly way by Galla Placidia, and even honoured by 
 medals, on which he was represented in a triumphal car with a 
 palm in one hand and a scourge in the other. But soon 
 afterwards he died, as has been related, from a wound received 
 in a duel with Aetius. The inhabitants of Hippo were then 
 massacred and enslaved by the Vandals and the city was 
 burnt. 
 
 What deterred Gaiseric from attempting at once the capture 
 of Carthage herself is not very apparent. Perhaps one does 
 not fully realize the immense extent of these African provinces, 
 nor the small number of the Vandal warriors in comparison 
 with the vanquished but still hostile population. Moreover 
 Carthage, risen anew from the ancient ashes left by Scipio 
 some six centuries before (if I may thus expand and modify 
 Dante's phrase), had become once more the first city — the 
 ' Rome,' as she was called — of North Africa, and, although of 
 the gigantic Byrsa and the other fortifications of the old 
 Phoenician city only a few questionable relics have survived 
 to our day, it is not improbable that enough still remained in 
 this age to render the place 2 difficult of capture in spite of 
 
 1 His writings — some hundreds in number, and some of considerable length, 
 such as the Confessions and the City of God — were saved when Hippo was 
 sacked. 
 
 2 The new city (Colonia Carthago), built by Julius Caesar and Augustus, 
 did not stand, as some assert, at a distance from the old site (e.g. on the site 
 of 'modern Tunis), for the extant Roman remains — the amphitheatre (with a 
 column recording the martyrdom of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas), the great 
 Thermae, the circus, and the reservoirs, which were supplied by the gigantic 
 aqueduct that brought water from the hills sixty miles distant — all lie within 
 
 IO7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the tmwarlike effeminacy of its inhabitants, who are described 
 by contemporary writers as wallowing in a quagmire of luxury, 
 irreligion, and vice. Possibly therefore Gaiseric wished before 
 assailing this stronghold to rest his warriors and to build 
 up a permanent state. 
 
 In this connexion it is interesting to note that there are state- 
 ments in the chroniclers which seem to show that Vandal 
 policy was characterized by features which we should call 
 socialistic. The dominant race did indeed assume a feudal 
 lordship over the soil and did enslave many of their captives, 
 and were themselves immune from taxation, but those of the 
 native population who were workers were favoured as against 
 the inactive classes. Of the wealthy nobles, the clerics, and 
 the large landowners many were severely taxed and mulcted, 
 when not banished or otherwise suppressed, while agriculture, 
 industry, and trade were encouraged by exemption from heavy 
 taxation. 
 
 During the last years of this period of inaction the Vandals 
 were nominally at peace with the Empire, for a truce was 
 signed three years after the sack of Hippo. But it was of short 
 duration, and in 439 Carthage fell. The next three years saw 
 the conquest by Gaiseric's fleet of all the islands of the Western 
 Mediterranean, the devastation of Sicily, and descents even 
 on the shores of Italy. In 442 Valentinian III, who had 
 lately come of age and had begun to free himself from the 
 regency of his mother Placidia, made a humiliating treaty 
 with the Vandal king, acknowledging him to be the ruler of 
 all the dominions he had conquered — not merely a ' federated ' 
 ally, as had been so often the case when the Empire acknow- 
 
 the ancient walls and close under the Byrsa, the hill of the acropolis (on which 
 St. Louis died), and near the harbour and the old naval port (Cothon). This 
 Roman city of Carthage, which was captured by Gaiseric and was the Vandal 
 capital for nearly a century, is briefly described by several old writers, who 
 speak of its magnificent buildings and its splendid circensian games, and also 
 of a large new harbour — perhaps that of the Stagnum, inside the tongue 
 of land (like Porto Venere at Spezia) on which the Oppidum Ligulae or 
 Taeniae stood. See Gibbon, ch. xxxiii, and Bosworth Smith's Carthage ; 
 and perhaps I may also refer to the Appendix on Carthage in my edition of 
 Virgil's Aeneid, Book I (Blackie and Son). 
 108 
 
GAISERIC TO ODOVACAR 
 
 ledged the kingship of a barbarian chief, but an absolute and 
 independent monarch. Thus the Western Empire was now 
 shorn of most of its African diocese, of all the western 
 islands, including Sicily, of most of Spain and Southern Gaul, 
 and of Britain, while Attila was at this time lord of Dacia and 
 was already devastating Moesia and Pannonia and Noricum 
 and Rhaetia and much of Illyricum and Thrace. 
 
 During the next thirteen years — which were the last thirteen of 
 the reign of Valentinian III and witnessed the meteoric career 
 of Attila — Gaiseric seems to have been fairly quiet. He was 
 doubtless consolidating his empire and waiting for an oppor- 
 tunity of extending his conquests beyond Africa, while his 
 fleets swept the Mediterranean and his army was constantly 
 adding to his territory towards Tripoli and the Great Syrtis. 
 
 In 455, the twenty-seventh of the forty-nine years of 
 his reign, Gaiseric, with 1 or without the invitation of the 
 Empress Eudoxia, assembled a fleet and landed a band of his 
 Vandals and Moors at the mouth of the Tiber. Rome was 
 defenceless. There was no organized military force, and the 
 whole city was in a state of frenzied and impotent excitement. 
 Maximus, the successor of the murdered Valentinian, when 
 attempting to flee was stoned to death by the mob, and his 
 body was torn to pieces and thrown into the Tiber ; and when 
 three days later the column of Vandal warriors and their 
 African auxiliaries approached the gates of the city it was 
 met, not by a desperate populace determined to defend its 
 hearths and homes, nor by a phalanx of trained fighters, but 
 by a group of unarmed priests headed by a venerable bishop — 
 the same I^eo who three years ago had faced the savage Attila 
 near the shores of ocean-waved Benacus, with what results 
 we know. Gaiseric is said to have listened respectfully to the 
 dignified and fearless eloquence of I<eo and to have promised 
 
 1 As Valentinian was killed early in 455 and Gaiseric landed at Ostia in 
 June 455, Muratori, the great Italian archaeologist and historian (c. 1700), 
 questioned the possibility of this ; but Gibbon reminds us of Cato's figs, 
 which he, threw down on the floor of the Roman Senate-house, exclaiming : 
 ' These were picked but three days ago at Carthage.' Moreover, Gaiseric 
 doubtless had naval and land forces already close at hand, in Sicily. 
 
 IO9 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 — what perhaps he could not wholly perform — that he would 
 spare Rome's buildings from fire and the unresisting Romans 
 from slaughter or torture. But no such marvel happened as 
 in the case of Attila ; no supernatural influence made Gaiseric 
 recall his Vandals to their ships and set sail for Sicily or 
 Carthage : he gave the word for plunder, and during the next 
 fourteen days all the transportable treasures of Rome were 
 continually being carried to the vessels that lay at the mouth 
 of the Tiber. 
 
 The Vandals seem to have destroyed but little in Rome, 
 but to their wholesale plundering may be attributed the dis- 
 appearance of many celebrated works of Greek and Roman 
 art, which, together with immense quantities of precious 
 objects, such as jewels, gold and silver and bronzen decorations, 
 furniture and costly broideries and vestments, were trans- 
 ported to Carthage — all except one shipload, which is said 
 to have gone to the bottom. Much of this plunder found 
 its way to Constantinople when, seventy-eight years later, 
 Justinian's general, Belisarius, captured Carthage, and its 
 final destruction was due, not to Vandals, but to the French 
 and Flemish and Venetian crusaders who sacked Constantinople 
 in 1204. Perhaps, however, this fate was escaped (though a 
 worse was suffered) by what to many may seem the most 
 interesting of these treasures, namely, the spoils of the Jewish 
 Temple. Nearly four hundred years earlier Titus had brought 
 these from Jerusalem, and sculptured images x of some of 
 them may still be seen upon his triumphal arch at Rome. 
 The seven-branched golden candlestick, the golden shewbread 
 table, the silver trumpets, and numerous consecrated golden 
 vases had been deposited (according to Josephus) in the Temple 
 of Peace at Rome, and the Great Veil of the Temple together 
 with the sacred Books of the I^aw were preserved in the Palace 
 of the Caesars. A tradition asserts that these spoils were thrown 
 into the Tiber when Maxentius was drowned at the Milvian 
 
 1 Rather roughly outlined. The candlestick has reliefs or engravings of 
 animals, which is said by Gregorovius to be an infringement of Jewish rules 
 (in spite of Solomon's lions and oxen and cherubim ?). 
 
 no 
 
GAISERIC TO ODOVACAR 
 
 Bridge. However, they probably did not suffer this fate, but 
 were taken to Carthage, and some of them at least were trans- 
 ported by Belisarius to Constantinople. And their strange 
 fortunes did not end there, if we may believe the contemporary 
 historian Procopius, who asserts that Justinian, overcome by 
 religious scruples, sent the ' utensils of the Jewish Temple ' back 
 to Jerusalem, where they were put in the treasure-chamber 
 of a Christian church — perhaps the Church of the Resurrection 
 (' Anastasis ') which Helena or Constantine had built. If this 
 be true, then we must fear that they fell later into the hands 
 of the Saracens, and may be now in some remote Arabian or 
 Syrian mosque. Scarcely less interesting is the fact that the 
 Vandals carried off to Carthage (unless it went to the bottom 
 of the sea) half — if not the whole — of the so-called golden 
 roof of Jupiter's temple on the Capitol, which was made of 
 tiles of gilded bronze, and doubtless also the gilded statues 
 and quadrigae — decorations which are said to have cost the 
 Emperor Domitian as much as two and a half million pounds 
 of our money. 
 
 Among the thousands of Roman captives, most of whom 
 were sold into slavery, were three of special importance. ' The 
 Empress Eudoxia,' Gibbon tells us, ' advanced to meet her 
 friend and deliverer, but soon bewailed the imprudence of 
 her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her jewels, and 
 together with her two daughters, the only surviving descen- 
 dants of the great Theodosius [Pulcheria having died two years 
 before], she was compelled to follow the haughty Vandal.' 
 
 It will be remembered (p. 14) that the elder of these daughters, 
 Eudocia, married Hunneric, who succeeded his father Gaiseric 
 in 477 — for the little crippled founder of the Vandal Empire 
 reigned for just upon fifty years. The Empress herself with 
 her younger daughter, Placidia, was ultimately (c. 463) sent 
 to Constantinople, where the Eastern Emperor, I^eo the 
 Thracian, seems to have received her well — a proof, one 
 might think, that she was not believed, or not known, to 
 have invited Gaiseric to Rome. And a further proof would 
 seem to be offered by the fact that her daughter Placidia 
 
 in 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 was the wife of that Olybrius who was afterwards (472) Roman 
 Emperor for a few weeks. 
 
 A year after the capture of Rome the Vandal fleet suffered 
 a crushing defeat near Sardinia in a battle against the Roman 
 fleet commanded by Ricimer, but the disaster does not seem 
 to have affected Gaiseric seriously, for some twelve years 
 later (468) a great crusade which was organized against him 
 by both parts of the Empire proved a total failure, many of 
 the 1 1 13 vessels that formed the imperial fleet being destroyed 
 by Gaiseric's fire-ships. The son of Gaiseric, Hunneric, who 
 married the Theodosian princess Eudocia, maintained his 
 father's empire on land and sea, and distinguished himself by 
 his fierce persecution of Catholics — or perhaps of clerics of 
 both parties, for he burnt the Arian patriarch of Carthage 
 in the Carthaginian forum. As will be narrated in a later 
 chapter, Gaiseric's empire came to an end in 533, when a 
 successor of Hunneric, Gelimer by name, was vanquished by 
 Justinian's general, Belisarius, who was so dramatically rapid 
 and successful that on his capture of Carthage, it is said, he 
 was able to sit down to the dinner prepared for the Vandal 
 king. 
 
 The following passages, translated from Gregorovius {Die 
 Geschichte der Stadt Rom, i, 6), give some further interesting 
 details connected with the capture of Rome by Gaiseric. 
 After relating how the Empress Eudoxia and her two daughters 
 were carried over to Africa by Genseric [Gaiseric] he adds : 
 ' One of these, Eudocia, was compelled to give her hand to 
 Hunnic, the son of Genseric, but after living at Carthage for 
 sixteen years in hateful wedlock she managed to escape and, 
 joining a company of pilgrims, after manifold adventures 
 she reached Jerusalem. Here she soon afterwards died, and 
 was buried near her renowned grandmother of like name 
 [i.e. Eudocia, originally Athenais, for whom see p. 95 ».]. The 
 other daughter, Placidia, was liberated, and in Constanti- 
 nople once more met her husband Olybrius, who was then a 
 fugitive.' 
 112 
 
GAISERIC TO ODOVACAR 
 
 There is a church in Rome that is much visited on account 
 of the wonderful statue of Moses — one of the figures of the 
 gigantic monument of Pope Julius II which Michelangelo was 
 never able to finish, and which he used to call ' the tragedy 
 of my life.' This church is now called S. Pietro ad Vincula 
 (in Vincoli). It was built by the Empress Eudoxia and 
 originally called the Basilica Eudoxiana. Its second name 
 refers to the following legend. ' Eudocia, the mother of the 
 Empress Eudoxia,' says Gregorovius, ' brought from Jerusalem 
 the chain of St. Peter [see Acts xii], of which she presented one 
 half to Constantinople and sent the other half to her daughter 
 in Rome. Here existed already the chain with which the 
 apostle had been fettered before his martyrdom, and when 
 Pope Leo [the same Pope Leo who faced Attila and Gaiseric] 
 happened to hold the two chains close to each other they 
 attached themselves insolubly together, forming a single chain 
 of thirty-eight links. The miracle induced Eudoxia, then the 
 consort of Valentinian III, to build this church, in which the 
 chains * are still preserved and revered.' 
 
 The spoliation of Rome by Gaiseric's followers, says Gregoro- 
 vius, certainly seems to justify the proverbial use of the word 
 " vandalism,' for a great number of citizens were utterly ruined 
 and thousands were enslaved. But the almost unanimous 
 testimony of writers goes to prove that Gaiseric was no such 
 ' vandal ' as the modern Prussian. He kept his word in regard 
 to the destruction by fire or other means of the churches and 
 palaces and ancient monuments. 
 
 The End of Romulus Augustulus 
 
 In the period between 455 and the deposition of Romulus 
 Augustulus there are few events of any importance except 
 perhaps Ricimer's naval victory over the Vandals, already 
 related, and his sack of Rome in 472 — the third time it had 
 been plundered in about sixty years. The contemporary 
 
 1 In the Calendar the first of August is the festival of ' St. Peter's Chains.' 
 Filings from the chains were used by the Popes as very precious gifts. 
 
 H 113 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 chronicles consist almost entirely of continual tumults and 
 insurrections and depositions and elections, the imperial 
 puppets of the military dictators Ricimer, Gundobald, and 
 Orestes following each other, with intervals of interregnum, 
 so rapidly that in twenty years no less than nine so-called 
 Emperors assume the purple. The brief narrative given in the 
 Historical Outline will therefore suffice, and I shall here only 
 add a lively passage from Gibbon descriptive of the fate of 
 the deposed Emperor, and a few words about the earlier life of 
 Odovacar. 
 
 ' In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian 
 nine Emperors had successively disappeared, and the son of 
 Orestes, a youth recommended only for his beauty, would be 
 the least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign, which 
 was marked by the extinction of the Roman Empire in the 
 West, did not leave a memorable era in the history of 
 mankind. . . . The son of Orestes assumed and disgraced 
 the names of Romulus and Augustus. . . . The life of this 
 inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of 
 Odoacer, who dismissed him with his whole family from the 
 imperial palace, fixed his annual allowance at six thousand 
 pieces of gold, and assigned the castle of I^ucullus in Campania 
 for the place of his exile or retirement. . . . The delicious 
 shores of the Bay of Naples were [in earlier days] crowded 
 with villas, and Sylla applauded the masterly skill of his rival 
 [Marius], who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of 
 Misenum, which commands on every side the sea and land as 
 far as the boundaries of the horizon. The villa of Marius was 
 purchased within a few years by Lucullus, and the price had 
 increased from two thousand five hundred to more than 
 fourscore thousand pounds sterling. It was adorned by the 
 new proprietor with Grecian arts and Asiatic treasures, and 
 the houses and gardens of I^ucullus obtained a distinguished 
 rank in the list of imperial palaces. 1 When the Vandals 
 
 1 Lucullus had other villas of equal, though various, magnificence at Baiae, 
 Naples, Tusculum, etc. He boasted that he changed his climate with the 
 storks and cranes. 
 
 II 4 
 
GAISERIC TO ODOVACAR 
 
 became formidable to the sea-coast the Lucullan villa gradually 
 assumed the strength and appellation of a strong castle, the 
 obscure retreat of the last Emperor of the West. About 
 twenty years after that great revolution it was converted into 
 a church and monastery to receive the bones of St. Severinus. 1 
 They securely reposed amidst the broken trophies of Cimbric 
 and Armenian victories till the beginning of the tenth century, 
 when the fortifications, which might afford a dangerous shelter 
 to the Saracens, were demolished by the people of Naples.' 
 (Gibbon, ch. xxxvi.) 
 
 Some believe this villa of Lucullus to have stood on Pizzo- 
 falcone, now an elevated quarter of Naples. But on Cape 
 Misenum, which forms the Bay of Pozzuoli (Puteoli) , are still 
 to be seen relics of a great villa — doubtless the Lucullan villa 
 in which the Emperor Tiberius was smothered, and probably 
 the one in which also Romulus Augustulus ended his days. 
 
 Of Odovacar's earlier life some interesting details, more or 
 less trustworthy, are given by Gibbon, Villari, and others — 
 drawn from Jordanes and various old writers, one of whom 
 was a disciple and biographer of St. Severinus. 
 
 The father of Odovacar and of his brother Onulf was, as 
 we have seen, probably the Scirian or Herulian chieftain 
 Edeco, who was sent by Attila to Constantinople as the 
 fellow-envoy of Orestes, the father of Romulus Augustulus. 
 After the death of Attila and the dispersion of the Huns 
 the young Odovacar led a wandering life and may possibly, 
 says Gibbon, have been the sea-rover of similar name who 
 commanded a fleet of Saxon pirates on the northern seas. 
 Anyhow, the scenes of his early adventures seem to have been 
 in northern regions, for we hear of him, about 460, traversing 
 Noricum (Styria, Salzburg, etc.) at the head of a band of 
 barbarian soldiers of fortune who were bound for Italy, to 
 seek service under Ricimer. Noricum had not yet recovered 
 
 1 For Severinus see next page. He died in 482. Six years later, says 
 Gibbon, his body was brought to Italy, and ' the devotion of a Neapolitan 
 lady invited it to the Lucullan villa, in the place of Augustulus, who was 
 probably no more.' 
 
 u5 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 from the devastations of Attila and was in a state of anarchy. 
 The only recognized authority was that of a hermit, St. 
 Severinus, who from his cell seems to have upheld order in the 
 country. The saint was visited, it is said, by Odovacar, who 
 wished to learn the fortunes that awaited him in Italy. As 
 the tall young warrior stooped to enter the lowly doorway, he 
 was greeted by the holy man with these words : Vade ad 
 Italiam. Vade, vilissimis nunc pellibus coopertus, sed multis 
 cito plurima largiturus — ' Go on to Italy ! Go on ! Though 
 now clad in this mean vesture of skins, thou wilt ere long 
 lavish riches on many.' Not much later Odovacar was 
 fighting in the ranks of Ricimer's army under the walls of 
 Rome, and seems to have risen to high command and to 
 popularity, for in 476 his soldiers — Herulians and other 
 barbarians who formed the chief strength of the imperial 
 army — formally elected him as their king by raising him on a 
 shield (as was so often done when the army chose a new 
 Emperor). It was as a king of barbarian warriors that he 
 constituted himself supreme ruler of Italy. Thus he did not 
 appropriate, but abolished, the imperial dignity and title. 
 
 Il6 
 
NOTES ON COINS 1 
 PLATE I 
 
 PROM C. 3O6 TO C. 565 
 
 i. Constantine I. 2. Constantius II. 3. Julian (Apostate). 
 4. Jovian. 5. Valentinian I. 6. Valens. 7. Gratian. 
 8. Valentinian II. 9. Theodosius the Great. 10. Honorius 
 and Arcadius. 11. Galla Placidia. 12. Valentinian III. 
 13. Theodosius II. 14. Pulcheria. 15. Romulus Augustus 
 (-ulus). The word Conob or Comob, found frequently on 
 medieval coins, stands for Comitis Obryziacus, i.e. ' The Mint 
 of the Count.' This Comes sacrarum largitionum was a kind 
 of Finance Minister. 
 
 16. Obv. of bronze coin of 22 nummi. Figure of warrior in 
 cuirass and military cloak, leaning on spear : very possibly 
 meant for Gaiseric himself. Earlier coins of Gaiseric give 
 (as often in the case of barbarian rulers) the portrait 
 of the late or the reigning Emperor, viz. Honorius and 
 Valentinian III (see No. 22). None of the coins attributed 
 to Gaiseric give his name. What on some copper coins was 
 once supposed to be ' Genseric ' is now read as ' Mense Augus.' 
 (in the month August). The legend karthago and the horse's 
 head, the old symbol of Carthage, on the reverse show that 
 the coin was struck after the capture of Carthage in 439. The 
 oldest chroniclers spell his name " Gaiseric ' (perhaps ' I^ord 
 of the Spear '). Procopius gives ' Gizerichus.' 
 
 1 The plates are taken from moulds of coins at the British Museum and 
 elsewhere kindly supplied by Mr. P. Allan. The first fifteen coins need little 
 comment. Further details about the others may be found in Mr. Wroth's 
 fine British Museum Catalogue of the Coins of the Goths and Lombards and 
 in Engel and Serrure's standard work, Numismatique du moyen Age. For 
 Plate II see p. 450. 
 
 117 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 17. Silver. Rev. : Bust of Odovacar, beardless but with 
 moustache ; in cuirass and military cloak. Legend : Fi, od[ov] AC, 
 i.e. Flavius Odovacar, ' Flavius ' being Vespasian's family 
 name, later adopted as a regal title by Constantius I and some 
 of his successors, also by Lombard kings. On obv. his mono- 
 gram in wreath, and below rv (Ravenna). He first minted 
 coins with his own name after fixing his residence at Ravenna. 
 
 18. Gold. Obv. of a triple ' solidus ' (about 210 gr. weight) 
 found near Sinigallia in 1894. Before this discovery no extant 
 coin of Theoderic bore his portrait, although Gibbon asserted 
 that ' the image of Theoderic is engraved on his coins.' As a 
 rule such princes did not put their name or portrait on the 
 gold coinage, which (Procopius tells us) was regarded as a pre- 
 rogative of the Emperors. This exceedingly precious relic of 
 Romano-Gothic art, says Mr. Wroth {Brit. Museum Catalogue), 
 some ancient possessor had set as a brooch. Fragments of 
 the setting are still attached to the reverse. Legend: rex 
 theodericus pius princ[eps] i[nvtctus ?] s[emper ?]. In I. 
 he holds globe on which stands a Victory holding wreath and 
 palm. The owner of this unique coin is Comm. F. Gnecchi, 
 Milan, who most kindly supplied me (through Mr. F. Allan, 
 of the British Museum) with the plaster cast from which this 
 reproduction was taken. 
 
 19. Bronze. Athalaric in armour, with spear and oval shield. 
 Legend : dn (Dominus, or Dominus Noster) ataiaricus. Infield 
 sc (Senatflsconsulto) and x (10 numnn). Probably issued by 
 Athalaric's mother, Amalasuntha. The obverse shows a rather 
 fine bust of personified Rome — a testimony perhaps to the 
 statement that the queen-mother encouraged the fine arts at 
 Rome. 
 
 20. Bronze. Legend : dn. theodahattjs rex. A finely 
 modelled portrait. The closed crown (not diadem) is in- 
 teresting, and the jewelled vestment. The face certainly 
 corresponds to one's conception of his character, and is of a 
 type (perhaps Vandalic) very different from that of Theoderic. 
 Cassiodorus tells us that Theodahad ordered his portrait to 
 be imprinted on his coins ' as a memorial of our reign to future 
 118 
 
Pl,ATE J 
 
 " 3 
 
 ff R ■.'! 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ixN?-/)'. 
 
 v^ 
 
 
 ^M v .it t$kk- fiW% i^f\ 
 
 .?* |ai&\ /&$. • kS A/ 1 Arv / +& fe $\ 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 fib! 
 
 
 V ;/,'{. / IE 
 
 flit mp c 
 
 
 18 „ ■ 
 
 
 9. Coins : Constantine I To Justinian 
 c. 306-565 
 
NOTES ON COINS 
 
 ages.' Probably minted at Rome, after his breach with 
 Justinian (535-36). 
 
 21. Bronze. Bust of Baduela (or Baduila), i.e. Totila, with 
 legend . . duei,a rex ; on rev. dn. baduei,a rex (or baduila ?). 
 Struck after 549, at Rome (or Pavia ?). 
 
 22. Silver. Legend : dn. theia rex. The obverse shows 
 the name and portrait of the Eastern Emperor Anastasius 
 (d. 518) , although the date of this coin is of course 552-53. The 
 same type was often kept long after an Emperor's decease. 
 
 23. Bronze. Legend : dn. justinianus ppvag (probably 
 mistake for ppaug, i.e. Pius Princeps Augustus). One of 
 many extant portraits of Justinian. Probably issued by 
 Theodahad or Witigis (Vitiges). Minted at Rome c. 536-38. 
 After 540 (when Belisarius took Ravenna) imperial Byzantine 
 coins of Justinian were struck in Italy, though probably not 
 till after Theia's death and the fall of the Gothic domination 
 (c 553-55). 
 
 119 
 
PART II 
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 476-568 
 
 THE history of the three centuries (476-800) which 
 intervened between the abolition of the imperial 
 dignity in Italy and its revival in the person of 
 Charles the Great falls naturally into two periods, the first 
 of nearly a century (476-568), and the second of rather 
 more than two centuries (568-800). The first of these 
 periods now forms the subject of our narrative. In this 
 period we have first, during sixteen and a half years, the 
 reign of Odovacar, Ottowacker, or Odoacer, whom we had 
 perhaps better call by the name which he uses on his coins 
 (Odovac, or Odovacar) instead of using the Romanized form 
 ' Odoacer ' ; then comes the Ostrogothic domination (493-535), 
 including the eventful reigns of Theoderic the Great, his son 
 Athalaric (under the regency of his mother Amalasuntha), and 
 Theodatus, or Theodahad ; then the ' Gothic war,' with the 
 long campaigns of Belisarius and Narses, ending in the defeat 
 and death of the Ostrogoth kings Totila (Baduela) and Teia 
 (553) ; then the establishment during fifteen years (553-68) of 
 Byzantine supremacy in almost every part of Italy, which thus 
 for a time becomes a diocese of the Eastern Emperor, Justinian. 
 The second period, which will be treated in the next 
 Part of our book, begins with two centuries (568-774) of 
 Dombard domination, a long series of years which, except 
 for some very interesting personalities and certain questions 
 concerning architecture, is almost as dreary as that so-called 
 Dark Age which followed the Dorian invasion of ancient 
 Greece. Finally we shall have the appeal of the Papacy 
 
 121 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 to the Frank monarchs, followed by the interference and 
 domination of the Franks and the so-called re-establishment 
 of the Western Roman Empire by the act of Pope Leo ill, 
 who placed a crown of gold on the head of the Frankish 
 monarch when, all unsuspecting (some say)i he rose from his 
 devotions before the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. 
 
 As in Part I, so also in Parts II and III I shall first give 
 succinct narratives of the chief political occurrences to serve 
 as a kind of framework, and shall then select some of the more 
 important episodes and characters and certain facts of special 
 literary or artistic interest as subjects for the succeeding chap- 
 ters, trusting that in these sketches it may not be necessary 
 on all occasions to explain anew the chronological sequence. 
 
 I. Odovacar's Reign (476-93) 
 
 The thread of narrative was dropped (p. 17) at the deposi- 
 tion of Romulus Augustulus by Odovacar, and at the end of 
 Part I a sketch was given of the subsequent life of the deposed 
 Emperor and another illustrating the earlier life of the barbarian 
 king who for more than sixteen years (if we reckon up to his 
 death, August 15, 493) occupied the throne, though he did 
 not assume the title or the diadem, of the Roman Emperors. 
 
 It was at Ravenna that the youth Romulus Augustulus had 
 resided, and here he was captured ; here, too, Odovacar took 
 up his residence. The realm over which his rule was recognized 
 comprised the whole of Italy south of the Alps, and Rhaetia, 
 between the Alps and the Danube. The greater part of 
 Sicily also became subject to him after the death of Gaiseric 
 (477) ', but the Vandals continued to hold Lilybaeum and other 
 parts of the island, as well as Sardinia and Corsica, while 
 beyond the Western Alps the Burgundian monarchs held the 
 country of the Rhone and Saone, the Visigoths occupied all 
 Spain and the south of Gaul, and further north the great 
 Germanic nations of Alemanni and Franks were supreme. 
 
 As soon as Odovacar felt himself securely seated he sent an 
 embassy to the Eastern Emperor in order to define his posi- 
 tion and claim recognition. This embassy was empowered to 
 122 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 declare in the name of the Roman Senate and also in that 
 of the late Emperor, Romulus Augustulus — whose signature 
 Odovacar had doubtless procured — that the Roman, or rather 
 the Italian, people had decided that one Emperor was sufficient 
 for both parts of the Empire ; and in the name of Odovacar 
 they delivered up to Zeno the imperial insignia — the ornamenta 
 Palatii — the purple robe, the diadem, the globe and sceptre 
 — with the request that the Emperor would allow the ruler 
 of Italy the title of Patrician. 1 
 
 Zeno gave answer that his predecessors, I/eo I and the 
 Empress Verina, had elected two Emperors for the Romans ; 
 one, Athemius, they had killed ; the other, Nepos, they had 
 exiled ; but Nepos was still living and was occupied in ruling 
 his province 2 of Dalmatia. They should therefore apply to 
 him for what they required. Privately, however, Zeno wrote 
 to Odovacar and addressed him as ' Patricius.' 
 
 It will be remembered that the fall of Orestes, the father of 
 Romulus Augustulus, was mainly due to the fact that he had 
 refused to give over to his soldiers a third of the land of Italy, 
 which they had demanded. Odovacar had gained the support 
 of the army by promising to grant this demand, and it was 
 now necessary to do so. The details of this most important 
 political measure are not known for certain, but there are 
 evident signs of the eviction and ruin of many large landowners 
 who occupied great tracts of the fertile districts, and of the 
 division of such estates among those veterans who under- 
 took to cultivate the soil. In other cases the new possessors 
 contented themselves with acting as lords of the manor, 
 employing the former owners as their tenants, and probably 
 ameliorating the condition of the former slaves, whom they 
 adopted as villeins, according to northern feudal custom. 
 Odovacar, like Alaric and Athaulf and like the great Ostrogoth, 
 
 1 The highest Roman dignity possible below the imperial. The Emperor's 
 father generally held it. Zeno decreed that none should hold it who had 
 not already been consul, prefect, or magister militum. In later times Popes 
 conferred the title of ' Patricius ' on some of the German emperors and other 
 
 princes. 
 
 a See p. 16, and for Zeno see the list at p. 18. 
 
 123 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Theoderic, had deep reverence for the constitution of the 
 Empire and seems to have depended entirely on the ancient 
 imperial officials for the administration of the laws and the 
 collection of taxes. 
 
 In 480 Nepos, who was still formally recognized by the 
 Eastern Empire, was killed at Salona by his comites palatii 
 (palace officials). Odovacar was thus relieved of the only 
 rival claimant to the throne of Italy. He had collected at 
 Ravenna, which still possessed a fine harbour, a considerable 
 fleet, intended chiefly for operations against the piratical 
 Vandals and for the conquest of Sicily. On the death of Nepos 
 he sailed across the Adriatic and annexed Dalmatia to his 
 Italian kingdom. This was of course an act of open hostility 
 against Zeno and a violation of the integrity of the Eastern 
 Empire ; but Zeno was not in a condition to retaliate, being 
 too dangerously involved in the religious disturbances which 
 had spread from the East, that hotbed of doctrinal sophistries, 
 where the patriarch of Alexandria had been murdered by 
 fanatics. These conflicts were now agitating Constantinople, 
 and had reached a serious climax, due to Zeno's well-meant 
 attempt to reconcile two embittered opponents — the Mono- 
 physites (who asserted that the human and divine nature of 
 Christ were combined in one) and the so-called Orthodox party. 
 With the help of the patriarch Acacius he had published a 
 letter which is known by the name Henotikon (i.e. an Appeal 
 for Unity), but it was met, as such attempts are generally 
 met, by the bitterest opposition, especially on the part of the 
 Pope and the Catholics of Rome, and for a long time it only 
 aggravated the miserable strife, until finally the so-called 
 Orthodox party won the victory. 1 
 
 Though Odovacar was an Arian, he kept in this quarrel on 
 the side of Pope Simplicius ; but when the Pope died, in 483, 
 he rightly considered it within his province to prevent the 
 
 1 Zeno's successor, Anastasius, nearly lost his throne, and his life, in one 
 of the tumults caused by these religious questions — this time the question 
 being whether ' one of the Persons of the Trinity had been crucified or not.' 
 He was in hiding for three days and had to beg for his life, in the attitude 
 of a suppliant and stripped of his insignia, before a raving mob of fanatics. 
 I24 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 tumults usual at papal elections by causing the Prefect to 
 summon the electing body (not in that age limited to the 
 Cardinals) and by insisting that no election should be valid 
 without his sanction ; and it was his candidate, Felix II, who 
 was elected. This interference in the affairs of the Church is 
 viewed with sorrow and indignation by some writers. It is 
 true that the Eastern Emperors had sometimes arrogated to 
 themselves authority not merely in the election of prelates 
 but even in the definition and promulgation of dogmas ; and 
 at Rome Honorius had decided between two rival Popes. 
 But Odovacar was a barbarian and an Arian, and his strong 
 and successful policy is stigmatized as the beginning of the 
 long and disastrous feud between the temporal ambitions of 
 the Church and the legitimate powers of the State, whereas, 
 had it been worthily imitated, a vast amount of bloodshed 
 and mutual hatred might have been prevented, and the fair 
 name of Christianity might have been spared a great deal of 
 the terrible defilement that it has suffered by religious perse- 
 cution and by war waged in the name of the Gospel of Peace. 
 
 The truth is that from amidst the ruins of imperial Rome was 
 arising, under the name of the Papacy, a new political power 
 ■ — nominally spiritual, but essentially temporal in its nature 
 and ideals — which, claiming as its ally the religious and moral 
 sense of mankind and armed with all the weapons that super- 
 stition supplies, was able to hold the field for centuries against 
 the highest civil authority. In this the history of Christendom 
 • differs radically from that of Islam, where from the first the 
 highest religious and the highest civic authority were com- 
 bined in a single person ; for, whatever other evils resulted 
 from this system, there could be no question of a purely spiritual 
 influence degenerating into a political institution whose chief 
 aim was the acquisition of temporal power, and thus coming into 
 conflict with legally constituted civic authority. 
 
 In spite of Odovacar's wise and not unsuccessful rule, in 
 spite of his efforts to neutralize the evils of large estates 
 {latif undid) , to which Pliny the Elder attributes the ruin of 
 Italy, the state of many parts of his kingdom seems to have 
 
 125 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 been pitiable. Thus in a letter of Pope Gelasius (492) we read 
 that in Tuscany and Emilia and other provinces - hardly a 
 human being exists ' — hominum prope nullus exsistit. In 
 Rome also the working people — the city mechanics and the 
 scholae of builders, painters, physicians, etc. — had sunk into 
 a state of destitution and neglect, from which they were later 
 with difficulty aroused for a time by the favouring patronage 
 of Theoderic. 
 
 About 486 happened that which was apparently the 
 immediate cause of Odovacar's overthrow. In Noricum the 
 hermit-saint Severinus (p. 116) had died, and the land had 
 relapsed into anarchy. The wild German tribe of the Rugi, 
 who dwelt in what is now Moravia and Southern Bohemia, 
 beyond the Danube, incited probably by Zeno, took the 
 opportunity to press southwards, pillaging and devastating 
 the country. Odovacar marched across the Alps with a large 
 army of barbarians and Italians, and after defeating the Rugi 
 in Noricum followed them up across the Danube and took 
 their king prisoner. But the king's son escaped and took 
 refuge with the Ostrogoths, who at this time occupied the 
 great region between Noricum and Dacia — the country of 
 the Save and Drave, extending northwards to the Danube. 
 The chieftain of these Ostrogoths was Theoderic the Amal, a 
 man of about thirty-two years of age. For some time past 
 Theoderic's army had been a growing menace to the Eastern 
 Empire. He had been suggesting the invasion of Italy to Zeno, 
 or perhaps listening to the suggestions of Zeno, who was longing 
 not only to suppress Odovacar but also to check the insolence 
 of the Popes. The entreaties of the young prince of Rugiland 
 now turned the balance, and Theoderic determined to attack 
 Odovacar. This he did nominally under the mandate of the 
 Eastern Emperor. He was invested with the title of Patrician 1 
 — the same title that Zeno had informally granted to Odovacar 
 
 1 Zeno had been dethroned and expelled during'475-77byBasiliscus (brother 
 of the dowager-Empress Verina, and commander of the ill-fated expedition 
 against Gaiseric, for which see p. 112) and had been restored partly by the 
 help of Theoderic, then a young man of twenty-three years, whom he adopted 
 as his son, giving him the titles of Patrician and Consul. 
 
 126 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 —and he had under his command an imperial general (magister 
 militum) and other imperial officials (comites, or ' counts ') . His 
 openly professed object was to attack the usurper or ' tyrant ' 
 and recover Italy for the Empire. 
 
 During the autumn, winter, and spring of 488-89 a great host 
 of various peoples, but mainly composed of Ostrogoths, prob- 
 ably about 200,000 in all, with some 50,000 fighting men, led 
 by Theoderic, crossed the Julian Alps, evidently starting from 
 Aemona (I^aybach) and using the same mountain route that had 
 been used by Theodosius, Alaric, and Attila. On the river Sontius 
 (Isonzo) near Aquileia, and again on the Athesis (Adige) near 
 Verona, battles were fought in which, though Odovacar was 
 forced to retreat, great losses were suffered by the Goths, and 
 Theoderic, instead of pushing southward over the Apennines, 
 made his way to Milan and then took up his quarters at Ticinum 
 (later Papia, now Pavia). Then, it is said by some writers, 
 Odovacar hastened to fortify himself in Rome, but found the 
 city gates closed against him. Whether or not this occurred, 
 it seems certain that at the news from North Italy the Roman 
 Senate and the ecclesiastics made overtures to Theoderic, for 
 of late years Odovacar had caused great embitterment by 
 plundering Church property in order to pay his troops. 
 Some writers also speak of the desertion to Theoderic of 
 Tufa, Odovacar's magister militum; but it seems likely 
 that the desertion was feigned, and that Tufa succeeded in 
 bringing over to Odovacar's camp a number of Theoderic's 
 Goths. Anyhow, a little later we find Odovacar vigorously 
 holding his own in North Italy — occupying Milan, and with 
 the aid of Burgundians, whom he had summoned to his help, 
 compelling Theoderic to keep himself within the walls of 
 Ticinum, where the great multitude of his followers suffered 
 much from want of space and of food. 
 
 But at this juncture (490) the Visigoths from Gaul came to 
 the rescue of their fellow Goths, and Odovacar suffered a 
 crushing defeat near the river Adda. He retired to the strong- 
 hold of Ravenna, which was soon beleaguered by Theoderic 
 on the land side. But the port afforded free access to the 
 
 127 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 sea, as the Goths possessed no fleet, and on account of its 
 marshes and strong ramparts Ravenna was not easy to storm. 
 Thus for three years, although he seems to have been recog- 
 nized as master in every other part of Italy, Theoderic was 
 defied * by the city which afterwards was the capital of his 
 kingdom and which is still so closely associated with his name. 
 At last, early in the year 493, Odovacar was compelled to 
 propose capitulation — for the Goths had seized the maritime 
 stronghold of Rimini and had collected enough vessels to 
 blockade Ravenna also from the sea. We know scarcely 
 anything of the terms of the capitulation, 2 except that they 
 certainly assured Odovacar's life. Nevertheless — as was so 
 often the case in Italian history — this condition was violated, 
 seeing that about three weeks later Theoderic invited his 
 prisoner to a banquet in that Palace of the Council which, says 
 an old writer, " was in the south-east corner of Ravenna ' (just 
 possibly the building which is still pointed out as the Palace 
 of Theoderic), and on his arrival had him assassinated. Or 
 perhaps he finished the bloody and treacherous deed himself ; 
 for this is stated by one chronicler (John of Antioch), who 
 adds the dramatic detail that when the sword of Theoderic 
 had cleft almost clean asunder the body of his victim '■ from 
 the collar to the loin/ he turned and grimly smiling muttered : 
 ' The wretched creature seems to have no bones.' 
 
 2. The Ostrogothic Domination (493-535) 
 As Theoderic and much that is connected with Theoderic 
 
 will form the subject of later chapters, only a brief account 
 
 of his long reign of thirty-three years need here be given. 
 After the battle on the Adda (490) he sent news of his victory 
 
 to Constantinople, and asked permission to assume the kingly 
 
 1 The ancient German ballad Rabenschlacht, or Strit vor Rabene (' Raven- 
 battle,' or ' Fight in front of Ravenna '), is founded on memories of the bloody 
 sallies made by Odovacar ; but in the ballad the times of Attila and Odovacar 
 are hopelessly confounded. 
 
 * Procopius (Bell. Goth, i, i) uses a Thucydidean expression (inl rjj urg km. 
 Sfioia) in such curious context that it is not certain whether he wishes to 
 tell us, as Gibbon believes, that ' the hostile kings consented to rule with 
 equal authority the provinces of Italy.' This seems quite incredible. 
 128 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 title ; but Zeno died in April of 491, and as his successor, 
 Anastasius, 1 sent no reply, Theoderic allowed his men to 
 proclaim him king. By this act he of course forfeited the 
 insignia and office of an imperial delegate and put himself in 
 much the same position as that which the ' tyrant ' Odovacar 
 had held. But in course of time Anastasius, impressed, it 
 seems, with the masterful government of the Ostrogoth king, 
 found it advisable to recognize the fait accompli and to make 
 the best of the situation. When therefore some seven years 
 later (498)- another embassy arrived at the Eastern court, it 
 was graciously received, and was charged to take back to Theo- 
 deric the imperial insignia, which the Roman Senate had sent 
 to Zeno in the name of Odovacar. Of course this did not 
 mean that Anastasius recognized Theoderic as Emperor of 
 the West. What it did mean, and what the real position of 
 Theoderic was, will be discussed later, when we review his 
 legislation and government. 
 
 Gradually but surely Theoderic consolidated and extended 
 his power. By 504 we find that he not only is ruler of all the 
 former realm of Odovacar, namely, Italy, Rhaetia, and Dal- 
 matia, but has subdued Noricum and Pannonia and has aided 
 a descendant of Attila to organize something like a temporary 
 revival of the Hunnish kingdom in the old territories of the 
 Ostrogoths in Dacia and to inflict a crushing defeat on the 
 army of the Eastern Emperor. Nor did Theoderic — even 
 while writing with imperturbable gravity the most loyal and 
 submissive letters 2 to Anastasius — shrink from invading what 
 was still unquestionably imperial territory, for he not only 
 captured Sirmium, on the Danube, but advanced into Illyricum. 
 Hereupon Anastasius, much incensed, dispatched (in 508) a 
 fleet of two hundred vessels to assault Tarentum and ravage the 
 
 1 Anastasius was an old and respected ' domestic of the palace ' — a qovxoirot&s 
 (' husher,' silence-keeper) of the imperial chambers — on whom Zeno's widow, 
 Ariadne (daughter of Leo I and Verina), conferred her hand and the imperial 
 title. He reigned nearly twenty-eight years. 
 
 ' He calls the Emperor the ' guardian [bulwark] of the universe,' and 
 assures him that his own rule is only a ' humble imitation of the one great 
 Empire.' 
 
 I 129 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 coasts of Southern Italy — a foolish reprisal that attained 
 nothing but what a contemporary writer (Marcellino Conte) 
 calls a ' dishonourable victory of Romans over Romans/ seeing 
 that the people of Apulia and Calabria were in no wise respons- 
 ible for the acts of Theoderic. Also towards the West the over- 
 lordship, and also the territory, of Theoderic had become widely 
 extended. Probably from fear lest Anastasius should incite 
 others against him as he had been incited against Odovacar, 
 he had made alliances with the three most powerful barbarian 
 nations, giving his sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund, the king 
 of the Vandals, 1 and his daughter Theudegotha to Alaric II, 
 king of the Visigoths, and another daughter, Ostrogotha, to 
 Sigismund, son of the Burgundian king. Moreover he himself 
 had married, apparently about 497, Audefleda, the daughter 
 of the powerful and aggressive Chlodovech (Chlodwig, I^udwig, 
 Clovis), king of the Franks. 
 
 When we come to the days of Charles the Great we shall trace 
 the rise of this nation and empire of the Franks. Here it 
 suffices to say that they had of late years advanced rapidly 
 from what is now the Netherlands, and under Clovis (as we may 
 most conveniently call him) had spread over all the north 01 
 Gaul and had vanquished the Burgundians. When, however* 
 Clovis proceeded to attack the Visigoths — whose vast kingdom 
 extended over all the south of Gaul and most of Spain — 
 Theoderic came to the help of his fellow Goths and obliged 
 Clovis, his father-in-law, to raise the siege of Aries and to 
 withdraw beyond the I^oire (c. 509), after a defeat in which, 
 according to Jordanes, he lost 30,000 men. Theoderic now 
 held the supreme authority in the Visigoth kingdom — his 
 son-in-law, Alaric II, having been killed in battle. He con- 
 stituted himself regent and guardian of the heir, his infant 
 grandson Amalaric, and thus became the virtual sovereign of 
 the whole Visigoth dominions in Gaul and Spain, besides being 
 the acknowledged King of Italy, Sicily, Rhaaeti, Pannonia, 
 Dalmatia, and also of Provence, which he had annexed to his 
 
 1 Lilybaeum, the last Vandal possession in Sicily, was given over as dowry, 
 and claimed later by the Goths. 
 130 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Italian kingdom. For some sixteen years (510-26) he was 
 master of a larger and fairer portion of the Western Empire 
 than that which was subject to some of the later Western 
 Emperors, and, as we shall see later, he regarded himself as a 
 ' Romanus Princeps ' and was addressed, informally at least, 
 as an ' Augustus,' although he continued to write in the most 
 humble and submissive style to the Eastern Emperor. 
 
 But the last years of the great Ostrogoth king were destined 
 to be unhappy. Discords on doctrinal questions, the disastrous 
 effects of which we have already so often traced, resulted in 
 an ever-deepening hostility against him, and this roused in the 
 depths of his barbarian nature the most savage resentment. 
 He became moody and embittered and suspicious. At first, 
 like Odovacar, although he was an Arian, he had sided with 
 the Pope against the execrated attempt of the Emperor Zeno 
 to bring about reconciliation between Catholics and Mono- 
 physites. (It will be remembered that Zeno's unfortunate 
 Henotikon — the Appeal for Unity made by him and the 
 patriarch Acacius — had been denounced by the Church of Rome 
 as a work of Satan, although it had been signed by all the 
 bishops of the Eastern Empire.) After Zeno's death (491) 
 these quarrels became still more intense, and we have already 
 seen his successor, Anastasius, begging for his life before a 
 mob of Constantinopolitan fanatics. All this time Theoderic 
 seems to have steered a prudent course and to have played 
 off skilfully three consecutive Popes against the Eastern 
 Emperor — thus securing, although himself an Arian, the 
 favour of his Catholic subjects. 
 
 But a sudden change took place in these relations when 
 Anastasius died in 518. He was succeeded by Justin — an 
 uneducated, valorous, simple-minded, and stolidly orthodox 
 Dardanian (Bulgarian) peasant, who not long after his election 
 began to be strongly influenced by his far more gifted and 
 equally orthodox nephew, Justinian, afterwards in his own 
 opinion a very conspicuous pillar of what he himself held to 
 be the one true Church. At the court of Constantinople the 
 Monophysite heresy and other questionable doctrines suddenly 
 
 131 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 fell into great disrepute, and persecution soon began to raise 
 its head. At Rome Pope Hormisdas, less accommodating 
 than his predecessors, offered a cold reception to the friendly 
 advances and the church-building zeal of the Arian Theoderic 
 and entered into negotiations with Justin and his masterful 
 nephew with a view to anathematizing tolerance of heretics. 
 Ere long Theoderic finds Pope and Emperor allied against him, 
 and this alliance is formally confirmed by a Council, held at 
 Constantinople and attended by envoys from the Pope, at 
 which Catholic Uniformity is proclaimed as the Rule for the 
 Empire, and the Henotikon is solemnly condemned, and its 
 co-author, the patriarch Acacius, is solemnly anathematized. 
 About 523 the order arrived from Justin that all Arian 
 churches were to be given up to the Catholics. Theoderic 
 retaliated by shutting up Catholic churches. His irritation 
 was extreme. The one great object of his government and 
 legislation during thirty years had been to weld Goths and 
 Romans together into a single nation, and he had himself 
 adopted many Roman habits and professed a profound 
 admiration for the laws, the literature, and the monuments of 
 the Roman Empire. But his well-meant and doubtless some- 
 times rather uncouth affectation of Roman customs, language; 
 and ideals excited the ridicule of the native Italians, among 
 whom, especially among the rich, arose a strong movement 
 in favour of Nationalism and Catholicism, as a ^protest 
 against the alien Gothic invader whose overbearing soldiery 
 had appropriated the best of their lands and the best of their 
 churches and the best of their official dignities and emoluments. 
 Embittered by this ever-increasing hostility and disdain, 
 Theoderic seems to have cast scornfully aside his perhaps some- 
 what superficial admiration for things Roman, and to have 
 followed the dictates of that innate German savagery which 
 he revealed in his murder of Odovacar. His wrath against the 
 Catholics was fanned by the fanatic zeal of his son-in-law, 
 Eutharic, a ferocious Arian, to whom he had given his only 
 unmarried daughter, the heir to his throne, Amalasuntha. 1 His 
 
 1 See Lineage of Theoderic, p. 172. 
 132 
 
io. Baptistery of the Orthodox 
 Ravenna 
 
 132 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 unpopularity spread and deepened rapidly, and acts of violence 
 were met first by acts of just repression — as when Ravenna 
 Catholics burnt down the Jews' synagogue and were made to 
 rebuild it — and then by acts of savage reprisal. At Rome 
 the ill-feeling against the barbarian heretics became especially 
 virulent, so that orders were issued to the Goths that no citizen 
 should be allowed to use any sort of weapon — usque ad cultellum. 
 That there should be, so to speak, pro-Goths among the 
 very mixed population of Rome (far more mixed in these 
 days than it was when Juvenal exclaimed that the ' Syrian 
 Orontes had poured its flood into the Tiber ') is not surprising. 
 The tragic story of the accusation brought by one such 
 ' delator ' against a patrician, Albinus, and of the consequent 
 ruin and death (524) of the philosopher Boethius and his 
 father-in-law Symmachus, the head of the Roman Senate, 
 will be found in a later chapter. It throws a lurid light on 
 the last two years of the reign of Theoderic and makes less 
 unintelligible another act of savagery which he perpetrated 
 shortly before his death. Pope Hormisdas had died (523) and 
 had been succeeded by a worthy but uncompromisingly anti- 
 Arian prelate, John the First. Incensed at the action of the 
 Constantinople Council and at Justin's order for the closure 
 of Arian churches in Italy, Theoderic resolved to send a strong 
 remonstrance to the Eastern Emperor. He summoned Pope 
 John to Ravenna and dispatched him, together with several 
 senators and the Arian Archbishop of Ravenna, Ecclesius, 1 to 
 demand from Justin a repeal of his order. The embassy was 
 received with honour at the city gate and conducted in festal 
 procession to Constantine's basilica of Hagia Sophia — soon to 
 be rebuilt as S. Sofia — the Emperor paying special reverence 
 to the first Pope who had ever entered Constantinople. But 
 Theoderic's demands were refused or evaded, and on the 
 return of the envoys the Pope, who was evidently suspected 
 of collusion with the Emperor, was thrown into prison, 
 where soon afterwards he died. ' The grateful Church/ says 
 
 1 Perhaps before he became Archbishop, which was possibly on his return 
 in 526. He was the builder of S. Vitale. See p. 203. 
 
 133 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Gregorovius, ' has honoured him with the nimbus of a martyr.' 
 To fill his place Theoderic proposed, or perhaps commanded, 
 the election of Felix (some say the Third, some the Fourth). 
 The Romans trembled and obeyed. 
 
 We have already seen how Odovacar wisely attempted to 
 control the disorders that were wont to accompany papal 
 elections. Theoderic's assumption of the right of investiture, 
 not merely of bishops but of the Vicar of Christ himself, 
 was something of quite another nature, and as this right — 
 anyhow the right of veto — was assumed also by Theoderic's 
 successors, and by Belisarius, who with the help of Theodora 
 deposed and elected Popes, and — in spite of his Pragmatic 
 Sanction — by Justinian, who imprisoned the refractory Pope 
 Vigilius, and later by various potentates of the so-called Holy 
 Roman Empire, it may be regarded as a veritable fons et origo 
 malt. Theoderic died in 526, some three months after the 
 decease in prison of Pope John. Fantastic legends about the 
 king's death are recorded seriously by Procopius and Gregory 
 the Great. These stories will be given in the next chapter. 
 The real cause of his death was probably an attack of dysentery, 
 and an old writer affirms that it took place* on the very day 
 when the king's decree for giving over the Catholic churches 
 to the Arians was to come into force — a curious parallel to 
 the story of the death of Arius himself (p. 45). The chronicler 
 Jordanes, whose facts are taken from the lost History of 
 Cassiodorus, the chief minister of Theoderic, describes the 
 death of the king as peaceful and dignified. Before the end 
 he summoned his ministers and the chief men of the Ostrogoths 
 and presented to them as his successor his grandson Athalaric — 
 for Eutharic, his son-in-law, had died. 
 
 Athalaric was a boy of ten. His mother Amalasuntha was 
 therefore made regent, with Cassiodorus as her minister. She 
 is described as both beautiful and learned — equally at home 
 in Gothic, Greek, and I,atm and devoted to classical literature ; 
 and a favourable impression of her character is made on us 
 by the fact that she caused the confiscated property of Boethius 
 and Symmachus to be restored to their families. But her: 
 
 134 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Romanizing proclivities finally proved her ruin, The Goths, 
 contemptuous of all such effeminate pursuits, became clamorous 
 in their demands that the young Athalaric should give up the 
 studies chosen for him by his mother and have an athletic 
 and military education, asserting that it was a maxim of 
 Theoderic that no man could ever face boldly the sword of an 
 enemy who had trembled at the ferule of a pedagogue ; and 
 the matter came to a climax when one day they discovered 
 the lad weeping after receiving a blow- from his teacher, or his 
 mother. Military education, however, seems to have given 
 him opportunities of self-indulgence which ruined his weakly 
 health, and after eight years of nominal kingship he died (534) 
 before he had come of age or had been crowned. 
 
 It was, says Gibbon, a fundamental maxim of the Goths 
 that the succession should never pass from the lance to the 
 distaff. The next male heir was Amalasuntha's cousin, 
 Theudehad, or Theodahad, as he calls himself on his coins 
 (see Plate I) , although he is better known by a Graeco-Roman 
 corruption of his name, viz. ' Theodatus.' He was the son of 
 Theoderic's sister Amalafrida, who, as we have seen, married 
 the Vandal king Thrasamund. 1 He was a zealous student of 
 Plato and had vast estates in Tuscany, where he was hated 
 by the natives for his land-grabbing ; and he in his turn hated 
 Amalasuntha for attempting to curb his avarice and accused 
 her of violating the law by retaining the regency. In this he 
 was supported by three of the most influential Gothic nobles, 
 and her unpopularity became ere long so alarming to her that 
 she appealed to the Eastern Emperor — who was now Justin's 
 nephew, Justinian. He put at her disposal a splendid palace 
 at Dyrrachium (Durazzo), whither she began to transport 
 her treasures ; but at the last moment, perhaps (though one 
 is very loth to believe it of her) because she had succeeded in 
 getting the three hostile nobles assassinated, she gave up her 
 intended flight and offered to share the government with her 
 
 1 Seep. 130. Gibbon makes Theodahad the son of Thrasamund and thus 
 half a Vandal. Villari says he was the son of a Goth who married Amalafrida 
 after Thrasamund's death. But Thrasamund died in 523, so that in this case 
 Theodahad in 534 could only have been about ten years of age ! 
 
 135 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 cousin. The offer was accepted, and her minister, Cassiodorus, 
 wrote a magniloquent letter in her name to Justinian, inform- 
 ing him that ' as the human body has two ears, two eyes, and 
 two hands, so the Gothic kingdom had now two sovereigns.' 
 
 This dual sovereignty soon came to an end. Theodahad's 
 masculine policy and the hostility of the Gothic nobility 
 gained the ascendant and Amalasuntha was relegated to a 
 small island in the lake of Bolsena, where a short time after- 
 wards (535) she was found strangled in her bath. The murder 
 was committed perhaps by avengers of the three Gothic 
 nobles above mentioned, and certainly with the knowledge of 
 Theodahad. 1 This event, though it does not mark the actual 
 end of the Gothic domination, which was gradually extin- 
 guished, was the immediate cause of the so-called Gothic War, 
 which resulted in the expulsion of the Northern conquerors 
 and the temporary possession by the Eastern Emperor of the 
 ' diocese ' of Italy, in which Rome and Ravenna were merely 
 the capitals of two Byzantine provinces. And it is to be 
 remembered that during this period Justinian was also the 
 ruler of the whole of the provinces in North Africa, as well as 
 of Sicily and other Mediterranean islands and the south of 
 Spain — most of which countries his generals had recovered 
 from the domination of the Vandals — and that he had pur- 
 chased from the Persians with a vast expenditure the so-called 
 ' endless Peace,' which for a time ensured tranquillity to his 
 provinces in the far East — Asia Minor and Syria and Egypt. 
 
 It is remarked by Gregorovius, who is an ardent admirer of 
 the famous Ostrogothic king, that the extinction of Theoderic's 
 dynasty and of the Gothic domination in Italy was due to the 
 too great contrast between the vigorous Northern spirit and 
 the effete spirit of ancient civilization. To such minds even 
 the temporary re-establishment of the old Southern influences, 
 especially in the degenerate semi-Oriental form of Byzan- 
 tinism, is regarded as a great calamity ; nor can it be denied 
 that the campaigns of Belisarius and Narses against the 
 
 1 Procopius says that it was instigated by the Empress Theodora, jealous 
 of Amalasuntha's beauty I 
 136 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Goths brought great misery on Italy. But, if for her future 
 greatness in art and literature and for her final risorgimento 
 Italy needed union with a Northern race, would the nobly 
 conceived but vain attempt of Theoderic to weld into one 
 the Italian and Ostrogothic races, had it been granted success, 
 have accomplished what was accomplished by the Lombards 
 and Franks ? 
 
 3. The Gothic War (535-53) 
 
 The Byzantine conquest of Italy may conveniently be 
 regarded as consisting of two periods, the first extending from 
 the arrival of Belisarius until his capture of Ravenna and his 
 recall in 540 ; the other from that date (or the revival of the 
 war in 542) until the battle on Mount Vesuvius, the death of 
 Theia, and the expulsion of the Goths in 553. These two 
 periods include a great part of the long reign of Justinian, and 
 in histories of Italy much space is sometimes given to his 
 personality, to his legislation, to the court of Constantinople, 
 and to the war in which his general, Belisarius, overthrew the 
 Vandal power in Africa. Remarks on these subjects and a 
 few others connected with the period will be found in later 
 chapters. Here I shall confine myself chiefly to events con- 
 nected closely with Italy. 
 
 The murder of Amalasuntha was made by Justinian a casus 
 belli. It is likely that he had long meditated an attack on 
 the Goths, and his policy in regard to Amalasuntha had shown 
 clearly how strong were his sympathies with the Romanizing 
 and anti-Gothic movement in Italy. And now he found 
 himself in a position to act, for his great general Belisarius, 1 
 having completed his victorious campaign in Persia (530), had 
 overthrown the Vandal power in North Africa by the capture 
 
 1 He first came into notice by suppressing the dangerous ' Nika ' tumult, 
 for which see Index. His name perhaps means' White Prince ' (Beli-tsar). Pro- 
 copius was with him in Africa. Justinian had in vented a casus belli against the 
 Vandals by siding with the expelled king Hilderic, who had put to death 
 Amalafrida, Theoderic's sister, and widow of the late king Thrasamund — an 
 act that of course occasioned the fierce hostility of the Goths against the 
 Vandals. 
 
 137 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of Carthage (533) and of king Gelimer, who, after wandering 
 about among the desert, tribes for some time in great destitu- 
 tion, had given himself up to the victor and was led through 
 the streets of Constantinople in a triumphal procession which 
 was also rendered notable by the presence of the thrice- 
 captured spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem. 
 
 In order to threaten North Italy and thus divide the Gothic 
 forces Justinian sent an army into Dalmatia, and with only 
 about 7500 fighters Belisarius crossed (535) from Africa to 
 Sicily. He depended mainly, as he told his secretary Pro- 
 copius, on his mounted bowmen, a kind of light cavalry 
 strange to the Goths. But with such a small body of men 
 he could never have hoped to succeed had he not relied on 
 very considerable support from the Italian people, who were 
 becoming daily more impatient of the Gothic domination. 
 Indeed, as soon as he landed in Sicily all the cities except 
 Palermo opened their gates to him. In Palermo was a strong 
 Gothic garrison, but the archers of Belisarius poured their 
 shafts into the city from their lofty vessels and the city 
 capitulated. In seven months all Sicily was won, and the 
 unwarlike, Plato-loving Theodahad was so consternated that 
 he offered to abdicate and retire on a big pension. The offer 
 was accepted, but, hearing of some small advantage gained by 
 his troops in Dalmatia, he began to haggle. While he was 
 still hesitating, Belisarius, who had meanwhile flashed across 
 to Africa like his predecessors, the fulmina belli, Scipiadae, 
 and had suppressed a rebellion and was back again in Sicily, 
 crossed over to the mainland, where Rhegium was betrayed 
 to him by Theodahad's son-in-law and other cities opened 
 their gates. Naples however resisted; but ere long it was 
 captured and sacked, a body of about 600 imperialists having 
 wormed their way into the city through an unused aqueduct. 
 
 Among the Goths at Rome great consternation prevailed, 
 as well as indignation against their craven king. They held 
 an assembly in the Campagna and deposed him. A valorous 
 soldier, Vitiges (or Witigis) , was elected in his stead. Theodahad 
 fled towards Ravenna, but he was overtaken by a personal 
 138 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 enemy and slain. Vitiges also, from other motives, hastened 
 to reach Ravenna, leaving in Rome a garrison of 4000 Goths. 
 From Ravenna he sent envoys to the Franks, securing their 
 neutrality by a large bribe and the cession of Gallia Narbonensis 
 (I/anguedoc). Then he summoned in hot haste all the Gothic 
 troops and auxiliaries that were in Provence and North-west 
 Italy. But ere they were assembled Belisarius had entered 
 Rome — doubtless aided by the enthusiastic - support x of the 
 native Italians and formally invited, it is said, by Pope 
 Silverius — and as his men marched in through the Porta 
 Asinaria the Goths marched out northwards by the Flaminian 
 Gate. He at once set to work to repair the old fortifications 
 of Aurelian and to provision the city for a siege. Then Vitiges, 
 who had collected 150,000 fighters, came sweeping down on 
 Rome, where the whole imperial army now amounted (accord- 
 ing to Procopius) to only 5000 men — a small force to defend 
 twelve miles of fortification. In an engagement outside the 
 walls Belisarius is overwhelmed by numbers and nearly perishes, 
 the Romans having shut the city gate in his face ; but he repels 
 the Goths with a desperate assault and re-enters Rome ; and 
 here he is besieged for a year and nine days (537-38). 
 
 The incidents of this long siege need not be detailed. 
 Stratagems, engines of war, alarms, surprises, assaults, 
 desperate sallies, Homeric combats — such things enter largely 
 into the vivid picture given us by Procopius. Vitiges cuts 
 the aqueducts, pollutes the river with corpses (an old Vandal 
 custom), captures the Port, brings up his movable towers and 
 catapults and rams, and on one occasion nearly captures 
 Hadrian's Mole ; but he is repelled by showers of marble 
 statues, with a loss (as Procopius gravely asserts) of 30,000, and 
 although his army still numbers 150,000 men (probably another 
 huge exaggeration) he is unable to prevent the arrival of 
 provisions or of reinforcements from Constantinople — i(?oo 
 horsemen, mainly Huns, as well as Isaurian and other barbarian 
 auxiliaries. Indeed, the siege must have been at times very 
 
 1 Procopius, whose sympathies were of course Byzantine/ ignores this, 
 evidently lest it should diminish the merits of Belisarius. 
 
 139 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 ineffective, for we hear of Procopius being sent to Naples to 
 fetch more reinforcements and provisions, which he succeeds 
 in doing. The wife too of Belisarius, Antonina, arrived in 
 Rome safely and with apparent ease, and was soon followed 
 by a prelate, Vigilius, 1 sent from Constantinople by the Empress 
 Theodora, who requested Belisarius to have him elected Pope 
 — the fulfilment of which request was without difficulty attained 
 by accusing poor old Silverius of complicity with the Goths. 
 
 Tired out by their vain attempts, the Goths at last proposed 
 conditions. They reminded Belisarius that Theoderic had 
 been sent to Italy to recover it from the tyrant Odovacar, and 
 that he had always acknowledged the Emperor as his overlord 
 and had honoured and kept the laws of the Empire. Where- 
 fore, then, they asked, did Justinian make war on them ? If 
 Belisarius would leave Italy, taking with him all his plunder, 
 they would be satisfied. When these proposals met with a 
 blank refusal, Vitiges offered to renounce Sicily and South 
 Italy and even to pay a tribute ; but the response was again 
 an absolute negative. At last a three months' truce was 
 concluded, and Belisarius used it unfairly, not only for re- 
 victualling, refortifying, and reinforcing, but for seizing various 
 points which the Goths had temporarily vacated according 
 to agreement. Moreover an officer, Johannes by name, was 
 sent by him with a strong force to ravage Picenum and 
 succeeded in surprising and capturing the stronghold of 
 Rimini, so that the Goths, indignant at such proceedings, 
 attempted to force their way into Rome. They were however 
 repulsed, and at once burnt their camp (March 538), raised 
 the siege, and withdrew northwards. 
 
 The forces that Belisarius had brought over from Africa 
 amounted only to 7500 men, if we are to believe Procopius, 
 who, like Polybius of old, accompanied the conqueror of 
 Carthage in his victorious campaigns. The enthusiasm of the 
 Italians seems to have added little or nothing to the number of 
 his fighters, and he felt unable to follow up closely the retreat of 
 
 1 Later imprisoned on an island near Constantinople by Justinian. See 
 Index. 
 
 I40 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 the Goths. He therefore waited until reinforcements should 
 arrive from Constantinople. The main body of these rein- 
 forcements landed in the autumn of 538 on the coast of 
 Picenum, probably at Ancona, Fano, or Pesaro, not far to the 
 south of the stronghold of Rimini, which, as above mentioned, 
 had been occupied by imperial troops under the command of 
 Johannes. By this time Belisarius had sent up the Flaminian 
 road a body of 2000 men, who had forced the famous tunnelled 
 pass * over the eastern ridge of the Apennines, routing the 
 Goths that held it, and had reached Rimini ; and ere long 
 he followed, and formed a junction with the newly arrived 
 forces. 
 
 These forces were commanded by Narses, a clever, am- 
 bitious, fiery-tempered, restless, round-backed little man who 
 as palace eunuch had gained the confidence of Justinian 
 (though not the favour of Theodora — her favourite being 
 Belisarius) and had risen to high and responsible offices. He 
 was already sixty years of age, and when put in command of this 
 important expedition was entirely without any military experi- 
 ence, but was destined ere long to prove his natural gifts as a 
 great leader of men. Knowing the ill-feeling against Belisarius 
 that prevailed at Constantinople; he adopted an independent 
 and disdainful attitude, insisting on his equality in authority 
 and scornfully thwarting the antiquated strategy of his junior 
 in years, the victor of the Vandals and the defender of Rome. 
 And doubtless Belisarius, though only thirty-four years of age, 
 was a soldier of the old school, somewhat stiff and exclusive, 
 whereas Narses seems to have had special gifts for attracting 
 men to his service, as is evident from the great numbers of 
 Italians and barbarians who flocked to his standard in the 
 later years of the war. Moreover the counsel of Narses, which 
 on this occasion overrode that of Belisarius, was right, as the 
 result proved, and this probably aggravated the quarrel. As 
 
 1 The Petra pertusa, now the Fasso di Furlo (Lat. forulus), where a tunnel 
 of about 1 10 feet pierces the rock in a narrow ravine. Vespasian had it made, 
 as the ancient inscription over the north entrance tells us. In the vicinity 
 is the river Metaurus, near which Hasdrubal was slain, and Urbino, Raff ael's 
 birthplace. 
 
 I41 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Narses advised, the combined imperialist forces advanced 
 sweeping the country northwards, whereupon the Goths 
 retreated ; and finally Vitiges drew together all his fighters, 
 some 30,000 men, within the walls of Ravenna. 
 
 As we saw in the case of Odovacar, Ravenna was a very 
 difficult place to capture, especially without a fleet, and as 
 concerted action was impossible with such divided counsels 
 and a divided army, the siege was not attempted. While 
 time was thus being wasted in minor operations against small 
 towns, the Franks, responding to the appeal of Vitiges, came 
 pouring down into Italy, accompanied by thousands of Bur- 
 gundians. Milan, garrisoned by a small band of imperialists, 
 was forced to capitulate, and was burnt and razed to the 
 ground. 1 If we may believe Procopius, 300,000 Milanese 
 were massacred, and the women given over as slaves to 
 the Burgundians. This was followed (539) by a still greater 
 invasion. A host of 100,000 Franks under their king Theude- 
 bert, grandson of Clovis, crossed the Alps, nominally to aid 
 the Goths, but really for the sake of plunder. They sacked 
 Ticinum (Pavia) and almost annihilated the inhabitants. 
 But finding the whole country devastated and suffering from 
 dysentery, caused by drinking the water of the Ticinus or the 
 Po, or that marshy Pavian country in the midst of whose 
 rice-fields the Certosa now stands, they suddenly determined 
 to return to Gaul, and disappeared. 2 
 
 Justinian at this crisis recalled Narses. Perhaps he wanted 
 his counsel regarding the insolence of Chosroes, the great 
 Persian king, who was giving trouble in spite of the ' endless 
 Peace.' Perhaps he had begun to realize that the divided 
 command in Italy was a mistake. Belisarius was thus given 
 a free hand, and, after capturing the strongholds of Fiesole and 
 
 1 The ancient S. Ambrogio was probably razed or burnt. A bit of the old 
 doors (p. 60) is still shown. The present building is Romanesque and dates 
 from about 900. The oldest church in Milan, S. Lorenzo, of Byzantine 
 model and copied from S. Vitale (Ravenna), was built c. 560, twenty years 
 after this disaster, during Byzantine supremacy. 
 
 * We shall find them reappearing a few years later (554) and sweeping 
 in meteoric course through the whole length of the peninsula, down to 
 Otranto — and again suddenly vanishing. 
 I42 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Osimo (near Ancona), he laid siege to Ravenna, hoping for 
 the aid of Byzantine vessels to blockade the port. Justinian 
 however was urgent for peace, negotiating with Vitiges, who 
 was relying on, and yet dreading, the fulfilment of Theudebert's 
 promise to return with 500,000 men. But Belisarius was 
 determined to take Ravenna, and Vitiges, discouraged by the 
 desertion of many of his Goths and the loss of his grain-stores, 
 which had been set on fire by lightning or by the treachery of 
 his own wife, 1 at last proposed to acknowledge Belisarius as 
 king of Italy, or even as Western Emperor. This proposal 
 Belisarius affected to accept. The gates were, opened, and the 
 Byzantines (as we may perhaps call the imperial forces) entered 
 the city between lines of Ravennate spectators, who, disgusted 
 and indignant when they saw the small numbers and the in- 
 significant stature of their conquerors as compared with the 
 numbers and size of their defenders, broke out into execration 
 — the women, says Procopius, spitting in the faces of their 
 Gothic lovers and husbands. Belisarius had promised to 
 spare the lives and property of the conquered, and he kept his 
 word ; but he treated Vitiges and his chief nobles as prisoners. 
 Ravenna thus passed, in 540, into the power of the Eastern 
 Emperors. It remained in their power, as capital of the 
 Byzantine Exarchate, 2 during nearly two centuries, until the 
 I/)mbards captured it in 752. Four years later it was wrested 
 from the Lombards by Pippin the Frank. 
 
 At this juncture, when Belisarius might have finished the 
 war had he been worthily supported by Justinian, he was 
 stlddenly recalled to Constantinople. Thither he returned, 
 taking with him much spoil ancf his captives, Vitiges and a 
 train of Gothic nobles, to adorn his triumph, as seven years 
 before the Vandal Gelimer and the spoils of Carthage had done. 
 
 1 Gibbon attributes it to machinations of Belisarius, and says that he 
 also (like the Vandals — from whom he may have learnt it) employed both 
 at Ravenna and at Osimo the odious method of poisoning the waters with 
 drugs and with dead bodies. 
 
 2 Belisarius and Narses had not the title of Exarch, which appears first 
 about 584. See Index. 
 
 H3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 With the recall of Belisarius terminates the first period of 
 the Gothic War (535-40). During these five years the Goths 
 had been expelled, except a few isolated garrisons, from the 
 whole of the peninsula. They were now limited to the northern 
 regions of Italy — Liguria, and parts of Emilia and Venetia, 
 retaining strongholds in Pavia, Verona, and some other cities. 
 Many of their fighters had gone over to the imperialists. 
 Rome and Ravenna had become provincial cities of the Byzan- 
 tine Empire. But eleven years of war and devastation were 
 yet to come before the dread of Gothic domination was entirely 
 at an end. 
 
 The state of Italy at the end of the first period of the war 
 was very pitiable, especially in those northern regions that 
 had been devastated by the Franks and Burgundians as well 
 as by the Goths and the Byzantines. The inhabitants of 
 Tuscany and Emilia took to the mountains and lived on 
 acorns, or flocked to the seashore to search for fish and refuse. 
 Fifty thousand of them perished, says Procopius, who was an 
 eye-witness of many horrors and describes with Thucydidean 
 vividness the poor famished wretches with eyes glaring in 
 madness, their protruding bones covered with skin like parch- 
 ment that turned from yellow to deep red and from red to 
 black — so that neither birds nor beasts would feed on the 
 corpses. He asserts too that cannibalism was frequent, 
 as when the Vandals invaded Spain (p. 86), and he tells a 
 story of two women who, near Rimini, offered entertainment 
 to travellers and killed seventeen in their sleep — in order 
 to feed upon them — but were detected and killed by the 
 eighteenth. 
 
 When Belisarius arrived he found himself no longer in favour 
 at the court of Constantinople. He was not allowed a public 
 triumph. He was sent off to the far East, where the irre- 
 pressible Persian king, Chosroes, had been invading imperial 
 territory and had captured and sacked Antioch. Then, on 
 some frivolous charge of treasonable language, he was recalled, 
 and found himself in still deeper disfavour. His wife, Antonina, 
 had been dishonouring him by her conduct and had become 
 144 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 an intimate confidente of the Empress Theodora, the scandalous 
 indecencies of whose earlier life were being slowly obliterated 
 by the piety of her latter days. The favour that Theodora 
 had formerly conferred upon him had been transferred to his 
 unfaithful wife, and when he attempted to arrest his wife — 
 or perhaps even to imprison her — she was liberated by the 
 influence of the Empress, who took every opportunity of 
 humiliating and disgracing him. 1 
 
 Meanwhile in Italy discontent and disorder prevailed. Not 
 only the people but the imperial army itself, neglected and 
 unpaid, began to regret the Gothic domination, while among 
 the Goths themselves, after two unsuccessful selections, self- 
 confidence was renewed by the choice of a chief, Baduila or 
 Baduela, 2 generally called Totila, under whose leadership the 
 Gothic power in Italy was to revive and hold the field for 
 eleven years more. 
 
 So low had the fortunes of Belisarius sunk that he lived 
 in hourly dread of assassination. Solitary and gloomy he 
 wandered, it is said, about the streets of Constantinople, 
 avoided by all his acquaintances. At last, in 544, Justinian, 
 anxious about Italy and perhaps terrified by the ravages of 
 the great Plague, 3 which seems to have reached Constantinople 
 about 544, proposed that Belisarius should reassume the 
 command of the war against the Ostrogoths. But no troops 
 were put at his disposal. At his own cost therefore he raised 
 a band of 4000 Illyrians. With these he crossed to Ravenna, 
 and succeeded in capturing Bologna. 
 
 Meanwhile Totila had made himself master of a great part 
 of South Italy, and, encamped at Tibur (Tivoli), was threatening 
 
 1 The character of Antonina, as painted by Procopius in his Anecdota 
 (p. 183) and copied in still more vivid colours by Gibbon, is, we may hope, 
 much calumniated. She certainly was frivolous, and probably worse, but 
 she also showed great courage, loyalty, and vigour in sharing her husband's 
 fortunes in Italy. Theodora, too, behaved on several occasions with far more 
 manly courage than did Justinian — who more than once wished to run away 
 from Constantinople. 
 
 * So called on his coins. See Plate I, 21. Totila was perhaps a title or 
 sobriquet (' Tod-los,' i.e. ' Deathless ' 1), but it may be better to retain 
 its use. 
 
 8 Justinian himself was attacked, but recovered. 
 
 K 145 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Rome, held by imperial troops under Bessa, and was capturing 
 and garrisoning strongholds on the Flaminian Way, which led 
 from Rome to Rimini, so as to block the road against succours 
 from the north. For a year Belisarius, longing to hasten to 
 the relief of Rome, was forced to look on in powerless despair, 
 sending urgent appeals to Justinian for reinforcements, and even 
 going across to Durazzo in order to await their arrival. But 
 when at last they did arrive they proved ill-trained and insubor- 
 dinate, and the officer in command — the same Johannes who had 
 formerly thwarted the plans of Belisarius almost as obstinately 
 as Narses himself — insisted on first expelling the Goths from 
 Apulia and Calabria before attempting to raise the siege of 
 Rome, which Totila had now begun to beleaguer, and which 
 Belisarius was determined to relieve. 
 
 As in the case of Narses, it proved necessary to divide forces. 
 Johannes disembarked his troops at Otranto, and, as there 
 were only a few scattered bands of the Goths in those regions, 
 he ere long was able to report to Justinian that he was master 
 of South Italy, whereas Belisarius made sail for the mouth 
 of the Tiber. Here he occupied the Harbour (Portus Romanus) , 
 while Ostia itself was in the hands of Totila's Goths, who had 
 cast a chain cable across the river to prevent provisions reaching 
 Rome. A gallant attempt made by the Byzantines to burst the 
 chain and fight a way with barges and fireships up the stream 
 into the city failed at the last moment by reason of Bessa's 
 stupidity or treachery, and so incensed were the people and 
 soldiery of the besieged city against their commander, who 
 seems to have accumulated a large amount of money by selling 
 food at exorbitant prices to the famished citizens, that, some 
 Isaurian sentinels having been won over, the Porta Asinaria 
 was opened in the dead of night to the Goths. When they 
 entered (December 17, 546) the Byzantine garrison and a great 
 multitude poured out of the city by other gates — Bessa being 
 obliged to abandon all his ill-gotten gold. 
 
 It is scarcely credible, but is asserted by Procopius, that 
 when the Goths entered Rome they found there scarcely five 
 hundred persons. Most of them had taken refuge in the churches, 
 146 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 and after some bloodshed, committed in the first flush of 
 victory, the barbarians were restrained, if not from pillage, 
 from further slaughter of the suppliants by the orders of 
 Totila, who seems to have acted, as on other occasions, with 
 dignity and humanity. 1 
 
 Totila remained longer in Rome than Alaric — whose stay 
 had been only six days. While there he sent as envoy to 
 Justinian the deacon Pelagius (afterwards Pope Pelagius), 
 who with calm courage and almost alone had faced the 
 Gothic king as Pope Leo had formerly faced Attila and 
 Gaiseric. By the hands of Pelagius Totila sent a letter to 
 the Emperor. ' I respect thee as my father,' he wrote, 
 ' and shall always be thy faithful ally ; but if thou wilt not 
 accept peace I will destroy Rome, lest it prove anew a danger 
 to the Goths.' 
 
 Justinian made no reply ; so Totila began to pull down the 
 walls of Rome. He had demolished a third part of them, 
 and possibly a good many other buildings, when suddenly 
 he desisted — possibly because Belisarius, who had rebuilt 
 these same walls, wrote a touching letter to him on the subject, 
 possibly because he hoped some day to make Rome the capital 
 of a ' Gothica ' under the auspices of the Eastern Empire. 
 Then he marched off to the south of Italy, taking with him 
 as hostages those of the Roman Senate who — as the famous 
 senators of olden days when Gauls captured Rome — had 
 awaited, though perhaps in not quite so dignified an attitude, 
 the advent of the barbarian victor. 
 
 After what we have already heard we ought perhaps not 
 to be much surprised at the statement that when Totila and 
 his Goths vacated Rome the great city, which in the days 
 of Alaric's invasion had still contained about two million 
 
 1 Later medieval writers accuse Totila of wholesale incendiarism and 
 savage destruction of ancient monuments. Gregorovius and other German 
 writers naturally extol his heroism and nobility. His government is praised 
 even by the imperialistic Procopius himself. ' He did not molest the country- 
 folk in any part of Italy, but encouraged them to work the land, merely paying 
 him the dues that they formerly paid to the large landowners.' He appro- 
 priated only the wealth of these big landowners, and as the Church (says 
 Villari) had become one of the chief latifondisti, it suffered accordingly. 
 
 H7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 inhabitants, remained for six weeks absolutely empty — in all its 
 enormous labyrinth of ancient and later edifices, in all its 
 countless streets and open spaces, not one single human being 
 was visible. 1 
 
 Into the deserted city Belisarius and his Byzantines entered, 
 and! the|Aurelian walls were hurriedly restored, many old 
 marbles, still visible in many places, being built into them 
 — as had happened in Athens when Themistocles was in 
 power. Then from the surrounding country came flocking 
 back thousands who had sought concealment ; hearing which 
 Totila returned; but he was repulsed and once more en- 
 camped at Tivoli. And now (547) both Rome and Ravenna 
 were in the hands of the imperialists, and they might have 
 hoped that fortune was again inclining in their favour ; but 
 all appeals to the Eastern court z were fruitless, for Justinian 
 had of late become totally engrossed by doctrinal questions, 
 and apparently it was his one ambition to be recognized not 
 only as a great civil legislator but as the supreme legislator 
 for the Church — if not her supreme Head — and as the restorer 
 of religious unity by the triumph of what he believed to be 
 the one true faith. 
 
 Despairing of aid both from Constantinople and from the 
 imperial troops under Johannes, who obstinately employed 
 all his energies in a kind of guerrilla in the south, Belisarius 
 abandoned Rome and sailed to the coasts of South Italy, 
 where he spent a whole year in fruitless and inglorious ex- 
 peditions, until at last he received orders to return to Con- 
 stantinople. Here he arrived in 549, bearing with him immense 
 riches but a tarnished reputation and a spirit broken by his 
 last ill-fated campaign. He was at this time only forty-four 
 years of age. He survived his recall sixteen years, but as 
 
 1 Post quam devastationem XL aut amplius dies Roma fuit ita desolata ut 
 nemo ibi hominum nisi bestiae morarentur. (Mar cell. Conte, or his continuer.) 
 'Ei* Pa/ir) avdfianrov ov&iva edo-as . . . (Procopius.) 
 
 * Antonina, who seems to have come to her senses and to have shared 
 her husband's dangers in Italy, returned to Constantinople to beg for rein- 
 forcements, but found that the Empress Theodora had just died (July 548) 
 and that Justinian was deaf to everything but religious questions, so she 
 merely begged for the recall of Belisarius. 
 
 I48 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Italy saw him no more his later life must be here dismissed 
 with a few words. 
 
 For ten years he lived in retirement at Constantinople, in 
 affluence and respected but without official recognition. In 
 559, however, the Huns — or rather the Avars, 1 who had seized 
 the country that once belonged to the Huns and, like the 
 Huns, had sent insolent envoys to exact a large tribute — 
 threatened the capture of Constantinople so seriously that 
 Justinian thought of abandoning his capital. 2 In his panic 
 he appealed to Belisarius, whose martial self-confidence seems 
 to have revived, for he made a splendid dash at the savage 
 invaders and routed them ; whereupon he was at once recalled 
 by Justinian, whose senile timidity and suspicious jealousy 
 some three years later (563) caused him to believe charges of 
 treason brought against the old soldier to whom he owed so 
 much, Belisarius was deprived of all his property and put 
 under supervision as a suspect. A few months later, his 
 innocence being apparent, restitution was made and he was 
 reappointed to some official dignity. Early in 565 he died, 
 nine months before the death of Justinian. The legend which 
 pictures him as a blind old beggar seated at the portal of a 
 church, with a plate or board bearing the words, Date obolum 
 Belisario ('Give a penny to Behsarius ! '), seems to have 
 originated in the eleventh or twelfth century. 
 
 We must now return to the year 549 and to Italy, where 
 Totila (or Baduila) and his Goths are again making them- 
 selves masters of the whole country. Once more they seize 
 the Port of the Tiber and besiege Rome ; once more the 
 famished Roman citizens are so incensed at their Byzantine 
 commanders, whom they accuse of hoarding food to sell it at 
 exorbitant rates, that they kill one of them and then persuade 
 the Isaurian sentinels to open a city gate to the enemy. Taranto 
 in the south, Rimini in the north, and many other towns then 
 surrendered to the Goths, who even crossed into Sicily and 
 overran the whole island. The invaders also collected a 
 
 1 See p. 103 n. 
 
 2 As on the outbreak of the Nika tumult. See Index. 
 
 I49 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 considerable fleet and ventured to blockade Ancona, but 
 Johannes, who since the recall of Belisarius had continued his 
 somewhat futile guerrilla, combined naval forces with those 
 of the Byzantine commander at Ravenna and inflicted such a 
 crushing defeat on the ill-trained barbarian squadron that Totila 
 once more offered peace to Justinian, proposing somewhat 
 arrogantly to restore to the Empire Sicily and Dalmatia. But 
 Justinian had already (551) appointed Narses to the supreme 
 command against the Goths. 
 
 Narses was already seventy-three years old, but seems to 
 have lost none of his former vigour and self-confidence. His 
 great wealth and his persuasive powers enabled him to col- 
 lect a large and motley host, in which were Avars, Gepidae, 
 Herulians, Persians, and other barbarians, as well as a body 
 of 2500 savages whom a little later he had to bribe to return 
 to their northern homes, so ferocious and unmanageable they 
 proved. These were I^»ngobardi, or Lombards, of whom we 
 shall soon hear a great deal. They were commanded by their 
 chieftain Audoin, father of the famous Alboin. Supported 
 by a fleet, and crossing the mouths of rivers by bridges of 
 boats, Narses led his army by land to Ravenna. He then 
 marched south, and avoiding the tunnelled Furlo pass (p. 141 n.) , 
 which was strongly held by the enemy, he kept near the sea- 
 line, and having crossed the Apennines near Sentinum and the 
 ' sepulchres of the Gauls ' (the Gauls who had fallen in the 
 great battle against the Romans eight and a half centuries 
 before) he awaited Totila's approach from Rome on the 
 plain of Tadino or Tagina, and on the day revealed to him by 
 the Virgin (under whose special protection he believed himself 
 to be) he gave battle. 1 The Goths were routed and Totila, 
 pierced by the lance of a Gepid warrior, was carried by his 
 men to a cottage at Capre, some miles from the field of battle, 
 and died there. This victory was followed up by the surrender 
 of many towns and the capture of Rome, defended only by 
 
 1 This is told us by Paul the Deacon (740-801), whose History of the Lom- 
 bards is our chief authority for the next two centuries. The fine Gothic War 
 of Procopius terminates with the death of Theia in 553 ; but there is a con- 
 tinuation of it by Agathias. See p. 182. 
 
 150 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 a small Gothic garrison, which for some time held heroically 
 the Mole of Hadrian. Then once more are sent to Constan- 
 tinople the keys of the ancient mother-city of the Roman 
 Empire, which during Justinian's reign, as Procopius reminds 
 us, had been taken and retaken five times. 
 
 Infuriated by the defeat and death of their king and the 
 capture of Rome, the Goths in the south perpetrated at this 
 time some horrible atrocities, massacring five hundred youths 
 whom Totila had retained as hostages, and many of the 
 senators whom he had taken with him as prisoners of war. 
 From this time onward the Roman Senate existed no more. 
 ' After a period of thirteen centuries/ says Gibbon, ' the 
 institution of Romulus expired. . . . Ascend six hundred years 
 and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience 
 as the slaves, or freedmen, of the Roman Senate.' 
 
 Meanwhile in the north a new Gothic army was being 
 
 collected. Theia, a valorous captain of Totila's, had made 
 
 Verona his headquarters, and still held Pavia and other 
 
 important posts ; and at Pavia he was proclaimed king. 
 
 Before attempting to move southwards it was necessary to 
 
 secure the neutrality of the Franks, who by this time had 
 
 secured a firm footing in the lake districts and even in parts 
 
 of Venetia. 1 When this was accomplished Theia crossed the 
 
 Apennines. His object was to form a junction with his brother 
 
 Aligern, who had strongly fortified himself in Cumae — that 
 
 city near Lake Avernus, the home of the Sibyl, which was 
 
 founded by ancient Greeks perhaps more than a thousand 
 
 years before the Christian era, and relics of whose mighty 
 
 ramparts still exist. By skilfully evading the imperial forces 
 
 the Gothic king reached the Bay of Naples, where, at the 
 
 mouth of the river Draco (Sarno), not far from Pompeii, 
 
 he encamped, depending on a Gothic or mercenary fleet for 
 
 his provisions. For two months the armies of Theia and 
 
 Narses, separated by the deep stream, faced each other 
 
 1 The compact seems to have involved the cession to the Pranks of Pavia, 
 together with the treasure which had been collected there by Vitiges and 
 Totila after the town had recovered from its terrible sack, by these same 
 Franks in 538. See p. 142. 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 without venturing across to attack. Then the Gothic com- 
 mander of the fleet, alarmed by the approach of hostile ships 
 from Sicily and other parts, surrendered his vessels to the 
 Byzantines, and Theia was obliged to withdraw to the slopes 
 of Mount Vesuvius. Hard pressed by famine, he decided to 
 descend and risk all in an encounter. Iyeaving their horses 
 behind them, the Goths advanced in a compact phalanx, 
 Theia at their head. ' Which when the Romans saw,' says 
 Procopius, 1 ' deeming that if he were driven back it would be 
 easy to break their whole line of battle, those who felt bold 
 enough — and they were many — united to attack him, some 
 hurling their missiles, others assailing him at close quarters. 
 But he, covering himself with his shield, received thereupon 
 the javelins, and then, suddenly darting forward, slew many of 
 the enemy. And when he saw his shield laden with javelins, 
 giving it to a shield-bearer he took from him another ; and so 
 he continued to fight for the third part of the day, until at 
 last, his shield on one occasion being laden with twelve javelins, 
 so that he could not easily lift it or repel his assailants, he 
 held it planted firmly on the ground in front of him, and while 
 dealing mortal blows with his right and parrying with his left 
 he called aloud to a shield-bearer. And when the man brought 
 him another shield, he quickly made exchange ; but for a 
 moment his side was exposed and he was struck by a javelin 
 and killed on the spot. And some Romans impaled his head 
 on a pike and bore it around, showing it to both armies.' 
 
 4. The Byzantine Supremacy 
 
 After the fall of their king the Goths fought desperately for 
 two days more, but they finally surrendered on the condition 
 of either remaining in Italy as subjects of the Emperor or 
 departing to lands beyond the limits of the Empire. Many 
 recrossed the Alps and became merged in other Germanic 
 tribes. A thousand, breaking away before the compact was 
 signed, cut their way to Pavia, where they probably joined 
 the Franks. A few scattered garrisons held out for a time. 
 
 1 This Winkelried episode is on the last page of the Gothic War. 
 152 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Theia's brother Aligern defended Cumae valiantly for more 
 than a year, until the Romans, having ' scooped the Sibyl's 
 cavern into a prodigious mine ' (says Gibbon, citing Agathias), 
 caused the collapse of the city's wall, and forced the besieged 
 to surrender. 1 
 
 But still more obstinate was the defence of Lucca. Indeed, 
 it was still uncaptured when a new barbarian deluge swept 
 over the whole face of Italy. Vast hordes of Franks and 
 Alemanni, with some 75,000 fighting men, came pouring 
 from the north, and spread themselves over all the penin- 
 sula, led by two Alemann brothers, Butelin (Buccelin) 
 and Leutar (I,othair), apparently commissioned by the un- 
 warlike, though powerful, Frank king, Theudebald, who pre- 
 ferred the security of his palace at Metz. After plundering 
 I/Ucania, Campania, and Bruttium, I^eutar rapidly withdrew 
 northwards. His army was decimated by plague, of which 
 he himself died. Butelin was attacked by Narses on the 
 river Volturnus, in Calabria. He was slain and his army was 
 defeated and dispersed ; and before the end of 554 almost all 
 trace of this strange inundation — which in its phenomenal 
 inrush and outrush reminds one of the Cimmerian deluge in 
 the days of KingGygesof I^ydia — had disappeared, and although 
 now and again we hear of the great Frank nation, massed like 
 a huge thundercloud in the north and threatening to roll down 
 on Italy, we may for the present forget its existence. 
 
 After the rout on the Volturnus and the disappearance of 
 the barbarian invaders Narses entered Rome with his captives 
 and booty. At Conza, in Campania, a fortified camp had hither- 
 to been held by about 7000 Goths. These now surrender, 
 and are sent as captives to Constantinople — probably to be 
 enrolled in the imperial army — and with this event we may 
 consider Byzantine supremacy to have been fully established 
 in Italy. The fourteen years which intervene from the final 
 overthrow of the Gothic domination to the coming of the 
 Lombards in 568 offer little to the chronicler of wars and 
 
 1 Others assert that Aligern, rather than submit to the Franks and Ale- 
 manni, escaped to Ravenna and took service in the imperial army. 
 
 153 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 other dramatic atrocities, and we know comparatively little 
 of the real history of the Italian people during this period, 
 except that by war and plague and famine they had been 
 reduced to a state of great misery and destitution and that 
 Byzantine rule, by its oppressive taxation, necessary for a 
 large standing army and viceregal magnificence, and its 
 introduction of Eastern luxury and extravagance, made things 
 perhaps even worse than they had been under the Goths. And 
 this is saying much, for in spite of much that was admirable 
 in the government of Theoderic and Totila there was little 
 hope for the country while no true union of the dominant 
 and the subject races was realized, and sincere as Theoderic's 
 attempt undoubtedly was, such union was impossible, not only 
 on account of the essential differences between the Roman 
 and the Northern character and temperament (much greater 
 than that between the natures of the Norman and of the 
 Anglo-Saxon), but also because the Goths never became, so to 
 speak, children of the Italian soil, but remained to the end 
 a military caste — an army of fortune, as Villari well calls them. 
 
 In later chapters will be given some descriptions of the state 
 of Italy during this epoch, and some remarks on Byzantine 
 art-influences and on the legislation of Justinian, as far as 
 it affected Italy. Here it will suffice to add a few words about 
 Narses. 
 
 For about fourteen years after the death of Theia at the 
 battle of Mount Vesuvius Narses was practically the military 
 Dictator or Vice-Imperator of Italy. During the first half 
 of this period he made Ravenna his chief residence ; but he 
 did not possess the title of Exarch, which was given to later 
 governors of that city. His official titles were ' Patricius ' 
 and ' Magister militum.' His rule seems to have been ex- 
 ceedingly stern, and in spite of Justinian's famous Pragmatic 
 Sanction (554), by which civil and ecclesiastical authority in 
 Italy was nominally freed from military interference, the 
 country was practically in a state of siege, the army tributes 
 became insupportable, military officialism overrode municipal 
 jurisdiction, great landowners of military rank oppressed the 
 154' 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 working classes, and prelates were imprisoned or sent for 
 punishment to Constantinople on charges of insubordination 
 against the civil government. 1 Under such conditions it 
 was no wonder that agriculture was abandoned, that public 
 buildings fell to ruin, and that famine and pestilence stalked 
 through the land. 
 
 In 560 Narses removed to Rome and took up his quarters 
 in the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine. About this 
 time, it will be remembered, the Avars were alarming Justinian 
 at Constantinople, and before he and Belisarius died in 565 
 there were other evidences of serious movements among the 
 Northern nations. The Slavs as well as various Mongol and 
 Tartar races were pushing westwards from Asia and disturbing 
 those — such as the Lombards, of whom we have already heard 
 — who had lately settled in Central and Northern Europe. 
 On the death of Justinian his nephew, Justin II, proclaimed 
 a policy of peace and military retrenchment ; but his retrench- 
 ment of the subsidies promised to the Avars by his uncle 
 caused him to realize the danger of such economies, and his 
 perplexity was increased by the arrival of an embassy of Roman 
 nobles, who informed him that rather than submit any longer 
 to the despotic rule of Narses the Italians would ere long 
 call upon the Goths or some other barbarians to save them. 
 Justin's perplexity was perhaps not relieved by the remark 
 of his imperial consort, Sophia — a remark which, if ever 
 made, doubtless came to the ears of the Roman envoys and 
 was repeated by them to Narses — that if she had her way 
 she would soon teach the old eunuch that his proper occupation 
 was spinning wool among the maids. ' I will spin her a tangle 
 that she will never unravel all her life,' is said to have been 
 the answer of Narses when, together with the contemptuous 
 words of the Empress, the envoys brought to him from Justin 
 
 1 Written shortly before the German occupation of Belgium. There was 
 at this time great friction between Justinian and the Roman prelates, the 
 Emperor endeavouring to assert his supremacy as Head of the Church. He 
 had even summoned Pope Vigilius to Constantinople, and, finding him 
 recalcitrant, had treated him with violence and had imprisoned him for half a 
 year on an island. The Pope died at Syracuse on his voyage to Italy in 555. 
 
 !55 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the order for his recall ; and his indignation seems to have 
 been increased by the nomination of an officer, Longinus, who 
 was to supersede him as governor of Ravenna. He refused to 
 accept the order of the Emperor, and in 567 he withdrew to 
 Naples, preferring to risk the perils of disobedience rather 
 than to undergo the humiliations in store for him at Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 The ' tangle ' that Narses threatened to spin was perhaps the 
 Lombard invasion of Italy — which took place in the follow- 
 ing year. Anyhow, the historian of the Lombards, Paul the 
 Deacon, who tells us the story, adds that the veteran victor 
 of the Goths was generally suspected of having been so over- 
 powered by anger and indignation that he sent messengers 1 
 inviting the Lombards to invade Italy, as Boniface had in 
 earlier days invited the Vandals to attack Africa, and as 
 Eudoxia perhaps invited Gaiseric to attack Rome. Like 
 Boniface, it is said, Narses repented too late of his act. Yielding 
 to the entreaties of Pope John III, who visited him at Naples, 
 he is said to have returned to Rome, intending to organize 
 resistance against the Lombard hordes, which were already 
 preparing to pour southward over the Alps. But ere the 
 storm burst he died, in the year 567 or 568 — unless indeed 
 we prefer to believe some old authorities a who assert that 
 he lived in Rome for five or six years after the Lombard 
 invasion and died in the same year as Pope John, namely, 573. 
 
 1 He is said to have sent them specimens of South Italian fruit to tempt 
 them, as Norman adventurers sent Spanish oranges and other fruit to their 
 fellows in Normandy. 
 
 2 I.e. the Roman Liber Pontificalis, a work evidently compiled by numer- 
 ous writers. It is an important source of information concerning Church 
 history, especially of the ninth century. Another work of the same name 
 was compiled (c. 840) by Agnellus, a priest of Ravenna, who gives much 
 valuable information, although he ingenuously admits that when he could 
 discover no facts he was wont to depend on prayer to inspire his imagination 
 aright in reconstructing the lives of long-departed pontiffs and prelates. 
 
 156 
 
KINGS, EMPERORS, AND POPES 
 476-568 
 
 The dates signify accession 
 
 ITAI.Y 
 
 Eastern Emperors 
 
 Popes 
 
 
 
 
 Simplicius 
 
 468 
 
 Odovacar 
 
 Zeno 
 
 
 
 
 476 
 
 474 
 [Basiliscus 
 
 475 
 
 usurper 
 
 
 
 
 Zeno restored 477] 
 
 Felix II 
 
 483 
 
 
 Anastasius I 
 
 
 
 
 
 491 
 
 
 Gelasius I 
 
 492 
 
 Theoderic 
 
 
 
 Anastasius II 
 
 496 
 
 493 
 
 Justin I 
 
 
 Symmachus 
 (Laurentius, 
 Antipope) 
 
 Hormisdas 
 
 498 
 514 
 
 
 518 
 
 
 John I (impri- 
 
 523 
 
 Athalaric and 
 
 
 
 soned by Theo- 
 
 
 Amalasuntha 
 
 
 
 deric) 
 
 
 526 
 
 Justinian 
 
 
 Felix III (elected 
 
 526 
 
 Theodahad 
 
 527 
 
 
 by Theoderic) 
 
 
 534 
 
 
 
 /Boniface II 
 IDioscorus 
 
 530 
 
 (deposed) 
 
 
 
 if 
 
 Vitiges (Witigis) 
 
 
 
 (Antipope) 
 
 
 536 
 
 
 
 John II 
 
 532 
 
 (captured 540) 
 
 
 
 Agapetus I 
 
 535 
 
 Hildebald 
 
 
 
 Silverius 
 
 536 
 
 54° 
 
 
 
 (dep. by 
 
 
 Heraric 
 
 
 
 Belisarius) 
 
 
 54i 
 
 
 
 Vigilius 
 
 537 
 
 Totila (Baduila) 
 
 
 
 (imprisoned at 
 
 
 541 
 
 
 
 Constantinople) 
 
 
 Theia 
 
 
 
 
 
 553 
 
 
 
 Pelagius I 
 
 555 
 
 (killed in same year) 
 
 
 
 
 
 Byzantine supremacy 
 
 
 
 John III 
 
 560 
 
 553 to 568 
 
 Justin II 
 565 
 
 
 
 
 157 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THEODERIC 1 
 
 THE chief political and military events of Theoderic's 
 life have already been related. In this chapter I 
 shall give some information about his lineage and 
 personality, his character, his legislation and government, his 
 churches, palaces, and other public works, and the legends 
 about his death. One most important item — the fate of 
 Boethius — will be reserved for the next chapter, 
 
 Theoderic belonged to the royal Gothic family of Amala, z 
 which (according to Jordanes) claimed descent from Capt, 
 one of the demigod ancestors of the race called ' Anses ' — 
 evidently the ' Asen ' of Scandinavian mythology, the super- 
 human race that inhabited Asgard, the Garden of the Asen, 
 in the Golden Age. He was, it is said, a direct descendant, 
 in the tenth generation, of Hermanric, the founder of the 
 great Gothic Empire (pp. 30, 35). When a lad of eight (462) 
 
 1 The forms ' TheodOric ' and ' Theodatus ' (for Theodahad) are assimila- 
 tions to the Greek and Roman ' Theodorus ' and 'Deod&tus.' Procopius 
 writes Qev&epixos, and doubtless Theuderic is nearest the Gothic. Compare 
 Theudemir, Theudebald, Theudelinda, etc. Theude must be, I think, the 
 Gothic thiuda (folk, people), which in O.G. is diut. Hence thiudsk {tedesco), 
 diut-sch or deutsch, means the people's language, as distinguished from Latin 
 and Romance. Diut-rich (Dietrich), or Theode-ric, would thus mean ' Prince 
 of the people.' For -ric see p. 30M. See also Theoderic's gold coin, Plate 1, 18, 
 and explanation, p. 118. 
 
 2 Amala is said to mean ' Might.' In the Nibelungenlied (which is founded 
 on very old sagas, though the poem as we have it took form only about 1200) 
 Dietrich von Bern, son of Dietmar (i.e. Theoderic of Verona, son of Theodemir), 
 is called derAmelunge, andhis men axe die Amelungen. Verona, not Ravenna, 
 is regarded in German sagas as Dietrich's capital. He had, as we shall see, 
 a palace there. Medieval legend gives him the Arena as his residence ! As 
 I know of no other edition of the Nibelungenlied with English annotations 
 (though others probably exist) , perhaps I may refer to my modernized Extracts 
 given in two booklets (price 6d.) published by Messrs. Blackie and Son. 
 
 J 59 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 he was sent by his father Theodemir as a hostage to Con- 
 stantinople, where he lived for ten years — a fact which accounts 
 fully for his sympathies with Roman and Byzantine civilization. 
 Theodemir died in 474, and his only surviving legitimate heir 
 had gone off to Italy and Gaul as a soldier of fortune ; Theoderic 
 therefore, though not the son of a legal wife, succeeded his 
 father as chieftain of the East Goths. 
 
 It has already been remarked that the personality of the 
 famous Ostrogoth king has been confused in old German 
 sagas with that of Theoderic the Visigoth, who fell at the 
 great battle on the Catalaunian plains when fighting on the 
 side of Aetius and the Romans against Attila — an event 
 that took place (451) three years before Theoderic the Great 
 was born. In these old German myths Theoderic is called 
 Dietrich of Bern (Verona), and his chief captain is Hilde- 
 brand. In the Hildebrandslied, which is one of the very 
 oldest of these German sagas, Theoderic (exiled, according 
 to some accounts, by his ancestor Hermanric, who really 
 died a century earlier) attacked Odovacar in Italy, but 
 was conquered and, together with Hildebrand, took refuge 
 at the court of Attila, with whose aid he finally conquered 
 Odovacar in a fierce battle, the Rabenschlacht, or the Strit 
 vor Rabene (i.e. the Raven-battle, or the Fight before Ravenna). 
 Here of course we have much dislocation of chronology and 
 confusion of persons. And in the ancient German epic, the 
 Nibelungenlied — a grand old poem, which in pathos and the 
 power of simple and direct expression is not unworthy to 
 be compared with Homer — still greater confusion prevails, 
 for Dietrich is here brought on to the stage not only with 
 Etzel (Attila) but with Siegfried, the dragon-slayer of Scandi- 
 navian Edda-mythology, a superhuman hero of dim pre- 
 historic times. 1 With the Siegfried myth and with Dietrich 
 sagas the poet of the Nibelungenlied has interwoven the 
 terrible massacre of the Burgundians by the Romans under 
 Aetius and the Huns under Attila, which took place in 437 
 
 1 In other sagas Dietrich is evidently confused with Siegfried himself. He 
 possesses magical powers and slays dragons. 
 l6o 
 
THEODERIC 
 
 (see p. 90). Gunther, the king of the Nibelungen — as the 
 Burgundians were called, according to the myth, after 
 they had got possession of the famous Nibelungen hoard — 
 is evidently the Burgundian king Gundocar, who perished 
 in this massacre ; but the scene of the tragedy is transported 
 from Burgundy in Gaul to Etzelnburg, the camp and palace 
 of Attila on the Danube. 
 
 There is also an old German saga on the subject of Dietrich's 
 death which intimates his mysterious disappearance. This 
 offers an interesting contrast to certain Italian myths on the 
 same subject which I shall ere long relate. 
 
 In spite of the ten years spent by Theoderic at Constanti- 
 nople during the most receptive period of his life, in spite too 
 of his seventeen extant letters (doubtless much emended 
 and polished up by his minister, Cassiodorus), and in spite 
 of many other evidences of his admiration for classic art 
 and literature, some have believed that Theoderic was so 
 illiterate as to have been unable to sign his name. The first 
 four letters of his name, says Gibbon, were inscribed (cut 
 out ?) in a plate of gold, and the king drew his pen over the 
 paper through the apertures. But it is possible that this 
 device was only used by him for signing documents with his 
 rather complicated monogram, which is found on some of 
 his coins. 1 A metal plate the apertures of which are smeared 
 over with ink or paint is surely a common device for rapidly 
 marking words or signs on wood, linen, or paper. 
 
 As we have already seen, the one great ambition of Theoderic 
 was to weld the Goths and Italians into one nation. His 
 efforts were specially directed towards encouraging the 
 civilizing influences of classical art and literature and bring- 
 ing his fellow-Goths under such influences and under the 
 restraint of constitutional law. In Rome the schools of 
 
 1 Such monograms occur on coins of Theodosius, Justinian, and other 
 Emperors, as well as on some of Odovacar (Plate I.coin 17), Athalaric, Baduila, 
 I,iutprand, etc., and on coins of cities, as Ravenna and I,ucca. Theoderic's 
 
 monogram (' Theodorus ') is generally of this form : KTl 1 ' 
 
 L l6l 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 art, rhetoric, medicine, and law were generously supported 
 by him, as also by his daughter Amalasuntha, who even 
 outdid him in erudition and in her ' Romanizing ' predilections, 
 literary studies became fashionable — partly through the 
 patronage of Romanizing Goths, partly also doubtless as a 
 protest against the illiterate barbarian or against his inso- 
 lent patronage. Virgil was publicly recited in the forum, 
 classical verse and prose were imitated, and much would-be 
 classical I,atin was used in religious and political functions. 
 The letters, rescripts, and other writings of Theoderic's chief 
 Secretary of State, Cassiodorus, and of the senator and philo- 
 sopher Boethius, are for their elegant I/atinity comparable 
 with the writings of Pliny and Seneca, if not with those of 
 Cicero. The public monuments in Rome and other cities 
 were protected by the institution of a special police and night- 
 watch, by which the Gothic king endeavoured to check the 
 vandalism of the ' Roman ' — a title of as bitter contempt 
 as the ' barbarian ' or the ' Graeculus esuriens ' of earlier days ; 
 for the natives of Rome and other Italian cities were much 
 addicted to chopping off the heads and arms of bronze statues x 
 or wrenching away bronzen plates and fastenings for the sake 
 of the metal. We hear of Theoderic offering a large sum of 
 gold pieces for the recovery of a bronze statue that had been 
 stolen in Como. 
 
 And it was not only by preserving the memorials of past 
 civilization that he tried to forward the best interests of both 
 the peoples subject to his rule. He also favoured agriculture, 
 instituted a postal system, regulated fisheries, founded iron 
 factories in Dalmatia, opened a gold-mine in the Abruzzi, and 
 drained large tracts of the Pomptine Marshes. 
 
 As regards his actual legislation, perhaps Theoderic was not 
 so wise as the Visigoth Athaulf, who, it will be remembered, 
 declared his conviction that no permanent state was possible 
 for the Goths except one founded on the laws and subject to 
 
 1 In spite of all the ravages of Goths and Vandals there was still in Rome, 
 says Cassiodorus, a multitudinous ' people ' of statues and ' droves ' of (bronzen) 
 horses. 
 162 
 
THEODERIC 
 
 the constitution of the Empire. It is true that Theoderic 
 nominally assented to the principle that ' laws were made 
 in Constantinople and only edicts in Italy/ and he seems to 
 have fully acquiesced in the fact that, even though he had 
 received the imperial insignia from Anastasius, he was neither 
 an Emperor nor even recognized at the Eastern court as 
 an hereditary king, 1 but only as a ' tyrant ' ; nevertheless he 
 issued edicts which had all the essentials of Gothic laws for 
 his kingdom, and although he retained the names of the 
 ancient Roman magistracies and paid great respect (at first) 
 to the Roman Senate, and entrusted his distant provinces in 
 Gaul and Sicily to Roman prefects, his power rested solely 
 on his army of Gothic warriors, 2 and he really governed through 
 his Gothic military counts (comites) and his privy council of 
 Gothic nobles ; for the Senate was now nothing but a digni- 
 fied and politically powerless assembly of Roman patricians — 
 such a figure-head as the Athenian Areopagus became in the 
 age of Philip of Macedon. 
 
 The coins of Theoderic afford an index of his attitude towards 
 the Empire. Gibbon asserts that his image — instead of that 
 of the Emperor — is engraved on his coins, and alleges this as 
 evidence that he ' assumed under a kingly title the whole 
 substance and plenitude of imperial prerogative.' On the 
 other hand, Villari states that ' only the Emperor could coin 
 money with his own portrait,' and leads one to infer that 
 Theoderic never assumed the prerogative of placing his own 
 image on a coin. The truth seems to be that he did sometimes 
 stamp his own effigy even on gold coins, thus assuming an 
 exclusively imperial prerogative, for one such coin has been 
 discovered ; but in Gibbon's day this fact was unknown, 
 seeing that this coin (for which see p. 118) was only found in 
 1894. 
 
 1 Procopius, however, zealous anti-Goth though he was, says : ' Theoderic 
 loved justice. He was nominally a tyrant, but really a king.' Moreover 
 an inscription found in the Pomptine Marshes, a part of which Theoderic 
 drained, gives him the title ' semper Augustus,' and in one of his later 
 rescripts he gives himself the imperial title ' Romanus princeps.' 
 
 * In the army there were also Romans, but they seemed to glory in the 
 privilege of being called Goths ! 
 
 163 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 His most important edict (Edictum Theoderici) consisted of 
 154 articles. These were founded on Roman law modified by 
 Christian sentiment. Nominally the Italians were allowed 
 to retain their legal rights, and were safeguarded against 
 illegalities on the part of the Goths, while the Goths were under 
 the military regime of the counts ; but this dual legislation 
 could not but result in great friction between the military 
 and the civil authorities and in the subordination of the latter ; 
 for the dominant military caste of arrogant barbarians naturally 
 overrode all equity, and Italians were not allowed to bear arms, 
 except as mercenaries in the Gothic ranks ; they were regarded 
 as useful shopkeepers and mechanics and artists and physicians, 
 and were much employed for collecting tribute from their 
 fellow-countrymen. The land was to a great extent given over 
 to the Gothic soldiery, who ousted the veterans of Odovacar 
 from their estates. 
 
 Thus Theoderic's attempt to fuse into one the two nations 
 produced, as it was bound to produce, intense hostility and 
 embitterment. This caused him more and more to assume an 
 absolute and tyrannical attitude. Finally religious fanaticism 
 added its venom to racial enmity. Then his innate savagery, 
 roused by opposition, proved uncontrollable. 
 
 Thus we are led to the last unhappy years of his reign — 
 to the deaths of Boethius and Symmachus, whose tragic fates 
 will be related elsewhere — and to the death of Theoderic him- 
 self, which took place some two years later. 
 
 The terror and abhorrence excited in many minds by the 
 gloomy and ferocious personality of the heretical barbarian king 
 in his latter days were doubtless the origin of the numerous 
 uncanny stories told about his death. 1 Procopius relates the 
 following, which is almost as ' creepy ' as the banquet-scene 
 in Macbeth. It was shortly after Pope John had died in 
 Ravenna prison, not long after the death of Boethius — strangled 
 in the most cruel fashion imaginable — and of Symmachus, the 
 
 1 His mysterious disappearance — like the passing of King Arthur—to 
 which allusion is made in German sagas, is of course not due to abhorrence, 
 but to the Germanic conception of him as a great hero. 
 
 164 
 
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THEODERIC 
 
 father-in-law of Boethius and the head of the Roman Senate, 
 whom Theoderic had caused to be executed — probably 
 strangled — without any trial. There was a banquet being held 
 in the palace at Ravenna, and a plate was set in front of the 
 king containing a great fish. Its protruding eyes and gaping 
 mouth — like those of a strangled man — inspired Theoderic 
 with such terror that shuddering he rose from his seat and, 
 leaving the discomfited guests, retired to his bed — where 
 violent ague and dysentery soon caused his death. Another 
 story, which Pope Gregory the Great did not feel ashamed to 
 relate with all seriousness in his Dialogues, asserted that a 
 collector of taxes who touched at the island of I^ipari was 
 told by a hermit that Theoderic was dead. ' Surely not ! ' 
 exclaimed the tax-gatherer. ' I left him quite well a short 
 time since.' ' Ay, but I saw him just now,' replied the hermit. 
 ' He was being dragged along with fettered hands by demons 
 in the presence of Pope John and Symmachus in order to be 
 cast into the crater of our volcano.' A third story, current 
 at Ravenna in later times, stated that, in order to prevent 
 the fulfilment of a prophecy that threatened him with death 
 by lightning, Theoderic roofed his mausoleum with one enor- 
 mous concave disk of stone, and always took refuge under it 
 during thunderstorms ; but the lightning pierced the mighty 
 mass and killed him, leaving the great stone split to its very 
 centre — as may be seen by everyone to-day ! 
 
 Theoderic's Mausoleum, built by himself (possibly finished 
 by Amalasuntha), consists of a massive ten-sided arched sub- 
 structure surmounted by a round edifice, once surrounded by 
 a colonnade, and still roofed with the huge monolith above 
 mentioned, which forms a shallow dome, thirty-six feet in dia- 
 meter, and weighing probably not much less than five hundred 
 tons. How this immense mass was raised to its present position 
 it is difficult to say — if it was not by magic, aided perhaps 
 by huge cranes and ropes passed through the strange pro- 
 tuberances of the mighty stone. The upper part of the 
 building, originally the chapel oi the Mausoleum, was recon- 
 secrated — ' reconciled ' — as a Catholic church (Sta. Maria 
 
 l6 5 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 delta Rotonda) after Ravenna was captured by Belisarius 
 (540), and had come again (549) into the hands of the Byzan- 
 tines and Catholics. 1 It is believed by some that the urn or 
 sarcophagus of Theoderic stood on four small columns on 
 the top of the roof ; by others that an empty urn or stone 
 coffin (a cenotaph) stood there, but that the sarcophagus with 
 the body stood in the substructure. However that may be, 
 it seems almost certain that the bones of the Arian king 
 were either burnt and dispersed, or else secretly stolen away 
 and buried by monks who were anxious to prove the story 
 of the fiends and the I/ipari volcano. Anyhow, they seem 
 to have suddenly disappeared ; and perhaps the strangest 
 part of the whole business is the fact that in 1854 what 
 was believed to be Theoderic's skeleton (formerly stolen by 
 monks) was discovered by some masons in the old cemetery 
 of Cenceda, near the city wall, and that it once more disappeared 
 (evidently this time carried off by fiends!), together with a 
 golden ornament — Villari says a golden cuirass — that, curiously 
 enough, the monks had failed to appropriate. As a set-off to 
 all these stories it should be remarked that Jordanes, who 
 was himself a Goth, is silent about them and does not even 
 intimate that Theoderic felt any pricks of conscience or 
 pangs of remorse. Indeed he pictures him on his death-bed 
 surrounded by his family and his Gothic nobles and laying 
 his hand on the head of the little Athalaric, whom, together 
 with his mother Amalasuntha, he surrenders to their loyalty 
 and affection, recommending them also to love and respect 
 the Roman people and the Roman Senate and ' to cherish 
 the friendship and favour of the Eastern itmperor above all 
 else except the love of God.' 
 
 The palaces, churches, and other public buildings erected 
 by Theoderic were evidently very numerous. He built, or 
 rebuilt, aqueducts at Rome (the Aqua Claudia and others), at 
 Terracina, Spoleto, Parma, Trient, and Ravenna (the Trajana) ; 
 
 1 Later it was the chapel of the Benedictine monastery in the vicinity, 
 probably often visited by Peter the Sinner (Dante, Par. xxi), whose 
 monastery was not far off. It was also for centuries used as the Pantheon, 
 or S. Croce, of Ravenna, and was surrounded by many tombs. 
 
 j<56 
 
THEODERIC 
 
 amphitheatres and thermae at Pavia and other places ; city 
 walls at Verona and at Rome ; basilicas at Ravenna, Rome, 
 Capua, Naples, Spoleto (where some beautiful relics of the 
 ancient S. Agostino del Crocifisso are certainly Ostrogothic), 
 and doubtless at his favourite Verona, and at Pavia ; palaces 
 at Rome — where he rebuilt parts of the Domus of the 
 Caesars ; at Terracina — if the very extensive ruins are really 
 Ostrogothic ; at Monza — where afterwards Queen Theodelinda, 
 
 Cashe op Theoderic at VERONA 
 From an old seal 
 
 according to Paul the Deacon, ' restored Theoderic's summer- 
 palace ' ; at Pavia — where the Ravennate chronicler Agnellus 
 afterwards saw the Gothic king on his war-steed depicted in 
 mosaic on the vault of the Tribunal of his great palace; at 
 Verona — where, on the site now occupied by the Castello 
 San Pietro, may perhaps be recognized relics of a palace 1 of 
 Theoderic that is delineated on an old Verona seal. I,astly, 
 at Ravenna there still exists an edifice known as Theoderic's 
 
 1 The seal bears as legend (not given in the picture) the motto conferred 
 on the city by Frederick Barbarossa after the Peace of Constance. It 
 cannot therefore date before 1183. But the palace is known to have existed 
 long after the time of Theoderic, and to have been used by the Lombard and 
 Carolingian kings and (as a fort) as late as 1400. It was demolished in 1801. 
 The building in the foreground is a portico in connexion with the city walls. 
 The dome and pointed towers are probably Carolingian. 
 
 167 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Palace. It is close to his splendid basilica, and one may feel 
 certain that it once formed a part of the royal buildings, but 
 Professor Ricci and other experts consider that it dates from 
 a later age, and that the great palace of Theoderic stood 
 somewhat nearer the city walls, amidst what are now the 
 public gardens below S. Apollinare Nuovo, where founda- 
 tions and pavements have been excavated. We are told by 
 Agnellus that it commanded a view of the sea — which, 
 however, was then much nearer the city — and that it was 
 surrounded by fine gardens and adorned with splendid mosaics 
 and statues ; and he describes a mosaic (or relief ?) of Theoderic 
 on horseback somewhat similar to that which he saw at Pavia. 
 This palace was despoiled by Belisarius (540) and by the 
 Ivombards, but many of its splendid marbles and works of 
 art remained intact until Charles the Great transported them 
 to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) to decorate his palace and the 
 cathedral which he was erecting after the model of S. Vitale. 
 
 Besides his Mausoleum and the relics of his palace 
 Ravenna still possesses, in a wonderful state of preserva- 
 tion, a very beautiful and wonderfully decorated building 
 erected by Theoderic — the basilica, now called S. Apollinare 
 Nuovo, which he built in connexion with his palace. When 
 (in 493) he first captured the city, which had been held 
 so long by Odovacar, the existing churches were probably 
 those which I have already mentioned in connexion with 
 Galla Placidia (p. 92). These churches all belonged to the 
 Catholics, and it seems that at first Theoderic contented 
 himself with appropriating, and perhaps rebuilding for his 
 Arians, the church of S. Teodoro 1 and converting the adjacent 
 Roman bath into a baptistery, which is known to-day as the 
 Battistero degli Ariani. I,ater, as we already know, he answered 
 Justin's order to close all Arian churches by shutting up or 
 converting to Arian service all Catholic churches, and the 
 so-called ' Arian cross ' was doubtless to be seen in all the 
 
 1 Given back to the Catholics after 540 and rechristened as Spirito Santo, 
 Theoderic's Aiian Baptistery being then changed into a church by additions. 
 At present nothing remains of it but the cupola, in the centre of which is a 
 very fine mosaic of Christ's baptism and the twelve Apostles. 
 168 
 
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 O tti 
 
 Pi 
 
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THEODERIC 
 
 churches of Ravenna. 1 His special basilica — the cathedral 
 probably of his Arian bishops — was the church, already 
 mentioned, which he built in connexion with his palace, 
 bringing many splendid marble columns from Rome for this 
 purpose. It was consecrated to Jesus Christ, and retained 
 that denomination until it was ' purged ' and ' reconciled ' 
 to Catholic use by Archbishop Agnellus (c. 560). It then 
 received the name of Sanctus Martinus in Caelo aureo (the 
 
 CI.ASSE, RAVBNNA 
 Mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo 
 
 'golden heaven,' as in other cases, referring to a gilded roof). 
 About 800 it was rechristened as S. Apollinare and distin- 
 guished from the other magnificent basilica of that name, 
 which had been built on the spot where the saint 2 had suf- 
 fered martyrdom just outside the walls of Ravenna's harbour- 
 town (then ' Classis'), by being called S. Apollinare Nuovo, or 
 Dentro ('Within'). 
 
 Besides its beautiful antique (Roman) marble columns 
 crowned with capitals of white marble carved into delicate 
 
 1 It is shaped something like the ' Maltese cross,' and may be seen still at 
 Ravenna, though later it was, of course, almost exterminated. 
 ifi : Apollinaris, the patron saint of Ravenna, was a disciple and friend of 
 St. Peter, and was sent by him to evangelize North Italy. He was beaten to 
 death by a heathen njpb, 
 
 169 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 foliage and basket-work in Byzantine style and surmounted 
 by the Byzantine ' dosseret ' or ' pulvino ' — a sort of second 
 capital — the basilica possesses very special value and attraction 
 on account of the resplendent and most interesting mosaics 
 with which both sides of the nave are covered. Above the 
 clerestory windows on one side are depicted thirteen miracles 
 of Christ and on the other thirteen scenes from His Passion — 
 the absence of the Crucifixion being characteristic of earlier 
 
 THEODERIC'S PAI.ACE AT RAVENNA 
 Mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo 
 
 Christian art, which shrank from the representation of the 
 agony of the dying Saviour. 
 
 Between the windows are delineated on a large scale figures 
 of prophets and saints, many of them of great dignity. All 
 these clerestory mosaics date from the reign of Theoderic, and 
 show, especially in the varied attitudes, beautifully designed 
 and shaded drapery, and finely graduated colouring of the 
 grand figures of prophets and saints, the characteristics of the 
 Roman as contrasted with the Byzantine school of art. Still 
 more magnificent are the mosaics which on both sides of the 
 nave fill the space between the summits of the arches and 
 the clerestory windows. On one side is depicted the Saviour 
 enthroned amidst four angels — a majestic group — approached 
 by twenty-five martyrs, at the further end of which pro- 
 cession stands the palace of Theoderic. On the other side 
 is the Virgin with the Child, enthroned likewise between four 
 angels and approached by the three Magi followed by twenty- 
 two virgins, and at the further end is a picture of the walled 
 170 
 
THEODERIC 
 
 town and the harbour of Classe. Now it seems quite certain 
 (for reasons that will be given in a later chapter on Byzantine 
 art) that these processions of virgins and martyrs are of later 
 date than the rest of the mosaics, and that when the church 
 was ' purged ' for Catholic use they were inserted in the place 
 of the original mosaics put up by Theoderic, which probably 
 represented the king on horseback and various processions 
 of Gothic nobles and warriors. In the picture of the palace 
 the spaces of the arches are now filled by representations of 
 curtains, evidently intended to hide the figures of Theoderic 
 himself (under the main portal) and of his courtiers or 
 warriors — an intention not entirely fulfilled, for here and 
 there one can trace a dim outline of a human form, and 
 from behind more than one of the curtains is to be seen a 
 hand projecting and clasping the column of the arch. 
 
 One more fact in this connexion is of historical interest. 
 In the background of the palace and also of the walls of Classe 
 are depicted numerous buildings, some of them most evidently 
 basilicas and others baptisteries. One cannot of course expect 
 strict accuracy in representation, but it is not likely that these 
 buildings are imaginative. I think we may be pretty sure that 
 we have here rough delineations of the old Ursian cathedral 
 and the adjacent Baptistery (still extant), and probably of 
 the original S. Giovanni Evangelista, built by Galla Placidia, 
 or of S. Teodoro, rebuilt by Theoderic, and of the Battistero 
 degli Ariani — all of which edifices I have described elsewhere. 
 It will be noticed that there is no sign of any campanile as 
 yet existing. There is also of course no sign of the two 
 magnificent Ravenna churches S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in 
 Classe, which were erected, or finished, during the somewhat 
 later period of the Gothic War and the Byzantine supremacy 
 (c. 535-50), and will be described in the chapter that treats of 
 Justinian. ) 
 
 171 
 
LINEAGE OF THEODERIC THE GREAT 
 
 Theodemir (or Dietmar) 
 (one of three brothers of the regal Amala family) 
 
 Theoderic (454~5 26 ) 
 m. Theodemunda ? m. Audefleda 
 
 I dt. of Clovis 
 
 Theudegotha 
 
 m. Alaric II, 
 
 king of Visigoths 
 
 Amalafrida 
 
 m. Thrasamund, 
 
 king of Vandals ; 
 
 killed by Hilderic 
 
 «-527 
 
 Ostrogotha Amalasuntha Theodahad 
 
 m. Sigismund m. Entharic (possibly by second 
 
 of Burgundy | marriage of his 
 
 Athalaric mother with a Goth *) 
 d. 534 
 
 THE VANDAI/ KINGS 
 
 Visimar 
 
 (killed in war with Constantius I, c. 305) 
 
 Godegisel 
 
 (killed by Franks, c. 406) 
 
 Gunderic, 409-27 
 Gaiseric (Genseric), 427-77 
 Hunneric, 477-S4 
 
 (m. Eudocia, dt. of Valentinian III) 
 Gunthamund, 484-96 
 Thrasamund, 496-523 
 
 (m. Amalafrida, Theoderic's sister) 
 Hilderic, 523-31 
 Gelimer, 531-34 
 
 (captured by Belisarius) 
 
 1 So stated by Villari. But Thrasamund died in 523, and Theodahad at 
 his accession (534) would thus have been only about ten years old. Thrasamund 
 was therefore probably his father. 
 
 172 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 FROM time to time I have mentioned some of the prin- 
 cipal writers, both Iyatin and Greek, to whom we are 
 indebted for our knowledge of much that has been 
 hitherto recorded. 
 
 It will be remembered that some of these writers were 
 ecclesiastics, or even Fathers of the Church, while others were 
 pagans or were for other reasons strongly biassed, so that 
 it is often impossible to feel quite sure of their facts or of 
 their estimates of character. Those writers who relate con- 
 temporary events are naturally the most graphic and the 
 most interesting and might be expected to furnish the most 
 accurate details; but it is just such writers who were most 
 swayed by personal and political influences. On the other 
 hand, those who compiled historical and biographical accounts 
 of days long past were wont to interweave a considerable 
 amount of legendary matter, which they sometimes evolved 
 from their own inner consciousness, as was the case with 
 Agnellus of Ravenna, who, as we have seen, when facts 
 failed him, in order that there should be no lacuna in his 
 Lives of the Pontiffs, relied on God and the prayers of the 
 brethren to inspire his imagination. For the first third 
 of the fourth century we have I^actantius, and Eusebius, 
 Bishop of Caesarea, who gives us, besides various works 
 on ecclesiastical history, a I/ife of Constantine. He ingenu- 
 ously intimates that he has related or suppressed facts 
 according as they appeared to be favourable or not to 
 the interests of religion. Then we have the Emperor Julian, 
 and his admirer I^ibanius, the rhetorician and teacher of the 
 
 *73 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Greek Fathers Basil (329-79) and Chrysostom (347 _ 4°7). 
 both of whom were copious writers and contemporaries of 
 St. Jerome, the Latin Father to whom we owe the Vulgate, and 
 of St. Gregory Nazianzen, the fierce opponent of the apostate 
 Emperor. Then we have the poet Ausonius (c. 350), tutor to 
 Gratian, and Ammianus Marcellinus, another admirer of Julian, 
 who begins his valuable work before the accession of that 
 Emperor and takes us as far as the disappearance of Valens 
 (378). He, although a native of Syrian Antioch, was, as 
 Gibbon says, ' the last subject of Rome who composed a 
 profane history in the Latin language.' Next comes the Greek 
 pagan Zosimus, a vehement assailant of Theodosius the 
 Catholic. His narrative extends for a considerable period 
 after the reign of this Emperor. Parts of the next period are 
 covered by the Epistles of St. Ambrose, the Confessions 
 and De Civitate Dei and other works of St. Augustine (354-431), 
 and the writings of his disciple Orosius. Also Jordanes and 
 Procopius, of whom we shall hear more shortly, now begin 
 to be useful, giving us information about Alaric and Galla 
 Placidia and the Vandals and the period between Gaiseric's 
 sack of Rome and the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 
 476. For the episode of Attila we are greatly indebted to the 
 writings (Excerpta, etc.) of Priscus, about whom see pp. 96-97. 
 Lastly may be mentioned Sidonius of Lyon, who married 
 the daughter of Avitus and wrote Panegyrics on him and 
 others of the ' puppet-Emperors.' His writings gained him 
 the bishopric of Clermont, but for our purposes they are of 
 small value. 
 
 After the fall of the Western Empire in 476 Latin literature, 
 as was natural, for a time disappeared ; but under the Roman- 
 izing patronage of Theoderic it experienced a brilliant, though 
 short-lived, revival in the famous De Consolatione Philosophiae 
 of Boethius and the works of Cassiodorus, especially his 
 History of the Goths, or rather the brilliant resumi of this work 
 by the Ostrogoth Jordanes. Another very notable historian 
 of this period is the Greek writer Procopius, who, as we have 
 already seen, accompanied Belisarius on his Persian, African, 
 *74 
 
WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 and Italian campaigns and wrote a graphic account of the 
 Gothic War up to the death of Theia. 
 
 Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, whose names testify 
 to a very distinguished lineage, was born about 470. In early 
 life he studied at Athens, and was a zealous Greek scholar. 
 In 510 he was consul, as had been his father before him, and 
 later M agister officiorum. His learning, his wealth, and high 
 office gained him great influence. We hear that his palace was 
 ' decorated with ivory and marble,' and there still exist letters 
 (evidently composed by Cassiodorus) in which Theoderic ad- 
 dresses him with much friendliness, begging his advice and aid 
 about such things as the state of the coinage, and about musi- 
 cal instruments, clocks moved by running water, sun-dials, 
 planetary spheres, and other mechanical devices, which he 
 wishes to send to the Burgundian king and hopes will cause 
 the barbarians much astonishment and teach them ' not to 
 fancy themselves equal to us.' In 522 both his sons, whose 
 mother was the daughter of one of the chief senators, Sym- 
 machus by name, were made consuls, though they must have 
 been still rather young for the office. Thus the life of Boethius 
 might seem to have been very happy unless we were compelled 
 to recognize the truth of Solon's ' ancient saying,' as Sophocles 
 calls it, that we should ' look to the end ' — compelled also still 
 more to remember the words of Boethius himself : ' In every 
 adversity the most unhappy kind of misfortune is to have 
 been happy.' 
 
 It will be remembered that towards the end of his reign 
 Theoderic was much embittered by the hostility that his 
 well-meant efforts had met with, especially in Rome, where a 
 very strong patriotic and anti-Goth feeling prevailed. Doubt- 
 less some of these patriots were in correspondence with Con- 
 stantinople, and there was no lack of informers ready to 
 excite suspicion against Romans of distinction. A Goth 
 partisan, a certain official named Cyprian, came forward to 
 accuse the senator Albinus. Hereupon Boethius, with a 
 courage — or a recklessness — inspired by innocence, hastened 
 
 175 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 from Rome to interview Theoderic in his Verona palace. ' If 
 Albinus is guilty, then I am guilty — and the whole Senate is 
 guilty/ he is said to have exclaimed. 1 But instead of rightly 
 interpreting these courageous words Theoderic turned furiously 
 upon him, accusing him, as Boethius himself tells us, of having 
 in certain letters expressed hopes that Rome might recover 
 her freedom (libertatem sperasse Romanam), He was sent to 
 Pavia and there imprisoned. The charges were referred to 
 the Senate, or perhaps a commission sent by the Senate, which 
 (doubtless overawed) adjudged him guilty. To what punish- 
 ment he was at first condemned is not known. It is known 
 that he composed a Defence, but it was not heard, and, unlike 
 the Apology of Socrates, it has not survived. His place of 
 imprisonment is not known for certain. Some speak of a 
 ' Rocca ' (fortress) near Pavia, others of a building near the 
 former church of S. Zeno, others of the baptistery of the then 
 cathedral — possibly S. Zeno, which, like most of Pavia's 165 
 once existing churches, has disappeared. 
 
 During several months of terrible suspense he occupied his 
 mind by composing his Apologia and his De Consolatione 
 Philosophiae. Finally, Theoderic, perhaps incensed by the 
 discovery of some plot, and furious at the sympathy which 
 the Romans showed for the condemned senator and his 
 family, and perhaps at the openly expressed grief of his wife's 
 father, Symmachus, determined to put Boethius to death. 
 The sentence was carried out with the most barbarous in- 
 humanity. A cord was tied round his head and tightened 
 until his eyes almost started from their sockets ; then his life 
 was beaten out of him with clubs. This took place, it is said, 
 in the Agro Calvenzano, on the road between Milan and 
 Pavia, and he was probably buried there, for about the year 
 1000 the Emperor Otto III — the same who opened and 
 probably pillaged Charles the Great's tomb at Aachen — 
 
 1 Gibbon (followed by Villari) says that he also exclaimed : ' And if I had 
 known anything I would not have told you ' (Si ego scissetn tu nescisses). 
 This, according to Gregorovius, is incorrect. Boethius himself says he would 
 have used these words of Julius Cassus, whose death is related by Seneca, »/ 
 there had been anything to be gained by so doing. 
 176 
 
13. S. PlETRO IN ClKI, D'uRO 
 
 Pavia 
 
 176 
 
WRITERS OF THE AQE 
 
 caused his body to be carried to the Lombardic church 
 S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro in Pavia, 1 where his tomb, not far 
 from that of S. Augustine, was to be seen for more than eight 
 centuries. It seems to have disappeared when S. Pietro was 
 dismantled and for a time abandoned (1844-75), for it is no 
 longer to be seen in the restored church (see Figs. 13 and 52). 
 
 A few months after the death of Boethius his father- 
 in-law, Symmachus, was accused, loaded with chains, taken to 
 Ravenna, and there put to death, probably with torture, and 
 certainly without any trial. 
 
 Thus, in spite of his edicts and his professed admiration 
 for Roman law, the ferocious military despotism of the Gothic 
 king overrode all equity ; for all old writers agree in reject- 
 ing as false the charges brought against Boethius. That he 
 appealed to the laws and demanded an open trial both for 
 Albinus and for himself is known, and that Symmachus did 
 so — however hopeless of success — we may feel sure. It seems 
 evident that Athaulf was right when he said that the Goths 
 were incapable of constitutional self-government — an art that 
 their descendants have yet to learn. 
 
 The work that Boethius composed in prison is not only, to 
 use Gibbon's elegant phrase, ' worthy of the leisure of Plato 
 or Tully,' not merely a literary composition of very high 
 merit, but, from the circumstances under which it was 
 written, one of the most real and pathetic books in the world. 
 It stands apart from all works of fictitious pathos, together 
 with a very small number of other writings, among which 
 even the Apology of Socrates or the Phaedo itself can scarcely 
 claim a place. Its external form is to some extent dramatic. 
 Philosophy, a lady of august presence, such as Athene herself, 
 appears to Boethius in prison, where he has been writing verses 
 with the help of the Muses and is silently pondering on what 
 he has written. She somewhat sternly dismisses the siren 
 daughters of Memory and questions him. H!e describes his 
 woes and defends his conduct : he will leave a record of 
 
 1 ' The body from which this sacred soul was chased lieth, down on earth 
 in Cieldauro ' (Dante, Par. x, 127). 
 
 M I77 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 his unjust treatment; he denounces Fortune and, like Job, 
 appeals to the tribunal of God. Philosophy begins to console 
 him, at times (in spite of her dismissal of the Muses) breaking 
 forth into song. She then bids him make profession of his 
 beliefs, and on this subject they hold a long dialogue both in 
 prose and in verse — the verse, which is full of noble thoughts 
 and is sometimes of great beauty, being Horatian in language 
 and also in form, but introducing as many as twenty-six 
 variations of such metres as the Anacreontic, Sapphic, Ascle- 
 piadic, etc. Philosophy finds that Boethius is ignorant of himself 
 (an allusion to the Delphic maxim ' Know thyself ') and urges 
 him not to trouble himself about the wench Fortune. ' Ah,' 
 he exclaims, ' these are fine words, but misery is real.' She 
 then reminds him of his former happiness — of his wife, his 
 sons, his honours, his wealth. To this he answers : ' In every 
 adversity the worst kind of unhappiness is to have been 
 happy ' — a sentiment which has been echoed by many a writer, 
 and has been harmonized in immortal verse by Dante. 1 But 
 Philosophy points out that he still possesses the love of his 
 family and much else that should make him happy, and 
 inveighs against ambition and pours disdain on fame. He 
 replies that it was not any ordinary ambition that made him 
 take part in public affairs, but the wish to make use of his 
 powers for the good of his fellow-men. She approves, but 
 again dwells on the sovereign power of i/ove, singing its praises 
 in a fine lyric as that which binds the universe together in 
 harmony ; ' and well, too, were the race of men if the same 
 love that governeth the heaven governed your minds also,' 
 for there is no law so high as that which love makes for itself : 
 
 Quis legem dat amantibus ? 
 Major lex amor est sibi. 
 
 He then begs her tell the nature of true felicity. This she 
 
 1 Inf. v, 121. For the echoes in Chaucer and other writers perhaps I may 
 refer, to my edition of annotated selections from Dante's Inferno published 
 by the Oxford University Press. In Dante's case it is no mere echo. The 
 words of Francesca are fraught with as deep a pathos as the words of Boethius 
 himself. 
 
 I 7 8 
 
14- BoeThius 
 From the painting by Giovanni Santi 
 
 178 
 
WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 does by describing false happiness and bidding him imagine 
 the converse — the felicity that consists in the contempt of all 
 earthly things and in looking to God as the swmmum bonum. 
 This leads to a long discussion (still in verse and in prose) on 
 the nature of God and of the soul and of animals and of plants. 
 Then Boethius starts the old difficulty about the existence of 
 evil, and when this is solved as well as one can expect, he 
 leads on to the mysteries of human free-will and God's pre- 
 science, of predestination and chance, of prayer, of thought 
 and sensation and volition, and other abstruse questions. 
 Philosophy does not undertake to solve all these problems, 
 but insists that ' hope and prayer are not vain delusions and 
 when sincere cannot but be effectual.' Thus the Consolation 
 of Boethius ends. The rest is silence ; but Philosophy remains 
 by his side till all is over. 
 
 It has been hotly asserted by some modern writers, chiefly 
 German, that Boethius was a pagan and that various doctrinal 
 works against Arians and other heretics with which he is 
 sometimes credited are forgeries. Certainly it seems strange 
 that his chief work makes no allusion to Christianity. And 
 yet in earlier times he was always regarded as a Christian and 
 as a Christian martyr, and not only was his body buried in 
 ' Cieldauro ' beside that of the great Christian Father, but his 
 ' sainted spirit ' has been imagined in Paradise 1 by the great 
 Italian poet whose poem holds up a mirror to the beliefs of 
 the Middle Ages and, as Carlyle says, ' renders them for ever 
 rhythmically visible.' 
 
 There is a version of the De Consolatione by King Alfred — 
 who, by the way, also translated writings of the elder Augustine, 
 of Orosius, of Gregory the Great, and of Bede, as well as com- 
 posing a version of the Psalms. His translation (c. 897) is 
 very fine, and here and there he introduces a good deal of his 
 own ; indeed, Book V is almost rewritten by him, and gains 
 
 1 Par. x, 125, where St. Thomas Aquinas points out to Dante the star-like 
 spirit of Boethius and describes him as one who ' proves the world fallacious 
 to him who listens well.' In the Convito Dante calls Cicero and Boethius 
 his ' guides to the gentle lady Philosophy.' In Inf. v Francesca, speaking 
 to Dante, calls Boethius (or possibly Virgil) il tuo dottore. 
 
 179 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 thus an additional interest as the spontaneous expression of a 
 great king's contempt for worldly greatness. Even a verse 
 translation of the Metra, the verses of Boethius; is attributed 
 to Alfred. Chaucer also translated the Consolation. His 
 English is rough and unmusical in comparison with the original, 
 and of the Metra he gives nothing but a rather bald prose 
 version. In his own poems he now and then translates or 
 imitates passages from the work of Boethius, but never with 
 much success. How strongly the book appealed to former 
 generations is evident from the fact that almost every great 
 writer during the Middle Ages mentions, quotes, or imitates 
 Boethius. 
 
 The name of Cassiodorus l has been already frequently 
 mentioned. He was born about 480. Introduced by his 
 father, who was a high official, he entered as a young man the 
 service of Theoderic. For many years he was Secretary and 
 Minister of State to the Gothic king, and afterwards to 
 Athalaric, Amalasuntha, Theodahad, and even Vitiges. But 
 he was now about sixty years of age, and his long experience 
 had convinced him that the idea, which he had shared with 
 Theoderic, of welding together into one the Gothic and the 
 Italian nations was unrealizable. He therefore withdrew 
 from public life, and near his native town Squillace, in Calabria, 
 he founded (c. 539) a hermitage and a monastery — the latter 
 somewhat on the model of the world-famed monastery of 
 Monte Cassino, over which St. Benedict had already been 
 ruling for some ten years. Here he passed the rest of his 
 long life, devoting his time to contemplation and intellectual 
 work. It is probable that he lived until the I/Ombard invasion 
 of 568, and by some he is believed to have survived till 575. 
 In his ninety-third year he is said to have written an educa- 
 tional tractate for his monks, and during the thirty preceding 
 
 1 Some German writers prefer the form Cassiodorius, but Hodgkin (Letters 
 oj Cassiodorus) is probably right in retaining the ordinary form. The full 
 name is Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus. His father held high office under 
 Odovacar and Theoderic, and his grandfather was a friend of Aetius and 
 visited Attila as envoy 
 
 180 
 
WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 years he composed his great work, the Historia Getarum, as 
 well as various Biblical commentaries and other theological 
 works, and edited a Church History, which was compiled by 
 his disciple Epiphanius from Greek authors, and which 
 remained for centuries a popular text-book. I have already 
 had occasion, and shall again have occasion, to mention 
 several of the many letters that he wrote in the name of 
 Theoderic and other Ostrogoth sovereigns. They are exceed- 
 ingly interesting and valuable, and at times natural and 
 amusing ; but their florid and pompous style is often weari- 
 some. 
 
 The Historia Getarum, in twelve books, was written to 
 magnify the ancestors of Theoderic. Cassiodorus wrongly 
 believed the Goths to be the same race as the ancient Thracian 
 Getae. He traced the lineage of the Amali back to the sky- 
 god of the Getae, Zalmoxis or Zamolxis, of whom Herodotus 
 tells, 1 and claimed the Amazons as ancient Gothic heroines. 
 This History has not survived, but we possess a resume of it 
 written by a Goth, Jordanes or Jornandes, who is said to 
 have belonged to the royal family of the Amali. It seems to 
 have been written at Constantinople about the year 551 — 
 that is long before the death of Cassiodorus — and, if we are to 
 believe Jordanes himself, its composition was a very remark- 
 able feat of memory, or must have been the product of a 
 very fertile imagination, for he tells us that he had not had 
 the original work (twelve volumes, be it remembered) in his 
 hands for more than three days. In his Getica (from which I 
 have cited passages about the origin of the Goths, and about 
 Attila, etc.) Jordanes, as is but natural, shows great admira- 
 tion for the Gothic race, but he shared fully in the enthusiasm 
 of Cassiodorus and his royal master for Roman civilization 
 and in the hope of seeing the two nations fused into one — a hope 
 that probably he, as they, outlived. In his later days he, like 
 Cassiodorus, took to a religious life. 
 
 1 See iv, 94-96. Herodotus does not feel quite sure whether Zalmoxis was 
 a great man or ' nothing but a native god of the Getae.' 
 
 I8l 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 As a literary performance the historical work x of Procopius 
 stands on a far higher level than the Getica. It certainly gives 
 evidence of the late age in which it was written; but it shows 
 a wonderful gift for stylistic imitation. In reading the narra- 
 tive — a description, maybe, of a battle, or of the horrors of a 
 siege or a pestilence — one might often imagine that it was a 
 page out of the Peloponnesian War, or a very successful 
 academic exercise in Thucydidean Greek prose with a soupgon 
 of Herodotean naivete. Indeed, one is at times rather apt to 
 suspect that in his literary ardour and imitative zeal the 
 writer may have subordinated fact to style. But besides its 
 scholarly characteristics the work of Procopius possesses a 
 considerable element of original thought and much descriptive 
 power, Moreover its value as a chronicle is inestimable, for 
 it is almost the only contemporary record that we possess of 
 the campaigns of Belisarius and of Narses. 
 
 Procopius was a native of Caesarea, in Palestine. As a young 
 man he came to Constantinople in the reign of AnaStasius. 
 He seems to have risen quickly into notice, for about 528 he 
 was chosen by Justinian to accompany Belisarius on his 
 Persian campaign, probably in the position of secretary 
 and political adviser. like Polybius, the Greek historian of 
 the later Punic Wars, who accompanied Scipio to Africa and 
 was present at the destruction of Carthage, Procopius followed 
 Belisarius also to Africa, and here beheld Carthage captured. 
 After the overthrow of the Vandal empire in Africa he joined 
 the Byzantine leader in Italy, and, as we have seen, proved 
 his gifts as a man of action during the siege of Rome and 
 on other occasions. His Gothic War ends with the battle on 
 Vesuvius and the death of Theia. Its final sentence is strongly 
 reminiscent of Thucydides : ' Thus terminated the eighteenth 
 year of the Gothic war, the history of which was written by 
 Procopius.' 
 
 Soon after this he returned to Constantinople, where his 
 
 1 The whole work on the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars of Belisarius 
 is in eight books, and the history is continued (after 553) in five books by 
 Agathias. 
 
 182 
 
WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 hero Belisarius was living somewhat under a cloud, and he 
 probably accompanied him on the campaign against the 
 Avars in 559, which was terminated by the jealousy of Jus- 
 tinian (p. 149). A year or two later he was made City Prefect. 
 It is not known when he died. 
 
 Very possibly his somewhat adulatory narrative of the cam- 
 paigns of Belisarius won him and his book a cold reception 
 at the court of Justinian. It is surmised that in order to 
 propitiate the Emperor he composed a book (De Aedificiis 
 Justiniani) describing the chief buildings erected under 
 Justinian's auspices — a work that is of great interest to the 
 student of architecture. Another book that was probably 
 written by him, or inspired by him, is the Anecdota, which 
 by its Latin translator is called the Historia Arcana (' Secret 
 History ') . It professes to give revelations of a scandalous 
 state of things existing behind the scenes at the imperial 
 court, and pours floods of the bitterest satire on Justinian 
 as well as on his consort Theodora — the ci-devant circus- 
 girl. If this book is by Procopius, he probably wrote it 
 late in life, when even his De Aedificiis had failed to obtain 
 him favour at court, or when his indignation at the treatment 
 meted out to Belisarius had at last caused the cup of his long- 
 suffering to overflow. The satire was not published until after 
 Justinian's death in 565. 
 
 The description by Procopius of the terrible famine of 538 
 has already been given (p. 144), and also that of the battle on 
 Vesuvius (p. 152). Here I shall add a brief abstract of his 
 account 1 of the great plague which visited Constantinople 
 about 544, and which continued its ravages intermittently 
 during twenty years, 2 reaching Gaul (as we learn from Gregory 
 
 1 Persian War, ii, 22. The passage has connexion, not with the first Persian 
 campaign of Belisarius, but with the short and unsuccessful campaign of 542-43 
 (p. 144). It has the impress of personal experience, though on account of its 
 plagiarisms it reads more like sensational ' copy ' than the similar accounts by 
 Xhucydides, Iyucretius, Boccaccio, and Defoe. Procopius returned to Constan- 
 tinople in 540 with Belisarius, and evidently accompanied him on his Persian 
 campaign and came back with him c. 543. Late in 544 they returned to Italy. 
 
 2 It broke out again with great violence in 564. Justinian himself was 
 attacked, but recovered. 
 
 183 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of Tours) and probably Britain. The close imitation of 
 Thucydides, both in general form and in particular expres- 
 sions, will be interesting to scholars ; I shall therefore here 
 and there quote the original Greek where the language in 
 the two writers is notably similar. 
 
 He begins by saying that ' men of presuming intellect ' may 
 perhaps attempt to discover the source of such things, which 
 fall like lightning from heaven on the human race (rS>v 
 i^ovpavoviTria-KtnrrovTwv), but only God knows whence they 
 come. No circumstance of country or climate or season or 
 race of men affected its course ; it went its way, destroying 
 or sparing as it willed. 'Therefore let everyone, whether 
 savant or astrologer, speak on the subject according to his 
 views, but I will record in what land it first appeared and will 
 proceed to describe how it killed people. . . .' (XeyeVw fuv o$v 
 (i>S e/cao-TO? vepi ovtwv yiyvuxricei km <ro$urn\<i kcu fiereatpoXoyos 
 . . . iyi) Si . . .) Procopius believed that it first appeared in 
 Egypt, and found its way through Palestine in two years to 
 Constantinople, where he himself was at that time (viz. 543-44). 
 At first people had curious experiences of meeting spectral 
 shapes and being wounded by them, and were immediately 
 afterwards attacked by the pestilence. They try exorcism and 
 prayer, but fall dead in the churches. Others shut themselves up 
 in their houses in dread of being ' called ' by demons. But even 
 in dreams the horrid apparitions come and call them. The first 
 symptom was sudden fever, though externally (as also Thucy- 
 dides says) the body was not hot to the touch. In a day or two 
 a bubo formed in the groin or axilla, causing the sufferers to roll 
 in agony on the ground or cast themselves into the sea or into 
 wells. On dissection terrible carbuncles (avdpaices) were found 
 inside the glandular swellings. The whole body, moreover, was 
 covered with an eruption of black pustules as big as a lentil 
 (iiyvOei <p\vKralvaii fieXalvais ovov <paKov fjLeyeOos. Thucydides has 
 ipXvKTalvais fwepais icai. eX/ceerti/ e£ijv<Vdy). If the bubo burst 
 recovery sometimes followed, but many who survived were 
 attacked by paralysis, especially of the tongue. ' Now when 
 all the sepulchres that already existed were full, and all 
 184 
 
WRITERS OF THE AGE 
 
 the men who had been employed to bury the dead in the 
 open country had disappeared, then those whose duty 
 it was to undertake the burial of corpses, being no 
 longer able to keep pace with the number of those who 
 died, ascended the towers of the city-wall in the Sycaean 
 ward, and having removed the roofs threw the dead bodies 
 pell-mell down into the towers ; and when they had stuffed 
 them all, so to speak, brim-full, they put the roofs on again. 
 And the evil stench that thence reached the city increased 
 the distress of the inhabitants, especially if a wind happened 
 to be blowing from that quarter.' 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ST. BENEDICT 
 
 WE have lately seen how Cassiodorus, after some 
 thirty years of high office as the counsellor and 
 intimate friend of several sovereigns, withdrew 
 from the world and spent the last third of his life in the 
 seclusion of a monastery on the remote southern sea-coast of 
 Calabria. This case is one of many which bear testimony to 
 the very strong attraction exercised in these earlier ages of 
 the Church by monasticism. 
 
 It will be remembered that the wild extravagances of 
 Egyptian and Eastern anchoretism, when introduced into 
 Italy, produced a movement which, modified by the less 
 excitable nature of the Western and Northern races, resulted 
 in a very widespread adoption of monastic life. Favoured by 
 the Roman Church, which had been won over by the arguments 
 of Athanasius and had recognized the wisdom of making use 
 of the new religious enthusiasm, monasticism spread with 
 great rapidity to the most distant bounds of the Western 
 Empire, and even beyond these bounds — to the wilds of 
 Ireland and Wales, where, until the British Church was almost 
 exterminated by the pagan Angles, some notable monasteries 
 formed the centres of missionary work and of intellectual life. 
 In Italy during these ages there were among all classes many 
 who naturally yearned for the sweets of solitude and contem- 
 plation, wearied out as they were by the endless horrors and 
 dangers of war and the endless bickerings of religious discord, 
 and who found no satisfaction for the higher instincts of faith, 
 hope, or charity amid their formal professions of submission to a 
 Church which seemed to demand nothing but a superstitious 
 1 86 
 
ST. BENEDICT 
 
 veneration for certain abstruse, and often unintelligible, 
 formulae and for the miraculous powers of old bones and 
 other such fetishes. All forms of monachism are due, as 
 will be generally conceded, to perversions of instincts the free 
 exercise of which in ordinary life is amply provided for by 
 Christianity. Of these forms the most perverted was of 
 course the tragically grotesque phenomenon of Oriental 
 anchoretism. Western monasticism was very much more 
 reasonable, and if we take into account the political, eccle- 
 siastical, and social conditions of that age (so essentially 
 different from ours) and the almost entire absence of any out- 
 lets for religious, intellectual, and philanthropic enthusiasms, 
 we may find the practice of withdrawal from such an unsatis- 
 factory world not unjustifiable, especially when the ideals of 
 solitude and self -salvation were succeeded by those of religious 
 brotherhood and hard work — whether manual or intellectual — 
 and still more when, in a later day, self-denying service 
 to the needs of others inspired St. Francis and his first 
 disciples. 
 
 Cassiodorus founded a hermitage for solitaries and a mon- 
 astic community the members of which devoted their time 
 to religious exercises, contemplation, and intellectual work. 
 Except that in Benedictine monasteries manual rather than 
 intellectual work was regarded as indispensable, the great 
 difference between Benedict and Cassiodorus, as founders, is 
 not at first sight apparent. But St. Benedict was not merely 
 the founder of monasteries ; he was the creator of the first 
 great monastic Order of Western Christianity and is the ' patri- 
 arch' of four other important Orders of reformed Benedic- 
 tines. 1 Whether the invention of monastic Orders — which, 
 
 1 Camaldolenses, Vallombrosians, Carthusians, Cistercians. It should be 
 remembered, firstly, that St. Macarius and St. Basil had already founded a 
 Rule and an Order in the East, and, secondly, that though St. Augustine (of 
 Hippo) died just half a century before the birth of St. Benedict, and though 
 he is said to have instituted a community and a Rule, no actual Order of 
 Augustines existed till about the ninth century, when Leo III incorporated 
 all the non-monastic clergy into an Order under the so-called Augustine Rule. 
 Later, Innocent IV and Alexander IV brought all hermits and independent 
 confraternities under the same Rule (the ' Austin Friars '). In order to effect 
 
 I8 7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 curiously, took place in the very year in which Justinian 
 expelled the last philosophers from Athens — was a misfortune 
 or not for mankind need not here be discussed. That it has 
 affected enormously, for good or for evil — perhaps for both 
 — the evolution of European civilization is unquestionable, 
 and this lends a special interest to the facts connected with 
 the foundation of that Order which so rapidly drew into its 
 organization almost all the monastic institutions of Western 
 Europe, 1 and which for seven centuries — that is, till the 
 days of St. Francis and St. Dominic — was, if we except the 
 early, half-organized Augustines, the only Order of Western 
 Christianity. 
 
 The life of St. Benedict is related fully and with many 
 fantastic legendary accretions by Gregory the Great, who is 
 said by some to have been born on the very day on which the 
 saint died (March 21, 543). Benedict (b. 480) was a native of 
 Norcia, a little town in the Umbrian mountains to the west of 
 Spoleto. When a youth of about fifteen he went to study 
 at Rome — then under the rule of Odovacar — but the life 
 led by his fellow-students became so intolerable to him that 
 he withdrew to the solitudes of the Apennines, near to the 
 sources of the Arno. He had been followed thither by his 
 nurse, or foster-mother, whose affectionate anxiety for his 
 creature comforts, coupled with the obtrusive admiration of 
 the country people for his saintly life and his early-developed 
 gift of wonder-working, compelled him to escape. He took 
 refuge in a cave, or cleft in the rocks, near Subiaco, on the 
 Upper Anio — some fifteen miles south of Vicovaro, Horace's 
 Varia, which is not very far from the site of his Sabine farm in 
 the Digentia valley. 
 
 At Subiaco he lived for some time as an anchoret in his 
 cave, his food being supplied by a monk, and afterwards by 
 shepherds, who let it down into his grotto by means of a rope. 
 But he must sometimes have left his retreat, if it was during 
 
 this a miracle was considered necessary, so St. Augustine appeared in a vision 
 and threatened recalcitrants with the scourge. 
 
 1 Charles the Great had inquiries made and found that no other monks but 
 Benedictines were discoverable in his Empire. 
 188 
 
Ij. MONASTERO DEI, SACRO SpECO 
 
 Subiaco 
 
ST. BENEDICT 
 
 this period that he used to punish himself for amorous 
 memories of a Roman beauty by rolling naked in a thorny 
 thicket — which henceforth brought forth roses, the lineal 
 progenitors, it is said, of those shown to the modern visitor in 
 the garden of the monastery. 1 
 
 At length Benedict's saintly life induced the monks of 
 Vicovaro to choose him as their abbot. His Rule, however, 
 proved too strict for the dissolute community. They tried to 
 poison him ; but when he blessed the cup presented him it 
 fell from the murderer's hand — an incident depicted in many 
 Benedictine paintings. Then he returned to his former 
 haunts, and being there joined by many disciples he took up 
 his abode in the ' Sacred Cavern,' rather higher up the hill 
 than his original grotto, 2 and caused to be erected in the 
 neighbourhood twelve monasteries, among them the original 
 of what later was dedicated as a convent to his sister Scholas- 
 tica. This convent, with large additions made in the eleventh 
 and thirteenth centuries, forms at present one of the sights of 
 Subiaco. It was in this building that in 1465 the first Italian 
 printing-press was set up. Benedict seems to have acted on the 
 principle of avoiding rather than resisting evil. Certain clerics, it 
 is said, jealous of his success, hired women to corrupt the morals 
 of his monks and to disturb his earthly Paradise. In a sudden 
 access of disgust he abandoned his twelve monasteries and 
 once more set out to seek some peaceful retreat. He wan- 
 dered southwards and arrived at Cassinum — or San Germano, 
 as it was called in the later Middle Ages 3 — about half- 
 way between Rome and Naples. Above the town, which lies 
 on the Rapido, a tributary of the I^iris, rises Monte Cassino, 
 a bare limestone ridge some 1700 feet high. Here still existed 
 
 1 A variation of the legend affirms that the brambles and briers, diligently- 
 propagated, existed till the time of St. Francis, at whose visit to Subiaco 
 (1216) they changed into roses — a very suggestive allegory ! 
 
 2 The sagro Speco, in connexion with the lower of two churches, has its 
 rocky walls adorned with old frescos, mostly of the thirteenth century, 
 as have also the churches. In one of the side chapels is an ancient portrait 
 of St. Francis without stigmata or nimbus ; therefore evidently dating from; 
 before 1228. 
 
 3 It has been called Cassino again only since 1871. 
 
 189 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 a temple and grove with statues and altars dedicated to 
 Apollo and Venus, and sacrifice, it is said, was still made to 
 these deities — or demons — by the country-folk. Benedict 
 preached Christ to this ' folk deluded ' and persuaded them to 
 demolish the shrine and the altars of the ' high place ' and to 
 cut down the grove, and on this site he built shrines to John 
 the Baptist and Martin of Tours. Then still higher up the 
 mountain he founded (in 529) what for more than thirteen 
 centuries has been venerated as the chief monastery of Western 
 Christendom, and what during the Dark Age of European 
 history was the chief of the rare refuges of ancient art and 
 learning, and harboured within its walls many a world-weary 
 prince, warrior, and man of letters. 
 
 From Monte Cassino one overlooks the beautiful valley of 
 the I4ris, so extolled in classic verse — 
 
 rura, quae Liris quieta 
 Mordet aqua, taciturnus amnis. 1 
 
 Westward lies Aquinum, birthplace of Juvenal and of the 
 ' Angelic Doctor,' while to the south one catches glimpses of 
 the sea and the country of Minturnae, Caieta, and Sinuessa — 
 all of which names awaken memories of Horace and Virgil, 
 and of the days when Rome was mistress of the known world. 
 And then one thinks of the long Dark Age that followed 
 the fall of Rome, and tries to realize how from these very 
 walls, first built by Benedict, men gazed down on the 
 devastating bands of countless invaders — Goths, and Byzan- 
 tines, and Lombards, and Saracens, and Normans, and 
 Germans, and French, and Spaniards — moving, as it were, in 
 almost continuous line through the vista of nigh a thousand 
 years. 2 
 
 The site, and the coming of Benedict, are described by 
 
 1 Horace, Carm. i, 31. The lower course of the I,iris is now called the 
 Garigliano. 
 
 2 An old Monte Cassino record, known as La cronaca di San Benedetto, 
 written about 848-68, gives a graphic account of the devastations of the 
 Saracens in the surrounding country and the dangers and terrors to which the 
 monks were exposed for a long time. In 883 the place was captured and 
 burnt by the Mohammedans. See Count Balzani's Cronache italiane. 
 
 I90 
 
ST. BENEDICT 
 
 Dante — or rather by the saint himself ; for Dante meets him 
 in the sphere of Saturn amidst the spirits of contemplation, 
 who in the form of star-like splendours are ascending and 
 descending the great golden stair that, like Jacob's ladder, 
 slopes up from earth to the highest heaven. ' That mountain/ 
 says St. Benedict, ' on the side of which Cassino lies was 
 frequented of old upon its summit by a folk deluded and 
 evilly disposed ; and I am he who first carried up thither the 
 name of Him who brought Truth down to the earth ; and so 
 abundant was the grace of God that shone upon me that I 
 drew away the neighbouring towns from that impious worship 
 which once seduced the world.' Dante then makes the saint 
 lament the degeneracy of his Order and speak with praise 
 and affection of St. Romuald of Ravenna, the founder (c. iooo) 
 of the Reformed or White Benedictines, known as the 
 Camaldolesi. 1 Romuald revived, and made even more strin- 
 gent, the original 'New Rule' of Benedict, the seventy-three 
 articles of which, founded on the teachings of St. Paul and 
 partly borrowed from the Oriental Rule of St. Macarius, 
 enjoined, among other things, community of goods, absolute 
 obedience, absolute equality, and manual labour — ignoring all 
 distinctions of class or race and forbidding leisure (otiositas) 
 as an enemy of the soul, on the principle that laborare est 
 orare. 
 
 Towards the end of his life Benedict was joined by his sister, 
 St. Scholastica, who took up her residence in a cell some 
 distance from the monastery. She is remembered by the 
 lover of Italian art by the fact that two incidents con- 
 nected with her are found depicted in Benedictine paintings. 
 Sometimes she is represented praying that her brother, who 
 was visiting her and wished to return, should be prevented — 
 a prayer that was fulfilled by the sudden outburst of a violent 
 storm. Other pictures represent Benedict watching a bird 
 flitting away towards heaven — the bird signifying the soul 
 
 1 So called probably from the ground or house (Campo or Ca' Maldoli) 
 given by a count of this name to Romualdo. Camaldoli Monastery is in 
 the Casentino, not so very far from Vallombrosa. 
 
 I 9 ! 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of his sister, who died two days after the afore-mentioned 
 visit. 
 
 About 542 the Gothic king Baduila (Totila) visited 'St. 
 Benedict. The saint is said to have recognized him though 
 disguised, to have reproved him sternly for his devastations, 
 and to have prophesied his death — which, however, did not 
 take place for ten years. Shortly afterwards, in March 543, 
 Benedict himself died. His body, as well as that of his sister, 
 is said to lie under the high altar in the abbey church of Monte 
 Cassino. This church (entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth 
 century) contains little or nothing 1 in its architecture or 
 decorations that is older than the eleventh century, which is 
 the supposed age of the bronzen door of Byzantine work. The 
 monastery has suffered numerous demolitions. In 589, only 
 sixty years after its foundation, it was destroyed by the 
 Lombards. On this occasion the monks removed in a body 
 to Rome, where they remained for 130 years. In 883 the 
 place was taken and burnt by the Saracens, and the monks 
 escaped to Capua and Teano ; but by 886 they had rebuilt 
 their Badia (abbey). I/ike other monasteries of Italy, that of 
 Monte Cassino has been secularized (1866) and appropriated 
 as a national monument. It however still contains a seminary 
 and is inhabited by about forty monks. The library, once of 
 world-wide fame, still possesses many valuable manuscripts. 
 By the age of Dante it seems to have fallen into great neglect, 
 as may be seen from an account 2 given by Benvenuto, the 
 Dante commentator, of a visit paid to it by Boccaccio, who 
 found ' the place of so great treasures without any door or 
 other fastening,' and ' grass growing upon the windows and 
 all the books and shelves covered with dust. . . . And 
 from some of the books whole sheets had been torn out, in 
 others the margins of leaves had been clipped. . . . And so, 
 grieving and weeping, he withdrew ; and coming out into the 
 cloister he met a monk and asked him why those most precious 
 
 1 The court in which the church stands has ancient columns which are 
 sometimes said to be the columns originally belonging to the temple of Apollo, 
 or Venus, mentioned on p. 190. 
 
 a Benvenuto's comment on Par. xxii, 75. It is given by Ivongfellow. 
 I92 
 
ST. BENEDICT 
 books were thus mutilated. And he replied that some of the 
 monks, wishing to gain a few ducats, cut out handfuls of the 
 leaves and made psalters to sell to boys ; and likewise of the 
 margins they made breviaries, which they sold to women. 
 Now therefore, O scholar, rack thy brain in the making of 
 books ! ' 
 
 [ 93 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 DURING the first eight years of his reign Justinian had 
 but little direct connexion with Italy, and although 
 after 535, during a third of a century, the history of 
 that unfortunate country was made principally by the desperate 
 struggles of Goths against Byzantines and by a brief Byzantine 
 supremacy, nevertheless the annals of the Byzantine court 
 have by no means the importance for a writer on Italy that 
 they have for one who is tracing the course of the so-called 
 Roman Empire from the fall of Rome in 476 to the theoretical 
 extinction of the-genuine imperial title on its usurpation by a 
 woman at Constantinople and its theoretical 1 revival at Rome 
 in the person of Charles the Great — or for one who is intending 
 to follow the fortunes of the so-called Byzantine Emperors till 
 the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. 
 
 It will therefore suffice if I give a brief account of Justinian's 
 personality and surroundings, and dwell a little longer upon 
 two subjects in connexion with which his influence affected 
 the history of Italy and of European civilization, namely, 
 legislation and architecture. 
 
 It will be remembered how Justinian, a Dardanian peasant 
 of obscure race, accompanied as a lad his uncle Justin to 
 Constantinople, and how ultimately Justin was proclaimed 
 Emperor, and left the throne to his nephew. Some six years 
 before he received the imperial diadem Justinian was made 
 Consul by his uncle, now an old man of over seventy years. 
 
 1 To whatever conclusion theories may lead us, it was the general belief 
 of the Middle Ages that the Roman Empire did still exist. Perhaps that 
 should settle the question for us. 
 
 I94 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 It was characteristic of the younger man's love of display and 
 his methods of courting popularity that this event was rendered 
 more than usually conspicuous by splendid shows — not of 
 gladiators, for such combats had been long abolished even at 
 Rome, and had never been allowed at Constantinople, but of 
 almost equally disgusting contests of ferocious wild beasts. 
 Henceforth he assumed a large share in the government, and 
 in 527, when at the age of forty-five he was proclaimed an 
 Augustus, Justin gave over the reins entirely into his hands, 
 and died shortly afterwards. 
 
 Some years before his election as Consul Justinian had 
 conceived a passionate affection for a woman named Theodora, 
 whose career, as described by Procopius, or whoever may be 
 the author of the Anecdota, offers the most astonishing 
 example of indescribable profligacy combined with qualities 
 that proved capable of permanently securing the devoted 
 affection of a good, if rather purblind and self-satisfied, man, 
 and apparently also the submissive acquiescence, if not the 
 respect, of the people, though that people was called upon to 
 reverence as their Empress one who, as an actress in licentious 
 comedy, had been wont to expose her person with incredible 
 shamelessness to the laughter and applause of the crowded 
 theatre. 
 
 If we may believe the author of the Anecdota, Theodora 
 was a daughter of a Cyprian who was ' bear-keeper ' to the 
 Byzantine Circus. After a girlhood spent amid such scenes 
 as have been described, and many others that are inde- 
 scribable, she accompanied some official of high rank to Egypt. 
 Being repudiated by him on account of her immoralities, she 
 spent some years in the East, occupied in no very honourable 
 fashion, and at length returned to Constantinople, where she 
 seems to have adopted a more decent style of life, possibly 
 with the object of securing a husband. This object she 
 successfully attained, for Justinian, then at the prime of life, 
 and as Patrician, and perhaps Consul, already the most im- 
 portant man in the Eastern Empire, not merely fell desperately 
 in love with her, but was so- determined to make her his wife, 
 
 195 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and his future Empress, that, after the death of Justin's 
 consort (whose upbringing as a simple Dardanian maiden made 
 her a severe judge), he persuaded his uncle to pass a law 
 legitimizing such marriages ; and soon afterwards he celebrated 
 his nuptials (c. 525). Moreover, when he was crowned as 
 Emperor he not only caused an imperial diadem to be placed 
 on her head by the patriarch, but he 'seated her on the 
 throne,' says Gibbon, ' as an equal and independent colleague 
 in the sovereignty of the Empire ; and an oath of allegiance 
 was imposed on the governors of the provinces in the joint 
 names of Justinian and Theodora.' Inspired by this affec- 
 tionate respect, to which he seems to have remained constant 
 during the twenty-four years of his married life, he even 
 attributed the wisdom of many of his laws * to the ' sage 
 counsel of his most revered consort, whom he had received as 
 a gift from the Deity.' 
 
 On the other hand, she is described, not only by the author 
 of the Anecdota but by various orthodox writers, as a fiend of 
 hell. She is accused of the foulest crimes, such as the murder 
 of her only son 2 and of many distinguished persons, not a few 
 of whom are said to have ended their existence in her secret 
 subterranean dungeons and torture-chambers. She is also 
 accused of what was thought far worse — of heretical pro- 
 clivities and of an insolence so audacious that it allowed her 
 to contradict and otherwise worry even the Pope himself. But 
 it is only fair to add that she is known to have spent money 
 very lavishly for charitable purposes, one of which purposes 
 was the foundation of a large Refuge or Penitentiary for 
 Magdalenes. Monasteries and hospitals received her liberal 
 support, and many churches — among which were S. Vitale at 
 Ravenna and Sta. Sofia at Constantinople — were indebted to her 
 generosity. Moreover, whatever may have been her failings, 
 
 1 Thus in one of his many Novellae, or supplementary laws (viii, 1), quoted 
 by Gibbon. 
 
 2 The youth, left behind as an infant in the East, presented himself, it is 
 said, at the palace in Constantinople in order to claim relationship, and was 
 never seen again. Gibbon seems to believe the story. A daughter of Justinian 
 and Theodora is said to have died in infancy. 
 
 196 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 
 or even her crimes, we cannot deny that she possessed 
 courage, and that her courage on the occasion of the famous 
 Nika tumult x saved her lord and master from cowardly flight, 
 and probably from an ignominious death. She bade him 
 flee, if so he wished, but refused to do so herself, vowing she 
 would die rather as an Empress. 
 
 As for her personal appearance, the face of Theodora is 
 described in the Anecdota as pale and strikingly handsome, with 
 eyes that flashed ' furious and concentrated ' glances (yopyou 
 Kal a-wttTTpa/mfiivov). In stature she was somewhat short 
 (koXo/3oV), but otherwise her figure was of the most exquisite 
 proportions and every movement indescribably graceful. It 
 may be noted in passing that in the Ravenna mosaic (of 
 which more later) her height exceeds that of all her court 
 ladies, and even that of the attendant ecclesiastics. 
 
 Whatever glory Justinian may have gained in the opinion 
 of his contemporaries, or in the opinion of such as Dante, by 
 the triumphs of his arms in Africa and Italy — triumphs which 
 owed very little to him, seeing that his really disgraceful 
 neglect and still more disgraceful jealousy again and again 
 ruined the opportunities of his best general — it is unquestion- 
 ably through his laws, or rather through the codification of 
 Roman law — what Dante calls ' mending the bridle of Italy ' 
 (Purg. vi, 58) — that he merits the gratitude of posterity. 
 
 In the Parodist) (vii, 6) Dante describes the spirit of Justinian 
 as one on which a twofold light is thrown — i.e. the glory of the 
 warrior and the legislator. In the sixth canto Justinian's spirit 
 gives Dante a magnificent description of the victorious progress 
 of the Roman Eagle from the days of Aeneas to those of Charles 
 the Great, and speaks thus of himself : ' I was Caesar and am 
 now Justinian [i.e. no longer with an earthly title here in 
 heaven], who from the laws took away the useless and redun- 
 dant. And ere I became intent on this work I believed there 
 
 1 For a vivid account of the celebrated four factions, or racing-clubs, of 
 the Roman Circus {white, red, green, and blue) and the exceedingly serious 
 disorders caused by their murderous feuds, see Gibbon, xl, 2, and the commen- 
 tators on Juvenal, Sat. xi, 193 sq. — a passage which, mutatis mutandis, is 
 wonderfully up to date. The exclamation Nika means 'Conquer! ' 
 
 197 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 to be in Christ one nature, not more [that is, he was a Mono- 
 physite, or Eutychian, like Theodora], and with this faith I 
 was content; but blessed Agapetus, who was the supreme 
 pontiff, directed me by his words to the, pure faith. As soon 
 as with the Church I moved my feet it seemed good to God 
 in His grace to inspire me with this high task, and I gave 
 myself wholly to it ; and arms I left to my Belisarius, whom 
 heaven's right hand so manifestly helped that it was a sign 
 that I should repose.' Repose he certainly did in regard 
 to war, being content to reap where others sowed, but his 
 activities in some other respects were notable. 
 
 The Corpus Juris which was compiled by his commissioners 
 is still accepted as the main authority for Roman law as 
 practised in Europe. These commissioners, presided over by a 
 certain Tribonian, a Pamphylian savant of literary accomplish- 
 ments equal to those of a Pico Mirandola or a Bacon, performed 
 during the years 530-33 the enormous task of drawing up the 
 Codex of imperial Constitutiones (edicts, decrees, etc.) in twelve 
 books, the Pandectae (' All-containers ' — a compendium of 
 some two thousand volumes of the old laws and senatus- 
 consulta of Rome reduced to a digest of fifty books), and a 
 shorter manual in four books called the Institutiones. In 
 addition to this huge body of law, which was republished much 
 amplified within six years, Justinian, somewhat unfortunately, 
 issued in later years (535-65) very numerous Novellae (New 
 Statutes), supplementing or modifying the laws of his Code— 
 and frequently modifying them so as to legalize his extortions, 
 or those of Theodora ; and in this he is said to have relied 
 greatly on the co-operation of his Pamphylian president, 
 Tribonian. The three chief works are composed in a silver- 
 age I/atin of remarkable quality. The Novellae are mostly 
 in Greek. A manuscript copy of the Pandects that perhaps 
 dates from the reign of Justinian, and certainly not later 
 than the seventh century, is one of the treasures of the 
 kaurentian library x at Florence. It is said to be the original 
 
 1 In connexion with the church of S. Lorenzo, founded by St. Ambrose, 
 rebuilt by Brunelleschi, and famous for Michelangelo's statues. 
 I98 
 
16. S. VMAI.E 
 Ravenna 
 
 198 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 
 from which all other existing MSS. of the work are derived. 
 In 1137 it was brought from Amalfi by the Pisan fleet, and after 
 Pisa had been taken by the Florentines in 1406 it was trans- 
 ported to Florence. Its rich binding, mentioned by Gibbon, 
 was stolen in 1783 (just about the time when Gibbon was 
 writing his account of the Pandects) by the Grand Duke Peter 
 I/eopold, who sold it for thirty gold deniers. 
 
 It was, as Dante tells us, while Justinian was occupied with 
 this legislative work that he began to free his mind from 
 heretical errors and to move his feet with the pacings of the 
 orthodox Church. If it was Pope Agapetus through whose 
 influence this was achieved, it must have happened in 535 — 
 the very year in which Ostrogothic Italy was invaded by 
 Justinian's Byzantine troops from the north and by Belisarius 
 and his African veterans from the south. Ere long the busy 
 mind of the Emperor, ever on the alert to formulate, and to 
 impose its formulae on the world, was so wholly engrossed by 
 abstruse doctrinal problems that nothing else was regarded — 
 neither the pitiable state of Italy, devastated by war and famine 
 and pestilence, nor the grievances and miseries of the Byzan- 
 tine provinces, which were drained of their wealth by the 
 intolerable taxation necessary to cover the lavish expenditure 
 of public money. The supreme legislator, whose laws were 
 of so little use to his own people, was now fired by the 
 ambition to become the supreme Christian dogmatist of his 
 age. ' Our chief solicitude/ he says in an epistle written 
 about this time, ' has been turned towards the true dogmas 
 of the Faith.' 
 
 Applying with special emphasis to his own case the theory 
 of the divine right of monarchs, he regarded his power as 
 directly delegated by heaven and in no wise derived from the 
 suffrage of the army, the Senate, or the people, and as the 
 delegate, or vicar, of the Deity he felt empowered to ignore 
 the decrees of synods and of Popes, and to recognize as alone 
 of any authority a general Council summoned by himself. 
 Such a line of conduct, vigorously imitated by Belisarius, who 
 deposed a Pope, and by Narses, who shipped recalcitrant 
 
 x 99 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 bishops off to Constantinople, could not but excite the 
 most vehement opposition on the part of the ecclesiastics, and 
 especially on the part of the Roman Church. 
 
 Matters were made worse by the discovery, either made 
 by Justinian himself, or imparted to him by some meddling 
 Eastern prelate, that a century before, in the resolutions of 
 the Council of Chalcedon (451), three Oriental bishops had 
 managed to insinuate three distinct affirmations which emitted 
 a perceptible odour of heresy. In his righteous indignation 
 Justinian assumed the powers of excommunication and in the 
 name of the Trinity anathematized these ' Three Clauses,' 
 calling upon the faithful to accept the version proposed by 
 himself. But neither orthodox nor heterodox showed any sign 
 of acquiescing in this appropriation of papal thunderbolts, 
 finally the incensed Emperor summoned Pope Vigilius to 
 Constantinople. This Pope (after the death of good old 
 Agapetus and the deposition of his successor by Belisarius) 
 had been placed on the chair of St. Peter by the influence 
 of Theodora, who expected much from his professed leanings 
 towards Monophytism, the form of heresy specially favoured 
 by her ; but he deceived her hopes, showing an inclination to 
 support the ultra-orthodox zeal of her converted husband, 
 and at Constantinople, which he reached shortly before, 
 or shortly after, her death (July 1, 548), he published a 
 condemnation of these notorious ' Three Clauses.' 
 
 But the tempest that abdication of his rights aroused among 
 the Catholics of the West caused him to retract and to oppose 
 the Emperor's claims to spiritual jurisdiction. The result was 
 that he was imprisoned on an island in the Sea of Marmora, 
 and it was not till the sixth year of his exile (554) that, having 
 once more anathematized the heretical clauses, he was allowed 
 to return to Italy. This however he never reached, for he 
 died on his journey thither, at Syracuse. Doubtless the 
 submission of Vigilius and Justinian's friendly feelings towards 
 the next Pope — the ' deacon Pelagius ' — exercised for a time 
 a favourable influence on the relations of the Emperor with 
 the Roman Church, and one result of these improved relations 
 200 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 
 was evidently the so-called Pragmatic Sanction, a decree 
 which was intended to safeguard civil and ecclesiastical 
 authority in Italy against the encroachments of the military 
 power, and which gave the Church some important judicial 
 prerogatives. 
 
 These dreary religious discords may seem to have for us 
 very little interest, but, however trivial they may be in them- 
 selves, they have historical importance. Even in our own 
 age doctrinal diversity, more perhaps than radical difference 
 of creeds, is sometimes a dangerous solvent of political unity, 
 and in the age of Justinian the problem of government was 
 very largely affected by such influences. The enmity which 
 existed between the various Christian sects was more rancorous 
 and embittered than had been the hostility of the Church 
 against paganism, and no political unity was to be hoped for 
 without uniformity in doctrinal questions. That Justinian's 
 main object was to attain such uniformity cannot be doubted, 
 but, like Zeno with his Henotikon, he only succeeded in widen- 
 ing schisms ; and more especially widened was the gulf between 
 the East and the West — a gulf that a few generations later 
 was rendered impassable by the outbreak of the fierce and 
 long-continued quarrel about the cult of images. Moreover, 
 Justinian's religious mania had a most momentous, and perhaps 
 disastrous, effect on the fortunes of Italy, for it caused him to 
 neglect shamefully the well-being and defence of the newly 
 reconquered diocese of his Empire, and thus it was one of the 
 chief influences that prepared the way for the coming of the 
 I/>mbards. 
 
 In a later chapter I shall touch on some of the characteristics 
 of that style in architecture and decorative art the presence 
 of which in Italy is mainly due to the prolonged occupation 
 of some of the country by the Byzantines. Here I shall 
 briefly mention some of the buildings erected by Justinian, 
 or in his reign, and describe a well-known mosaic which offers 
 us his portrait and that of Theodora. 
 
 In his book on the buildings of Justinian Procopius describes 
 pr mentions a very large number of churches, palaces, aque- 
 
 201 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 ducts, hospitals, bridges, and other edifices erected by the 
 Emperor, 1 or under his auspices, not only in Constantinople 
 but in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and other parts 
 of Africa. The book was evidently written not long after the 
 death of Theia and the return of Procopius to Constantinople 
 (p. 182) and before Byzantine supremacy had been firmly 
 re-established in Italy. This probably explains the fact that 
 no Italian buildings are mentioned. 
 
 In and around Constantinople Justinian built,- or rebuilt, 
 about twenty-five churches, many of which were richly deco- 
 rated with marbles and mosaics. Most were doubtless in 
 the new ' Byzantine ' style, which was superseding the old 
 basilica style, and of these the chief was the great cathedral 
 church dedicated to the Sacred Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) of God 
 and generally known as the church of St. Sophia, or St. Sofia. 2 
 A basilica of the same name had been built by Constantine on 
 the same site. It had been burnt during the tumults caused 
 by the exile of the patriarch Chrysostom, and a second edifice, 
 a basilica with a wooden roof, was likewise destroyed by fire 
 during the Nika riots, of which I have lately made mention. 
 The St. Sophia of Justinian still exists — that is, the building 
 as restored by him after an earthquake which caused the 
 collapse of much of its first great dome. The plan of this 
 magnificent church (now — and to remain how long ? — a 
 Turkish mosque) was devised, it is said, by Anthemius of 
 Tralles, one of five brothers of equally high renown in their 
 various professions. Its glories, not a few of which are hidden 
 or disfigured by Turkish fanaticism, were graphically inti- 
 mated by Justinian's exclamation, ' I have vanquished thee, O 
 Solomon ! ' Its architecture will be discussed when we come 
 to the subject of Byzantine art. 
 
 Among the many other churches built by Justinian in 
 Constantinople was a new edifice, in Byzantine style, erected 
 
 1 ' Cemented by the blood and treasure of his people ' is Gibbon's, possibly 
 not altogether fair, comment. Justinian seems not to have built baths or 
 theatres. 
 
 2 The Parthenon at Athens had already been dedicated as a church to 
 ' Hagia Sophia.' 
 
 202 
 
17. Mosaics of Justinian and Theodora 
 S. Vitale, Ravenna 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 
 on the site of the ancient Constantinian church of the Holy 
 Apostles. It has disappeared, but its memory is rendered 
 interesting by the fact that it was the model on which was 
 built St. Mark's five-domed cathedral at Venice. To Justinian 
 is due also the Byzantine church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, 
 which, like S. Vitale at Ravenna, has a central octagon, whose 
 eight arches are surmounted by a great dome. This S. Vitale 
 is another very famous, still extant, church connected closely 
 with the name of Justinian. It is of earlier date than St. Sophia 
 (which was begun in 532) and is a Byzantine church of the 
 ' central type,' constructively so like the church of SS. Sergius 
 and Bacchus that very possibly the plans for Theoderic's 
 Ravenna church, and perhaps the workmen, were procured 
 from Anthemius, or some other Eastern architect ; and it so 
 happens that the very man who, as the mosaics inform us, 1 
 presided over the erection of S. Vitale, namely, Archbishop 
 Ecclesius, was in Constantinople just a year before the church 
 was founded; for, as we have already seen (p. 133), King 
 Theoderic in the year 525 sent envoys to the Eastern court, 
 and among these envoys, besides Pope John, was Ecclesius 
 himself. His conduct at Constantinople evidently satisfied 
 the Arian monarch better than that of the unfortunate Pope, 
 for shortly after his return, and probably before Theoderic's 
 death, he began this splendid Byzantine church, which, despite 
 many restorations, retains something of its original beauty 
 and magnificence. Of especial beauty are its marble columns, 
 with their exquisitely carved capitals, and of indescribable 
 richness are its mosaics. 
 
 Some of these magnificent mosaics were evidently put up 
 during the life of Ecclesius (d. 534), for he is represented in 
 them without nimbus — i.e. as still living. Moreover this apse- 
 mosaic, like the groups of angels in S. Apollinare Nuovo (p. 170), 
 distinguishes itself very strongly from most of the others by 
 its simple and impressive grandeur, such as we find in the 
 earlier mosaics both in Ravenna and in Rome. The others 
 
 1 In the grand mosaic of the apse he is represented with a model of the 
 church in his hand. 
 
 203 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 are characterized by the gorgeousness of apparel and the in- 
 artistic execution that are usual in Byzantine mosaics. These 
 belong to the period following the capture of Ravenna (540) 
 by Belisarius and the Byzantines, and were doubtless paid 
 for by Justinian and Theodora, who are known to have sub- 
 scribed largely for the decoration of S. Vitale. It is therefore 
 not surprising that among these later mosaics we should have 
 the portraits of the Emperor and the Empress, and from the 
 nimbus with which each is adorned we" may infer (though by 
 no means certainly) that the mosaics were finished after 548, 
 the date of Theodora's death, if not after Justinian's death 
 in 565. Justinian is represented as offering a golden casket 
 full of jewels or money to the treasure of the church and is 
 attended by Archbishop Maximian, who consecrated the 
 building in 547. Theodora, 1 attended by her ladies, is bringing 
 as her offering a large chalice and is on the point of entering 
 the church door, near which stands the symbolical font. 
 
 One more church, S. Apollinare in Classe, may here be 
 mentioned in connexion with Justinian, for, although there 
 may be no certain proof, it is very probable that he was per- 
 sonally interested in its completion, as it was built between 
 the years 535 and 538 by the successor of Ecclesius, 2 and was, 
 like S. Vitale, consecrated by Maximian. The town and 
 harbour of Classe have, as has been related in a former chapter, 
 completely disappeared, and this grand basilica of S. Apollinare 
 stands now, like the ancient Greek temples at Paestum, in 
 almost total solitude. Perhaps there is no other building in the 
 world — certainly no ancient Christian church — so impressive. 
 
 1 Her diadem, set with great pearls and precious stones, is evidently of. 
 the same profusely decorated type as that of the much later Imperial Crown 
 (see Fig. 19 and explanation). The head-dress with its long pendants 
 and the collar, or rather the broad cape, all thickly bejewelled (such as one 
 sees also in many ivory carvings of the period), follow the newer fashion, 
 which instead of the broad and heavy golden necklace introduced the 
 maniakon — i.e. a textile collar, or cape, profusely set with jewels and fringed 
 with pendants. 
 
 2 The archbishops are regarded as the ' builders,' but the person who 
 directed the work (not probably the architect of two such totally different 
 buildings) was Julianus Argentarius (' the Treasurer ' ?). He perhaps stands 
 behind Justinian in the mosaic. 
 
 204 
 
►4 
 O 
 
 S 2 
 
 3 s 
 
 o 
 
 ft 
 
JUSTINIAN 
 
 Externally it has no beauty and grandeur comparable with 
 that of a Greek temple or a Northern cathedral, although 
 the old campanile standing in silent dignity amidst the water- 
 lily-covered pools and swampy fields of that lonely marshland 
 haunts one's memory ; but internally this old basilica (for 
 though it has some Byzantine details it is a genuine basilica) 
 is one of the most majestic and most beautiful in existence. 1 
 
 1 See also Index under 'Churches ' and 'Mosaics.' 
 
 205 
 
IV 
 
 
 THE 
 LOMBARD 
 
 DOMINATION 
 
 C.'568-C.700 
 
PART III 
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 568-800 
 
 OUR narrative of historical events broke off at the death 
 of Narses, which took place probably in 567, a few 
 months before the invasion of the Lombards, whom 
 he is half suspected of having incited to attack Italy. I have 
 now to sketch the history of about two centuries of Lombard 
 domination — a period rather dark and. dreary, during which 
 many seeds, so to speak, that afterwards bore flower and fruit 
 were maturing underground, but which in itself has little to 
 attract us except certain interesting personalities and certain 
 early preheraldings of the coming springtime of Italian art. 
 
 I propose therefore to summarize somewhat briefly the 
 political incidents of these two centuries. The sources of our 
 information are various. Among them those of most interest 
 are the writings of Pope Gregory the Great, the Edict of King 
 Rotharis (Roteric), the prologue to which gives numerous facts 
 (down to about 640) which enlighten a very obscure period ; 
 and combined with the MSS. of this prologue is found an 
 interesting Origo Langobardorum by some unknown Lombard 
 writer of "about 607, who gives the somewhat legendary early 
 history of the Lombards ; lastly, we have the most valuable 
 Historia Langobardorum by Paul Warnefrid, commonly known 
 as Paul the Deacon, a Lombard who lived for some time at 
 the court of Charles the Great and finally retired to the Bene- 
 dictine monastery of Monte Cassino, where he died, probably 
 about 800. His History, which has been already cited on several 
 occasions, gives a most graphic description of the wretched 
 state of Italy at the time of the Lombard invasion, and a 
 
 207 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 series of vivid portraits of the Lombard kings down to the reign 
 of Liutprand, the narrative being interspersed with many 
 stories of Herodotean type. The work is unfinished, perhaps 
 because, being himself a Lombard and yet owing much to the 
 favours of the Frankish monarch, he found the conquest of 
 Italy by the Franks too painful to describe. We shall meet 
 him again, especially after we reach the days of Gregory and 
 Queen Theodelinda. 
 
 According to Paul the Deacon the Longobardi or Langobardi 
 ('Long-beards') came, like the Goths, from Scandinavia — 
 whither, it may be assumed, their ancestors found their way 
 from the central regions of Asia. They are mentioned by a Latin 
 writer, Velleius Paterculus, who during the reign of Augustus 
 served in Germany under Tiberius. He describes them as 
 of a ferocity ' more than German/ and as dwelling on the Lower 
 Elbe. About 178 they took part in the southward movement 
 attempted by various tribes, which was foiled by Marcus 
 Aurelius. Then for three centuries we hear no more of them, 
 but they probably were among the many allies of Attila, and 
 apparently about 508 they pushed southwards from the Elbe 
 and, having conquered the Herulians, established themselves 
 on the northern banks of the Danube. Some forty-four years 
 later (viz. in 552), as will be remembered, the Lombard 
 auxiliaries in the army of Narses behaved with such savagery 
 that he was compelled to bribe them to return to their home 
 in Rugiland. The king, or chieftain, of these Lombard 
 auxiliaries was Audoin, whose somewhat mythical ancestors, 
 or predecessors, scarcely need record here, but whose son, 
 Alboin, now claims our attention. 
 
 Opposite the Lombards of Rugiland (the region along the 
 north banks of the Danube between Regensburg and Vienna) 
 were the Gepidae, who seem to have moved westwards from 
 Dacia and to have occupied the country (Pannonia, etc.) 
 abandoned by Theoderic and his Ostrogoths. These Gepidae 
 were in 554 proving troublesome to the Empire, and Justinian, 
 adopting the traditional policy of the Byzantine court, bribed 
 the Lombards to attack them. In the first campaign 
 208 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 the young Alboin killed Torismund, the son of the Gepidan king, 
 but the war continued, and it was not till the Lombards had 
 bought with a third of their cattle and much land and booty 
 the alliance of the Avars — those ferocious savages of Turkish 
 stock who had so alarmed Justinian and had been refused 
 tribute by Justin — that they crushed their foes in a great 
 battle. The Gepidae seem to have been almost exterminated, 
 for they are heard of no more as a nation, and their king 
 Cunimund suffered the same fate as his brother Torismund, 
 being slain by Alboin, now king of the Lombards. His head 
 was cut off, and of the skull Alboin had a drinking-cup made. 
 His daughter, Rosamund, was captured and forced to marry 
 Alboin, who, it is said, had seen and loved her a good many 
 years previously, but had been contemptuously rejected by her 
 father. 1 
 
 The Lombard invasion of Italy was due to several causes. 
 One of these was doubtless the pressure exercised by the savage 
 and importunate Avars, who themselves were probably urged 
 westward by the advance of other Oriental races ; another 
 was, perhaps, the invitation of Narses ; another again, and in 
 itself a sufficing reason, was the fact that Italy, whose wealth 
 and fertility always strongly attracted invaders, was known to 
 be at this time almost defenceless. The Byzantines had failed 
 to consolidate their conquest. Their regime had succeeded 
 even less than that of the Ostrogoths in establishing itself by 
 winning the favour, or the acquiescence, of the Italian people. 
 Narses had so incensed the clergy and the nobles by his military 
 despotism and the people by his extortionate avarice that, 
 as the Roman envoys had declared to Justin, Italy, devastated 
 by long wars, depopulated by famine and pestilence and 
 utterly unable to take up arms in her own defence, was ready 
 to welcome Gothic, or almost any other, domination, as likely 
 to prove more tolerable than that of Narses and the Eastern 
 Empire. Narses had indeed been deposed from power, but 
 
 1 He had been, says Gibbon, engaged to the granddaughter of the Frankish 
 king Clovis (Chlodwig). Villari says he actually married her (the daughter of 
 Clothar) and that she had lately died. 
 
 o 209 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 his successor, Longinus, though he seems to have attempted 
 to introduce some reforms, had proved a failure. He concerted 
 no systematic defence, but shut himself up in Ravenna. The 
 scattered remnants of the Gothic army doubtless made com- 
 mon cause with the new barbarian invader, and in about 
 eighteen months many of the chief cities of Northern Italy 
 surrendered or were captured by the hordes x of Lombards, 
 Gepidae, Suevi, Saxons, Bulgars, and Bavarians, which, with 
 their women, children, their cattle, and all their movable 
 possessions, had followed Alboin across the well-known pass 
 of the Julian Alps, so often before used by invading hosts. 
 
 Pavia offered an obstinate resistance and was besieged 
 for three years. It was at this time a stronger and more 
 important city than Milan, which had not recovered from its 
 almost total destruction by the Franks, and it now became 
 the capital of the Lombard kingdom. 2 This kingdom com- 
 prised in North Italy the two provinces of Neustria and 
 Austria, which covered somewhat the same regions that we 
 call Lombardy, Piemont, Emilia, and North Venetia, with the 
 following chief cities : Verona, Vicenza, Mantua, Trento, 
 Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Pavia, Turin, Parma, Modena, 
 Aquileia, Treviso. Towards the north, the west, and the 
 east these dominions were bounded by the Alps, but towards 
 the south Alboin extended his conquests across the Apennines 
 and over Tuscia down to the region of Urbino and the Furlo 
 pass (the famous Petra inter cisa) , which strategical position 
 he seized. And so little resistance was offered in Central Italy 
 that bands of the barbarians marched much further south 
 and made themselves masters of all the inland regions and a 
 considerable part of the coast-line, except where there were 
 strongly fortified havens accessible for the Byzantine fleets. 
 Two of their leaders then constituted themselves dukes (duces) 
 of this conquered territory, the one choosing Spoleto and the 
 other Benevento as his stronghold. These two Lombard 
 
 1 The Saxons alone numbered 20,000. They went home later. The whole 
 number of Alboin's fighters must have been considerable, but it seems not to 
 have exceeded about 70,000. 
 
 * Alboin seems to have resided mostly at Verona, in Theoderic's palace. 
 2IO 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 dukedoms, which later proved the source of many troubles, 
 seem from the first to have paid only a nominal allegiance to 
 Alboin, and ere long they became practically independent. 
 
 The cities and regions of Italy that still acknowledged 
 Byzantine supremacy and nominally formed the Exarchate * 
 were the following : Ravenna and the surrounding territory 
 (the 'Exarchate' in the limited sense of the word), with the 
 cities of Padua, Bologna, etc. ; the duchy of Venetia, i.e. 
 Venice 2 and some adjacent islands and mainland territory ;. 
 a part of Istria ; the ' Pentapolis/ with the cities Rimini, 
 Ancona, etc. ; Genoa and the I^igurian Riviera ; Rome and 
 its ' duchy ' ; Naples and its territory, including Cumae and 
 Amain ; the ' heel and toe ' of Italy ; Sicily and Sardinia. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the Iyombard conquest was by 
 no means complete. For a century the domination of Italy 
 was divided between two alien races of exceedingly diverse 
 character — a fact that of itself tended strongly towards dis- 
 integration ; and this disintegration of nationality was widened 
 and deepened, until it became incurable, by the internal dis- 
 cords and constitutional weakness of the rival claimants ; for 
 since rebellion and anarchy constantly vexed the I/ombard 
 kingdom, and the Byzantines were for ever vainly struggling 
 to maintain their authority against the rapidly growing power 
 of the Roman Popes and the spirit of emancipation that was 
 ever more prevalent in their Italian dependencies, in all parts 
 of the country cities began to assume more or less inde- 
 pendence, or to combine themselves into small independent 
 states, causing countless political complications and rivalries.. 
 
 Shortly after his capture of Pavia (572) Alboin was assassi- 
 nated. The story of his death reads like some Gyges story 
 from Herodotus and seems to have found an echo in our legend 
 
 1 The Greek title " Exarch " was given to the Byzantine military governors 
 in Africa and later to those in Italy. The first who officially held this title at 
 Ravenna was probably Decius, c. 584. All the Byzantine domains in Italy 
 were nominally subject to him and formed the ' Exarchate,' but many of 
 them were practically independent of his authority. 
 
 * Venice, however, becomes independent in early days. See ch. iii of this 
 Part. 
 
 211 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of ' fair Rosamond.' At a banquet he is said to have invited, 
 or compelled, his wife to drink from the cup which, as has 
 been related, was formed from the skull of her father Cuni- 
 mund. Rosamund revenged herself by persuading her lover, 
 a noble named Helmechis, the armour-bearer, perhaps the 
 foster-brother, of the king, to murder him, or, according to other 
 accounts, to hire an assassin for the deed. Alboin, attacked 
 during his afternoon siesta, endeavoured in vain to draw his 
 sword, which had been tied to the scabbard by his wife, and 
 after defending himself for some time with a stool was over- 
 powered and slain. 1 Helmechis and Rosamund, supported 
 by the Gepidan soldiery, attempted to seize the regal power, 
 but had to yield to the indignation of the Lombards and 
 appealed for help to the Byzantine governor of Ravenna, 
 I/onginus. He is said to have sent vessels up the Po and 
 the Adige, and on these they escaped, together with Alboin's 
 daughter Albsuinda. At Ravenna they were received with 
 honour. Then Rosamund, perceiving that Iyonginus was 
 struck with her beauty, determined to rid herself of Helmechis, 
 who, having drunk a part of the wine that she had brought to 
 his bathroom, detected that it was poisoned and, threatening 
 her with his dagger, forced her to drain the rest of the deadly 
 draught. Possibly the details of this dramatic story are fictions, 
 built up — as is suggested by Ranke, the historian of the Popes 
 —on some attempt, favoured by the queen, to introduce 
 Byzantine influence, or even some plot to establish Byzantine 
 supremacy. But truth is sometimes quite as strange as 
 fiction, and the state of things among the Lombards was at 
 this early stage, in spite of their professed Christianity (or 
 rather Arianism), such as to make the tale quite credible. 
 
 However that may be, dissension and plots were evidently 
 rife at this time, for the next king, Clefi or Kleph, after a reign 
 of eighteen months was assassinated — it is said, by a slave — 
 
 . * As evidence for the truth of this story Paul the Deacon affirms that when 
 he, as a young man {i.e. c. 745),. was at the court of Ratchis at Pavia the king 
 ' brought forth to show to his guests after a banquet the famous cup which 
 Alboin had caused to be made from the skull of Cunimund, king of the Gepidae ' 
 
 (Cronache Hal., Ly Count Balzani). 
 
 212 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 and, as the dukes could not agree, no one was elected in his 
 stead, but for the next ten years the dukes, of whom there 
 seem to have been thirty-six, 1 each ruled his own dukedom 
 without recognizing any liege-lord, and, if we may believe Paul 
 the Deacon, most of them ruled very cruelly, evicting and 
 not seldom killing the richer landowners, and exacting a third 
 of incomes, sacking Catholic churches, and persecuting the 
 clergy. 
 
 In the north the Lombards had already more than once 
 attacked and had been worsted by the Franks, who at this 
 time held all the Alpine frontiers to the north-west (Savoy, 
 Switzerland, Provence, etc.), whence they could with ease 
 sweep down on Milan and the valley of the Po, as they had 
 done in the time of the Goths. These Franks seemed to be 
 the only possible hope for Italy, for the Byzantine power was 
 waning rapidly 2 and an appeal by the Romans to the Eastern 
 Emperor (now Tiberius) had obtained no answer but the advice 
 to try the effect of bribing the I,ombards, or to induce the 
 Franks to attack them. Doubtless the idea had been mooted 
 before Tiberius gave this counsel of despair, and it is not 
 surprising that about a year later (581) Pope Pelagius II wrote 
 to the bishop of Auxerre asking him to remind the Franks that 
 ' it was a duty imposed on them by God, as orthodox Catholics, , 
 to save Rome and all Italy from this most wicked Lombard 
 people.' Still more effective probably proved fifty thousand 
 gold pieces sent to the Franks by the Eastern Emperor, 
 Maurice, who on the death of Tiberius had been elected, 
 says Gibbon, ' from the crowd,' but who nevertheless proved 
 worthy of the imperial dignity. The Franks seem to have 
 reacted to these appeals, but they were at the moment so much 
 engrossed by civil dissensions that after making one or two 
 furious raids they again allowed themselves to be bought — 
 
 1 The dukes of Benevento and Spoleto, already mentioned, were evidently 
 the most powerful and most independent. The names of about twenty-five 
 are mentioned by chroniclers. 
 
 * One evidence of this is the fact that in 579 the duke of Spoleto captured 
 Classe, the port of Ravenna, which he held for nine years. About 589, it will 
 be remembered, Monte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards of Benevento. 
 
 213 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 this time by the Lombards. Thus the Frankish conquest oi 
 Lombard Italy, which seemed quite possible and imminent, 
 was for the time deferred. 
 
 But their alliance with the Franks had raised the hopes and 
 courage of the Byzantines in Italy, and at Constantinople 
 the urgent appeals that Pope Pelagius again made through 
 his correspondent or Nuntius (apocrisarius) Gregory — after- 
 wards Gregory the Great — resulted in the election of a new 
 and enterprising 1 Exarch, Smaragdus (Smaraldo) by name, 
 who ere long arrived with considerable forces. The Lombards, 
 on the other hand, being without a king, were disorganized 
 and incapable of combined action, till at last, conscious of 
 the cause of their weakness, the rival and insubordinate dukes 
 held a conclave at Pavia (585) and consented to accept Autharis 
 (Auteric), the son of Clefi, as their sovereign, giving up por- 
 tions of their revenues to endow the monarchy. The struggle 
 between Lombards and Byzantines became now intensified, 
 especially in the north and east, where two events happened 
 that are worthy of mention : the Isola Comacina, a small 
 rocky island in the Lake of Como which is of especial interest 
 in regard to the origins of Lombard architecture (see p. 277), 
 and which at this period was a strongly fortified outpost of 
 the Byzantines, was captured by the Lombards ; and, on the 
 other hand, in 588 Smaragdus recaptured the town and haven 
 of Classe — a feat that scarcely seems surprising, since the 
 Byzantines were masters of the sea. Indeed it is far more 
 surprising that the Lombards could have held the place for 
 nine years, shut in as they were between the sea and the 
 ramparts of Ravenna. 
 
 This desultory war was for a time interrupted by a great 
 victory gained by Autharis over the Franks, who, once more 
 yielding to the entreaties or bribes of the Byzantines, came 
 
 1 Rather too enterprising. For imprisoning recalcitrant bishops he was 
 recalled by Maurice, but was re-installed by the blood-stained usurper Phocas, 
 to whom he erected the ' nameless column,' of which we shall hear when we 
 come to Gregory. A score or so of Exarchs ruled at Ravenna between Decius, 
 the first of them (c. 580) — for neither Narses nor Longinus was Exarch — and 
 the surcease of the Exarchate as a Byzantine province in 752. 
 214 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 pouring down over the Spliigen pass into the regions about 
 Lake Como. According to Paul the Deacon so vast a slaughter 
 of Franks had never been known before. During the interval 
 of comparative quiet that followed this battle (589) the Lorn? 
 bard king, anxious to provide himself with allies in view of 
 further molestation, proposed himself as suitor for the hand 
 of a Bavarian princess, Theudelinde. The story of his wooing 
 and much else about Queen Theudelinde, or Theodelinda, as 
 she was called by the Romans, will be told on a later occasion.* 
 Here it suffices to say that the marriage so enraged Childebert, 
 the Frankish king, that he once more invaded Lombard Italy, 
 But once more the Franks were compelled to retire on account 
 of civil broils at home, and their retreat was hastened by an 
 extraordinary deluge that in this year overwhelmed the low- 
 lands of Italy, and not less by the plague, which broke out 
 with great virulence. 
 
 Pope Pelagius was one of the many thousands of victims 
 of this pestilence of 590. He was succeeded by Gregory. 
 Of him we have already heard as papal nuntius at Constanti- 
 nople ; and we shall hear much more about him, as he was 
 certainly one of the most interesting personalities of this age, 
 though it may be questioned whether in the highest sense of the 
 word he was great. In this year (590) died also King Autharis. 
 He was probably one of the best of the Lombard rulers, 
 although certain obscurely worded expressions of Paul the 
 Deacon have sometimes been interpreted to mean that under 
 his rule the Italians were still more oppressed than they had 
 been by the dukes, and were in fact enslaved and portioned out 
 as bondmen among the Lombards. 8 But this seems incon- 
 sistent with other passages in which he speaks of the state of 
 
 1 Ch. i of this Part. It should be mentioned here that during this short 
 interval of comparative peace Autharis, according to some chroniclers, made 
 a royal progress through his kingdom, and even reached Rhegium (Reggio), 
 in Calabria, where, on the shore of the Mediterranean, he is said to have 
 touched with his spear the famous Rhegian column and to have exclaimed : 
 ' This is the boundary of the realms of Autharis.' But there is possibly 
 confusion between the Calabrian and the Emilian Reggio. 
 
 ! Per hospites divisi . . . iributani efficiuntur (ii, 32). Populi aggravati 
 per langobardos hospites partiuntur (iii, 16). 
 
 215 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the country at this time. ' Neither acts of violence were 
 known,' he says, ' nor any revolutionary plots ; no one 
 oppressed another unjustly, no one despoiled another ; there 
 were no thefts, no highway robberies ; everyone went his way 
 whithersoever he wished without fear or anxiety.' 
 
 That the Lombards were originally barbarians of a wilder 
 and more inartistic type than the Goths is apparent ; they 
 seem to have had little of the sensibility for Southern art and 
 literature that is so noticeable in the case of Theoderic and of 
 Amalasuntha and even of Theodahad ; but on the other hand 
 they were evidently less brutal. None of the Lombard rulers 
 — not even Alboin himself — can be accused of the ferocious 
 brutality displayed by Theoderic and by Theodahad. The 
 savage appearance of the original Lombards, their linen gar- 
 ments striped with variegated colours, their heads shaven 
 behind, shaggy locks hanging over their faces, and long beards 
 over their breasts, was viewed (says Gibbon) with curiosity 
 and affright by their near descendants. In the summer 
 palace of Theoderic at Monza, which Queen Theodelinda 
 restored and adorned with frescos, were depicted these bar- 
 baric ancestors of the race ; and they doubtless excited much 
 wonder and repulsion long before the days of Paul the Deacon, 
 who saw and described with some consternation the portraits 
 of his forefathers. But beneath this savage exterior, and 
 behind much savagery in war — such as forced even Narses 
 to rid himself of their presence as allies — there was in their 
 nature an element of kindliness, generosity, and chivalry 
 which often, as Gibbon allows, " surprised their captives and 
 subjects.' These qualities are very apparent in the Lombard 
 laws of Rotharis, as we shall see later, and are well inti- 
 mated by the epitaph of a Lombard warrior given by Paul the 
 Deacon : 
 
 Terribilis visu facies ; sed mente benignus ; 
 Longaque robusto pectore barba fuit. 
 
 The more humane, chivalrous, and sympathetic traits of 
 the Lombard character doubtless rendered possible that 
 amalgamation with the conquered Italian race which was 
 216 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 found to be impossible in the case of the Goths. 1 The gradual 
 fusion of the Lombard with the Italian race was very probably 
 that from which originated in course of time the new Italian 
 art which showed itself first in I,ombard-Romanesque archi- 
 tecture and later in Tuscan sculpture and painting — although 
 externally all three may have been modified by other in- 
 fluences. On the other hand, as has been already remarked, 
 the Lombards by their partial conquest and by their want of 
 organized government undoubtedly aggravated the disintegra- 
 tion of Italian nationality. Whether such disintegration was 
 favourable to art is a question that is easier to ask than to 
 answer, but that it deferred Italy's risorgimento for many 
 centuries is incontestable. 
 
 It will be remembered that Alaric's successor, the Visigoth 
 Athaulf, renounced his design of founding a Gothic Empire 
 because he had become convinced that the Goths were in- 
 capable of self-government and that the only possibility of 
 securing order lay in their respect for the ancient Roman 
 constitution. Also Theoderic and his daughter Amalasuntha, 
 in spite of their intense desire to found an United Italy, had to 
 convince themselves that Gothic influences were too strong 
 for them. The Lombards also failed, but for other reasons. 
 They had not invaded Italy, as Theoderic had done, in the 
 name of the Empire, nor had they his reverence for the Empire. 
 How far they abolished Roman law and the Roman magis- 
 tracies it is not easy to prove ; but it is certain that they 
 introduced to a large extent their own system of govern- 
 ment. Now this government depended solely on laws handed 
 down by oral tradition and far more suited to the conditions 
 of their former wild nomad life than to the circumstances in 
 which they now found themselves as a dominant race of 
 
 1 The contrast with our English ancestors is not flattering. The Lombard and 
 Frank, like the Achaean and the Norman, did not exterminate, but assimi- 
 lated, the native language and art and religion ; the English conquerors of 
 Britain exterminated, as far as they could. The Pranks and Lombards were 
 Christians ; the Angles were pagans and detested Christianity. ' The rage of 
 the conquerors,' says Green, 'burnt fiercest against the clergy. Rivers and 
 homesteads, the very days of the week, bore the names of the new gods who 
 displaced Christ.' (But how about the Prankish Mardi, Mercredi, etc. ? ) 
 
 217 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 comparatively small numbers in a land that for many centuries 
 had been the centre of European civilization. Moreover the 
 controlling influence that the Lombard king exercised over 
 his warriors was much weakened by the dispersion of his 
 subjects over almost all Italy and by the creation of a large 
 number of duchies, some of which, being at a great distance, 
 soon became practically independent under the rule of princes 
 who founded hereditary dynasties. Also, the king, though 
 supreme in case of war, had no hereditary rights — a fact 
 that caused much bloodshed and disturbance — and although 
 his authority was represented at the ducal courts by officers 
 (gastaldi) who were intended to control finances, exact war 
 tribute, and supervise military matters, these were more and 
 more thwarted by the dukes' private counsellors and pro- 
 vincial governors (gasiadi and sculdasci). Thus decentraliza- 
 tion and disorganization prevented the Lombard kingdom 
 from becoming one firmly consolidated, dominant state. But 
 this very failure to impose domination led in time to fusion 
 with the various Italian peoples, and, although it deferred the 
 formation of an Italian nation, it doubtless was a blessing in 
 disguise. 
 
 On the death of Autharis in 590 Theodelinda, 1 whose 
 character and intellect had impressed the Lombard nobles, 
 was requested by them to select one of the dukes as her royal 
 consort. After taking consilium cum prudentibus (says Paul 
 the Deacon) she chose Agilulf, a relation of Autharis and 
 duke of Turin, who was crowned at Milan, in the church of 
 S. Ambrogio. He and she reigned together for twenty-five 
 years. This reign is interesting for several reasons. Agilulf 
 is regarded by some writers, among whom is Ranke, as the 
 first Lombard king who tried, doubtless with the advice 
 of his wise queen, to introduce a more stable and centralized 
 form of government. Again, for the student of the origins of 
 Italian art, especially of Romanesque architecture, this period 
 
 1 Her Bavarian name was probably Theudelinde. Cf. Theuderic, etc., 
 p. 139 n. The English form should perhaps be TheudeUnd, like Rosalind. 
 Theodelinda, or Theodolinda, is the Roman (Latin) form, Teodolinda the 
 Italian. 
 
 2l8 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 offers some seductive and not fully explored vistas. Then 
 Gregory theGreat is an impressive personality, and his relations 
 to the Lombard king and queen and to other notabilities, as 
 well as his connexion with England, make the subject still 
 more interesting. I shall therefore leave it to be treated 
 more fully in a later chapter, and shall go rapidly onwards 
 with the narrative of events. 
 
 Agilulf found himself faced by three formidable enemies — 
 the Franks, the Byzantines, and the Romans — who, had they 
 acted in concert, might have easily overpowered him. For- 
 tunately for the Lombards, the Franks were still occupied by 
 intestine discords, for their kingdom, which consisted of two 
 antagonistic realms (Neustria and Austrasia) inhabited by the 
 very diverse races of the Salic and the Ripuarian Franks, had 
 been subdivided between several rival heirs at the death of 
 Clothar (558) and again at the death of Childebert in 596. The 
 second opponent of Agilulf, the Byzantine power, was hampered 
 by the hate of the Italian people, and was also at this time, as 
 so often before, occupied by troubles in the far East, where the 
 powerful dynasty of the Persian Sassanidae had for nearly four 
 centuries defied the Empire — and continued to do so Until 
 Persia -was conquered by the Mohammedans in 651. The 
 third adversary was the ' duchy ' of Rome, still nominally 
 under a Byzantine governor, but really to a great extent 
 independent of the Ravenna Exarch 1 and in voluntary sub- 
 mission to the authority of the Pope, whose authority, both 
 civil and spiritual, was exerted strongly against the Lom- 
 bards as aliens and as Arians. But Agilulf, again doubtless 
 guided by the counsels of his wife, found means to appease 
 the Franks — who gave no more trouble for some time — and 
 to hold his own against the Byzantines, while Theodelinda 
 herself, as we shall see, at last succeeded in gaining the 
 affectionate friendship of her husband's most strenuous ad- 
 versary, Pope Gregory, who was charmed by the prospect 
 1 Rome had still a Byzantine Governor and Commandant (Dux and Magister 
 militum) who were nominally under the Ravenna Exarch, but during the 
 seventh century assumed more and more independence, till Rome became 
 the first Italian republic, except Venice. 
 
 219 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of converting the heretical Lombards to Catholicism through 
 her influence. 
 
 However, before all this took place Agilulf had some years 
 of hard fighting. First he was obliged to chastise the in- 
 subordinate dukes of Orta, Treviso, and Bergamo. The last 
 of these, Gaidulf, had fortified himself in the Isola Comacina, 
 the stronghold in the Lake of Como which, as we have seen, 
 had been taken a few years before by Autharis from the 
 Byzantines. Agilulf, having captured the island, where he 
 is said to have found considerable treasure, chased Gaidulf 
 to Bergamo and made him prisoner, but wisely spared his 
 life, thus gaining his friendship. He then began to think 
 of subduing the too independent duchy of Benevento. Now 
 the southern Lombard duchies of Benevento and Spoleto 
 had proved not only rebels against their king, but also so 
 threatening to Rome that Gregory, who (to use his own 
 words) ' scarcely knew any longer whether he was a pastor 
 or a temporal prince,' after many vain appeals to Ravenna, 
 signed a treaty with the gens nefandissima Longobardorum, 
 as he used to call them. 
 
 Hereupon Agilulf, in the spring of 593, marched south, 
 determined to attack Rome. Here there was such consterna- 
 tion that Gregory broke off his public homilies on Ezekiel and 
 girded on his sword. However, whether the Romans, inspired 
 by the martial ardour of their Pope, offered too vigorous 
 a resistance, or whether the malarial fever of the Campagna 
 proved too deadly,^ Agilulf, after devastating the country, 
 retired northwards, and for the next few years Italy had peace 
 from Lombards and also from Byzantines, for in the East 
 serious disorders were being caused by the threatening attitude 
 of the Avars and by the murder of the Emperor Maurice by 
 the usurper Phocas, of whom we shall hear more ere long. 
 
 During the later years of Pope Gregory's life a very friendly 
 feeling grew up between him and the Lombard king, mainly 
 by means of Theodelinda, who as a Bavarian princess had 
 been brought up in Catholicism, and who, like our Queen 
 Bertha, exercised a strong religious influence on her husband. 
 220 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Whether Agilulf actually renounced Arianism is uncertain, 
 but he allowed his infant son Adelwald to be baptized (603) 
 as Catholic, as we learn from Gregory's correspondence with 
 the queen on the subject of his little godson. This doubt- 
 less favoured strongly the popularity of Catholicism among the 
 Lombards. It was however some time before they renounced 
 entirely their heretical form of Christianity. 
 
 Since 600 Gregory had been much tormented by gout, and 
 in 604 the disease put an end to his life, 
 
 It seems that the popularity won by Agilulf and by Theo- 
 delinda through their strong and wise government, and their 
 encouragement of civilized arts and manners, allowed them to 
 assume the privilege of hereditary sovereignty, for in this same 
 year (604) their son, scarce two years old, was proclaimed heir 
 to the throne. This took place at Milan, in the presence of the 
 envoy of Theudebert II, the king of the Franks, whose infant 
 daughter was at the same time formally betrothed to the little 
 Adelwald. After this event we hear but little of Agilulf 's reign, 
 and, except that the north-eastern Lombard territory, especially 
 the duchy of Fruili (Cividale) , for a time was invaded by great 
 hordes of the Avars, the Tartar race of whom we have already 
 heard several times, 1 the last ten years of his life seem to have 
 passed quietly, formal peace existing between the Lombards 
 and the Exarchate ; and during this period, and still more 
 during the next ten years, Theodelinda was doubtless occu- 
 pied in building some of her many churches and towers, 
 in decorating her palace, in entertaining artists and Catholic 
 prelates and missionaries and other men of note. a 
 
 On Agilulf's death his son Adelwald, now a boy of twelve, 
 an ardent Catholic, succeeded him under the regency of his 
 mother. Of the events of his reign (615-25) we know very 
 little. Finally Arian nobles fomented a rebellion which 
 
 1 See p. 103 n. They were vanquished by Heraclius, who was Eastern 
 Emperor (610-41) after Phocas. The remnants of the race settled in the 
 Salzburg country and were annexed to the Frank Empire by Charles the 
 Great in 791. 
 
 * See ch. ii of this Fart. Her cathedral at Monza was probably begun 
 soon after her marriage with Agilulf (590), and her Monza palace about 
 595-600. 
 
 221 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 compelled him to flee for refuge to Ravenna, and Ariwald, 
 an Arian, was set on the throne. Theodelinda possibly joined 
 her son for a time, but she seems to have returned and to have 
 lived as a guest at the Lombard court, where she was held in 
 honour ; for the new king married her daughter Gundeberga. 
 She died in 628, at Perledo. Ariwald died in 636, and Gunde- 
 berga was requested) as her mother had been, to choose another 
 husband as her royal consort. She chose Rotharis (Rotheric, 
 Roderic, or Rotari), duke of Brescia — a choice that for the 
 general weal seems to have proved more successful than for 
 her personal happiness, seeing that, like her late husband, her 
 new lord was Arian, and was so much less tolerant of her 
 Catholic propensities that he imprisoned her closely, it is said, 
 for five years in his palace at Pavia, whence she was released 
 on the intercession of Clovis (Chlodwig II), the Frank king. 
 She gave up the rest of her life to good works, and followed 
 Theodelinda's example by rebuilding the basilica of S. Gio- 
 vanni 1 in Pavia, in which she buried her two husbands. 
 
 Rotharis reigned sixteen years (636-52). He is specially 
 celebrated as the great Lombard legislator, but in the first 
 half-dozen years of his reign he also distinguished himself by 
 extending the Lombard dominion from the region of Luna 
 (Spezia and La Lunigiana) over Liguria and up to the Frank 
 frontier near Marseille, capturing Genoa from the Byzantines 
 as well as smaller maritime towns such as Levanto and Sestri. 
 In 642 he also, says Paul the Deacon, inflicted a great defeat 
 with a loss of 8000 men on the Roman and Ravennate forces 
 near the river Panaro. Doubtless his boldness and his success 
 were both considerably due to the following events, which 
 prevented the Eastern Emperor, Heraclius, from paying much 
 attention to Italy. 
 
 In the earlier years of his reign Heraclius had been so alarmed 
 by the audacity of the Persians, who in 615 had captured 
 Jerusalem (whence they carried off the Cross — what was left of 
 
 1 Built first probably when Theoderic had his palace there (c. 500) ; demo- 
 lished in 1811. A few relics exist in Milan and elsewhere. The sculptured 
 marbles were used for building the canal between Pavia and Milan I 
 222 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 it !) and had even made alliance with the Avars of Hungary and 
 threatened Constantinople itself, that, it is said, he thought of 
 removing the capital of the Empire to Carthage. But he seems 
 to have suddenly developed courage and vigour, and finally 
 succeeded in crushing both the Avars and also the Persians 
 and recovering from them all the captives as well as the cap- 
 tured Cross, which he carried in triumph to Constantinople 
 and then took back to Jerusalem. 
 
 This happened in 628-29, exactly at the same time that a new 
 and formidable power first began to arise in the East ; for in 
 629, seven years after the Hegira (Flight),. Mecca was taken and 
 the Holy War was declared by the great Arab prophet. Mo- 
 hammed himself headed his armies in this Holy War for only 
 four years. He died in 632 ; but his Caliphs extended their 
 conquests so rapidly that between 634 and 640 Damascus, 
 Antioch, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, and Egypt had fallen, and 
 the Saracens, 1 as the Moslems were called by the Greeks and 
 Latins, were soon afterwards threatening Europe. 
 
 This new danger that had so suddenly gathered not only 
 in the east but in the south compelled Heraclius to think of 
 some means of defence — for it was no longer possible to escape 
 by transferring the seat of Empire to Africa. Closer political 
 union of all parts of the Empire seemed his one hope, and he 
 felt, as other Emperors had already felt, that the only chance 
 of attaining political unity was through religious uniformity ; 
 and possibly the successful hierarchy of the Moslem caliphs 
 may have confirmed his belief in the (WiXtvy ko.1 «/oev? (king 
 and priest) doctrine of the Eastern Emperors. 2 He attempted 
 therefore to conciliate the Catholics and the heretical sects in 
 the East (who were more inclined to make common cause with 
 Islam than to accept the Trinity and the ' double nature ' of 
 Christ) , but his ' Exposition of Faith ' (Ecthesis) was repudiated 
 with scorn in Italy, and, like Zeno and Justinian and many 
 others, he found that any endeavour to reconcile sects and 
 
 1 Said to be the Arabic Sharki-in, i.e. ' Orientals ' — or, according to others, 
 ' Thieves.' The word was, however, probably not Arabic, but a name given 
 to Arabs by foreigners. 
 
 ' Compare Louis XIV's L'iiat et I'iglise, c'est moi. 
 
 223 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 bring about doctrinal uniformity was likely to make things 
 worse instead of better. Hereupon lie seems to have fallen 
 into a state of nervous despondency, and in 641 he died. 
 Meantime in Italy the Lombard king had been extending and 
 consolidating his power, and had drawn up his celebrated Code 
 of laws. 
 
 Rotharis* Code, or Edict, was sanctioned in a great assembly 
 held at Pavia in 643. Autharis had governed by means of 
 oral Lombard laws, but this is a written barbarian code — the 
 first that was published in Italy. It is in a kind of barbarous 
 Latin and consists of 388 chapters, or paragraphs. 1 In the 
 Prologue, which is most valuable historically, a& it gives the 
 names and relations of the Lombard kings up to about 640, 
 Rotharis tells us that his purpose was to collect and emend all 
 the ancient laws of his race, and to erase the superfluous (d'entro 
 delle leggi trasse il troppo e vano, as Dante's Justinian says of 
 himself) . Although in parts evidently inspired by Roman law, 
 it is on the whole Lombardic in spirit and in form ; but it 
 gives some very striking proofs of recent enlightenment. 
 Thus, the old faida, or vendetta, and the duel (as test of guilt) 
 are abolished, as also is the burning of witches. Capital 
 punishment is rarely imposed, and legal fines take the place 
 of private vengeance — a civilized ordinance even beyond the 
 cognition of Roman law. The general tenor of the laws is 
 directed against the great landowners (as was also the case 
 under the Gothic domination) and is in favour of the poor 
 and of the working man. In this respect Rotharis' legislation 
 compares very favourably with that of the contemporary 
 Byzantine Code, which connived at, when it did not openly 
 abet, latifundia and official extortion. 
 
 After the death of Rotharis in 652 followed an obscure and 
 externally uninteresting period of sixty years, which may be 
 dismissed briefly. His son and successor Rodwald is killed 
 after a short reign. Then Aribert, a nephew of Theodelinda, 
 is king for eight years and leaves the kingdom divided between 
 
 1 Others were added by Grimwald, and 153 more by I4utprand. Astulf 
 also made a few laws. v 
 
 224 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 his two sons, Bertharis and Godebert, whose capitals are 
 respectively Milan and Pavia. The brothers quarrel and the 
 younger appeals for help to the powerful duke of Benevento, 
 Grimwald, who comes to Pavia, but, instead of aiding Godebert, 
 kills him. Bertharis hereupon flees for refuge to the Avars, 
 and Grimwald is crowned in Pavia (662), thus for the first and 
 last time uniting under a Lombard king the northern dominions 
 with the hitherto almost independent duchy in the far south. 1 
 But this southern duchy of Benevento, which he had left 
 in charge of his son Romwald, was just at this moment danger- 
 ously threatened by the Byzantines ; and to understand how 
 this came about we must turn for a moment from Lombard 
 Italy to Rome. 2 Here the everlasting squabbles over doctrinal 
 subtleties had reached such a climax that the Eastern Emperor, 
 Constans II (642-68), at last ordered the Exarch to send Pope 
 Martin to Constantinople, as he had refused to acquiesce in 
 an imperial edict commanding the cessation of all discussion 
 about the ' double nature ' of Christ and had even summoned 
 a Council which denounced the edict as sceleratissimum. Pope 
 Martin was shamefully treated by Constans and finally deported 
 to the Crimea, where he died, it is said, of hunger. His suc- 
 cessors, however, seem to have come to an understanding with 
 the Emperor, who was beginning to be much alarmed by the 
 Saracens. The infidels had routed his fleet off the coast of 
 Asia Minor and were now devastating Sicily. An army was 
 therefore raised for the defence of that island, and in 662 — the 
 year in which Grimwald left Benevento for Pavia — Constans 
 set out from Constantinople at the head of his forces, and, 
 probably thinking that it was a good opportunity for surprising 
 
 1 The fact that he married the sister of the murdered Godebert is so often 
 paralleled in these ages that it scarcely causes wonder. 
 
 2 The history of Italy both in this age and in other ages is often viewed too 
 much from the standpoint of a dominant power — barbarian, Byzantine, Papal, 
 Norman, German, French, Spanish, etc. This is due to the fact that we have 
 very few records of anything but such dominant powers until the rise of the 
 Republics. The story of Rome in the Middle Ages is told attractively by 
 Gregorovius, but at times it is a rather wearisome account of endless Popes and 
 endless local squabbles, political and religious, relieved only by interesting 
 antiquarian details. 
 
 P 225 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the Lombards of South Italy, landed at Otranto and besieged 
 Grimwald's son in Benevento But Grimwald marched rapidly 
 to his relief and routed the 20,000 Byzantines and Romans. 
 He thus saved his southern dominions; and had he made 
 a determined effort he might perhaps have seized Naples, and 
 even Rome, and thus changed the whole course of Italian 
 history. 1 
 
 Soon afterwards Grimwald dies and the fugitive Bertharis 
 returns and is acclaimed as king. Of his reign of seventeen 
 years (671-88) we know very little. His son Cunibert is 
 excluded from the throne for a time by an usurper, but defeats 
 and slays him in a great battle on the Adda, and reigns for 
 twelve years (688-700). When Cunibert dies his son succeeds, 
 for hereditary rights seem now to be recognized — but, being a 
 minor, he is placed under the regency of a noble named 
 Ansprand. Soon another claimant arises, Ragimbert by name, 
 who sets his own son, Aribert II, on the throne. 
 
 Now Ansprand had fled to Bavaria — the home of Theodelinda. 
 Hearing that he is plotting to return, the usurper Aribert 
 seizes his wife and children (all but one, Liutprand, who 
 escapes and joins his father) and mutilates them with the 
 most inhuman cruelty, tearing out their eyes and tongues. 
 But the day of vengeance at last arrived. Ansprand, descend- 
 ing from the Alps with an army of Bavarians, was joined by 
 many who hated the bloodthirsty and pious tyrant. 2 Aribert 
 endeavoured to flee from Pavia, but was drowned, it is said, 
 while attempting to swim across the Ticino with a heavy bag 
 
 1 Constans retired to Rome, where he, a fratricide and Pope-murderer, 
 combined piety with robbery by bestowing large donatives on churches and 
 carrying ofi the gilded covering of the dome of the Pantheon — which building, 
 by the way, had been given by the monster Phocas to Gregory the Great 
 to be converted into a church. Constans then went to Sicily, and during 
 five years emulated Verres, till a slave smote him on the head with a pot of 
 hot water and drowned him in his bath. 
 
 2 Writers such as Villari and Cappelletti dwell on the great advance in 
 civilization observable in connexion with the conversion of the Lombards to 
 Catholicism at this period. Doubtless many churches were built. This 
 monster, Aribert II, was (says Villari) a great favourite of the Catholic clergy 
 and of several Popes, and this may have favoured the fusion of Lombards 
 and Italians. 
 
 226 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 of money. Hereupon Ansprand is proclaimed king ; but lie 
 dies in the same year (712), leaving as heir his son I<iutprand, 
 who as a boy had escaped to Bavaria some ten years before. 
 The long reign of I^iutprand (712-44) was perhaps more 
 notable than that of any other I/imbard king — partly on 
 account of incidents which were not directly connected with 
 the Lombard court, but which were momentous for Italy. 
 
 These incidents, which deeply affected the relations of the 
 Eastern Empire with what we may perhaps call Byzantine 
 Italy, were, as might be expected, intimately connected with 
 religious, or rather with ecclesiastical, questions. They must 
 claim our attention for a few moments. 
 
 We have already seen one Emperor after another setting 
 himself up as a kind of Antipope, convening Councils, pro- 
 mulgating not only conciliatory Henotika and Ectheses, but 
 even inflammatory definitions of the Trinity and the Nature 
 of Christ ; we have seem them deposing, imprisoning, and 
 otherwise treating with contumely and cruelty the supreme 
 Roman pontiffs. We now come to a hostility so violent that 
 it necessarily ended in total rupture between the East and 
 West. The Popes, zealously supported by the Italians, 
 became more and more able to defy the pretensions of the 
 Emperors, and their defiance embittered the relations between 
 the Byzantine court and its Italian provinces. In 691 the 
 Emperor Justinian II ordered a Church Council to meet in 
 his palace. Pope Sergius refused to subscribe to the decisions 
 of this Council. The Emperor thereupon sent Zacharias, 
 his Protospathar (captain of the imperial swordsmen), to Rome 
 to imprison the Pope ; but the Ravenna troops revolted and 
 marched to Rome, and the Romans rose in their Pope's defence, 
 and the Protospathar had to save his life by hiding, it is said, 
 in the Pope's bedchamber, and even under the papal bedstead, 
 until the popular fury had so far abated as to allow him to leave 
 the city. Justinian some years later revenged himself for 
 this insult by a savage assault on Ravenna. The city was 
 sacked, and the archbishop blinded 1 and exiled to the Crimea. 
 1 I.e. abbacinato : for which see p. 16. 
 
 227 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 But indignation and rebellion spread, and in spite of a tem- 
 porary reconciliation between the Emperor and the Pope (now 
 Constantine I) and a festal meeting of the two in Asia Minor, 
 serious tumults occurred at Rome, where the Exarch himself 
 was killed ; and most of the cities of the Exarchate made 
 common cause with Ravenna * in a revolt against the Eastern 
 Empire — the first confederation of cities in the history of 
 medieval Italy. Justinian had already been driven from his 
 throne for several years (695-705), and his cruelties now caused 
 another revolution to break out. He was killed (711) by the 
 usurper Bardanes, or Philippicus, who endeavoured to con- 
 ciliate Ravenna and the Romans by sending back the blinded 
 archbishop, and also by sending over to Italy Justinian's head, 
 which, we are told, ' all flocked with avidity to gaze upon.' 
 But the favour courted by these methods was short-lived. 
 Heretical tendencies and the assumption of pontifical functions 
 once more roused the most violent hostility at Rome. The 
 portrait of Philippicus was banned from St. Peter's and other 
 churches ; his name was no longer to be heard in the Mass ; 
 money with his image and superscription was refused. So 
 intense became the excitement that within the space of a few 
 years Philippicus was deposed and blinded, and his two 
 successors were deposed and forced to receive the tonsure. 
 Then (in 717) the throne was ascended by Leo III, a valiant 
 soldier of Eastern birth, well known on account of his origin as 
 Leo the Isaurian, and known still better as Leo the Iconoclast. 
 The next scene of our drama is filled mainly by Liutprand, 
 the Emperor Leo, and (down to the year 731) Pope Gregory the 
 Second, the vigorous opponent of the iconoclastic Emperor. 
 The chief events are the political and ecclesiastical rupture 
 between East and West and the consequent increase of Lom- 
 bard power, which induces the Popes to call in the Franks. 2 
 
 1 At Ravenna the rebellion was led by a certain George, son of the dis- 
 tinguished and learned Ravennate ' Little John,' who had been crucified by 
 the Byzantines. George reconstituted the array and inspired the people 
 by his eloquence, like Rienzi at Rome in later days. 
 
 * A curious fact is that during the whole of the period 727-74 the received 
 dates are apparently one year in advance of what they should be. See Bury's 
 228 
 
1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■'.■'•- n 
 
 ______ 
 
 
 'wStt''%2dJ6JF- WPik'' 
 
 
 wBgtemt 
 
 
 
 ^^"•"V j 
 
 
 *jm:. 
 
 P*'^ 
 
 ig. The Iron Crown and The so-caujsd Crown 
 op Charlemagne 
 
 See List of Illustrations 
 
 228 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 First, then, a few words about the long and bitter strife 
 concerning what we will call the use of icons — that is, of 
 religious images, whether pictures or statues ; for how far one 
 should speak here of the abuse of such things, and whether in 
 this case one would be justified in using the word idolatry as it 
 was used by iconoclasts, need not now be discussed. Suffice 
 it to say that many in the Eastern Church, doubtless in- 
 fluenced by the very strong feeling among Eastern monotheists, 
 such as the Jews and the Moslems, concerning the dangerous 
 proclivity of human nature towards idolatry, without being 
 actuated by ultra-puritanical motives, were unable to under- 
 stand the attitude of the Roman Church (an attitude mainly 
 due to the hereditary influences of classical paganism) in regard 
 to the use of images for religious purposes. 
 
 The Emperor I^eo felt strongly on the subject, 1 and in 628, 
 after having spent the first nine years of his reign in valorously 
 repelling Saracens who threatened Constantinople and in suc- 
 cessful campaigns against them in Sicily, he took — for good 
 or for evil — the momentous decision to adventure the Her- 
 culean labour of cleansing the house of God from ' idolatry ' — 
 for it was against the fetish-worship of pictures and statues, 
 not against such things regarded as works of art, that he was 
 determined to declare war. He began by publishing his 
 celebrated Edict, ordering all religious images to be destroyed 
 or removed from churches. 2 The Edict was all the more 
 intensely obnoxious to the Catholic ecclesiastics because 
 behind this denunciation of images was known to exist an 
 
 Later Roman Empire, ii, 425. In this connexion I might note here that until 
 the middle of the sixth century dates were often reckoned by the Roman 
 consulships, and that from 312 onward there was a cumbrous and perplexing 
 system of reckoning by Interdictions — periods of fifteen years during which 
 the census of property and the assessment of taxes remained unaltered. 
 
 1 As a native of Isauria, or perhaps of some region of Armenia, Leo had been 
 doubtless influenced by the Iranian (Persian, Zoroastrian) religion, which 
 rejected statues and temples. He was accused by the Romans of being 
 ' Saracenized.' The contempt of the Moslems for the miracle-working idols 
 of the Christians was very bitter. 
 
 * The Vatican St. Peter, possibly once a statue of Jupiter (see p. 104), was 
 the object of special denunciation by Leo and veneration by the Romans, 
 as we see from Gregory's letters to the Emperor. 
 
 229 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 abhorrence of Mariolatry and of the gross and useful super- 
 stitions connected with relics — to say nothing of monasticism 
 and enforced celibacy. 
 
 In Constantinople itself and other parts of the Empire great 
 opposition was excited by the Edict ; but here it was suppressed 
 by force, whereas in Italy the result was a sudden and vio- 
 lent explosion that shattered the Byzantine power. Ravenna, 
 Venice, and other cities of the northern Exarchate, as well 
 as Rome and Naples, rose against their foreign governors 
 and elected their own duces ; and thenceforward only in the 
 extreme south of the peninsula a few towns and regions con- 
 tinued to acknowledge the Eastern Emperor and the Eastern 
 Patriarch — a state of things that lasted till the coming of the 
 Normans. 
 
 The further fortunes of this controversy about images have 
 an ecclesiastical rather than a historical interest and we may 
 dismiss them with a few remarks. After the death of Pope 
 Gregory II in 731 his successor, Gregory III, was at first in 
 favour of I^eo ; but his Council took a very different view and 
 declared excommunicated all who were not in favour of images. 
 In 754 a Council of 338 bishops met at Constantinople and 
 declared unanimously against images. This war to the knife 
 continued for many years. The pious Irene, who deposed 
 and blinded her own son, has the glory of having reintroduced 
 the use of images in the Eastern Church, for a Council 1 sum- 
 moned by her at Nicaea in 787 unanimously decreed that 
 ' the cult of images is agreeable to the Scriptures, the Fathers, 
 and the Councils of the Church,' and that ' prayer should be 
 offered to the images of the Saints as to the Cross' (Villari). 
 
 We will now return to Iyiutprand. His reign of thirty-two 
 years, notable as the period of final revolt against imperial 
 rule in Italy, was also notable because, while Popes and 
 Emperors, Romans and Byzantines, were exhausting themselves 
 in religious and political strife, the Lombard king was quickly 
 
 1 Accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. Irene, says Gibbon, has on 
 this account ' received the honour of Saint [I] in the Greek Calendar.' But 
 another woman, Theodora (c. 840), has the credit of achieving the final victory 
 of iconolatry in the Eastern Church, 
 23O 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 extending and consolidating his dominions by conquest and 
 by wise legislation and was favouring the development of a 
 new and beautiful architecture by patronizing the guilds of 
 the ' Comacine ' master-builders, who erected for him many 
 churches — such as the exquisite basilica of S. Pietro at Tuscania 
 (Toscanella) , near Viterbo, the Duomo and Baptistery of Novara, 
 possibly S. Salvatore at Brescia, and several churches at Genoa 
 and at Pavia, especially the celebrated Ciel d'oro, where he 
 deposited the bones of St. Augustine, which he had ransomed 
 from the Saracens of Sardinia. 
 
 The legislation of Liutprand added 153 laws to the Code of 
 Rotharis. These laws are remarkable for their qualities of 
 mercy and Christian charity. They show a deep aversion for 
 old barbaric customs of appeal to duel or the ' judgment of 
 God '; they give legal rights to women and defend the poor 
 against oppression. 
 
 I/iutprand's earlier conquests had extended the Lombard 
 kingdom southwards 1 and also over most of Emilia and 
 Pentapolis, and about 730 he seems to have succeeded in 
 capturing Ravenna ; for in 734 we find Pope Gregory III 
 writing to Orso, third Doge of Venice, begging him to recover 
 Ravenna ' for the Empire ' ; and this was done — a fact that 
 proves how powerful and independent Venice had already 
 become. It also shows how anxious Pope Gregory was 
 becoming about the rapid increase of the Lombard power. So 
 anxious indeed he became that a few years later (739) he tried 
 to foment, or aid, a rebellion of the southern Lombard duchies 
 of Spoleto and Benevento. Hereupon King Liutprand marched 
 southwards once more, and, after defeating Thrasamund, the 
 rebel duke of Spoleto, who fled for refuge to the Pope, he 
 advanced against Rome. 
 
 It was at this crisis, when Liutprand was capturing the 
 strongholds and devastating the country of the Roman duchy 
 
 1 On this occasion he captured Sutri, in the duchy of Rome and only thirty 
 miles distant from the capital. This town he, however, restored, and, being 
 a zealous Catholic, he restored it, not to the Romans, but to ' St. Peter ' — a 
 fact that may be regarded as the first germ of the temporal power of the 
 Popes (the Donation of Constantine being legendary). 
 
 231 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 right up to the basilica of St. Peter (then outside the walls), 
 that Gregory wrote the famous letter with which the still more 
 famous Vienna manuscript, the Codex Carolinus, 1 begins — the 
 first extant letter addressed by him to ' Dom no excellentissimo 
 filio Carolo subregulo,' namely to Charles Martel, the conqueror 
 of the Saxons, Frisians, and Bavarians — the saviour of Christian 
 Europe by his ever-memorable victory over the Moors and 
 Arabs at Poitiers — the monarch of all the Franks, though still 
 nominally only Duke of Austrasia and ' Master of the Palace ' 
 in Neustria. 
 
 This letter of Gregory III was inopportune, for Charles had 
 just applied to I^iutprand for assistance against the Arabs, and 
 I/iutprand had actually gone north to help him ; but, finding 
 that the war against the infidels was finished, he returned and 
 again began devastating the possessions of the Church in the 
 Roman duchy. Gregory then wrote another and still more 
 urgent letter to Charles, begging his aid contra nefandissimos 
 Longobardos, and reminding him that he had sent him, among 
 other splendid gifts, golden keys of the tomb of St. Peter 
 cum vinculis (i.e. containing filings from the chains of the 
 Apostle). These keys were doubtless meant to indicate to 
 Charles that he was expected to come forward as the defender 
 of St. Peter's tomb ; and one chronicler — a somewhat untrust- 
 worthy one — asserts that Gregory made a distinct promise 
 ' to withdraw from the side of the Fmperor ' (a partibus Im- 
 peratoris recedere) and recognize Charles as Roman Consul. 
 It appears somewhat strange that the Pope should admit as 
 still existing even the shadow of an alliance with the Byzantine 
 court, for there seems to have existed at Rome no longer any 
 official recognition of Byzantine sovranty. But the narrative 
 may contain some truth ; Gregory may have forestalled to 
 some extent the invitation sent by Pope I/eo III to Charles 
 the Great. 
 
 Gregory received no answer to his appeal, for in November 
 of this year (741) he suddenly died, and Charles had already 
 
 1 A collection of ninety-nine papal letters, etc., made by order of Charles 
 the Great. 
 232 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 died, a month earlier. The Emperor I^eo also died in the 
 same year. Liutprand was thus the only one left of the four 
 conspicuous characters of this period, and he survived them 
 only three years. But these three years added not a little 
 to his power and renown. The new Pope, Zacharias — whose 
 consecration, without imperial sanction, is a striking evi- 
 dence of newly acquired independence — adopted a conciliatory 
 attitude towards the Lombard king, and a solemn meeting 
 took place in the basilica of St. Peter l at Viterbo, near the 
 frontier between I,ombard Tuscany and the Roman duchy. 
 Here a truce of twenty years was signed. Liutprand also 
 made a treaty with Stephanus, the Duke, or Patrician, of Rome, 
 who was now practically the president of the Roman Commune. 
 He also confirmed his sovran rights over the hitherto insub- 
 ordinate southern duchies by deposing Thrasamund (who had 
 to receive the tonsure — the not unmerciful lot of many a fallen 
 potentate in those ages) and by placing new rulers on the ducal 
 thrones of Spoleto and Benevento. Perhaps it is, as it seems 
 to some writers, a pity that I/iutprand did not now take ad- 
 vantage of his position and attempt to found his kingdom on 
 the basis of an united Italy — even if the union of its rather 
 heterogeneous elements had to be effected in the first instance 
 by external force. However that may be, the attempt was not 
 made — possibly because the genius for empire-building was 
 wanting in the I^ombard character ; possibly also I4utprand's 
 reverence, as loyal Catholic, for the spiritual authority and the 
 temporal possessions of the Church made him hesitate. How 
 strongly he was influenced by such reverence is proved by the 
 fact that after the treaty of Viterbo he restored many of the 
 towns and strongholds claimed by the Pope, as heir to the 
 Byzantine possessions, both in the northern Exarchate and 
 in the Roman duchy, and that two years before his death he 
 abandoned — at the entreaty of the Pope — his design of seizing 
 Ravenna. 
 
 1 So Villari. Rivoira, however, in his Origini della arch. lomb. mentions 
 S. Lorenzo (the vanished original of the present duomo) as the only known 
 ancient church of Viterbo, and that was probably built, as were the still 
 existing Lombard ramparts, some twenty years later, by Desiderius. 
 
 2 33 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 In 744 Iyiutprand died, leaving his throne to his son, or 
 nephew, Hildebrand, who was soon deposed by Ratchis. Of 
 Ratchis' reign we know scarcely anything, except that it 
 ended by his retiring to Monte Cassino. His brother and 
 successor Astulf (749-56), by his ferociously aggressive anti- 
 papal policy, brought about the first serious invasion of the 
 Franks. In 752 he took Ravenna — an act that is regarded 
 as finally extinguishing the Byzantine Exarchate — and, in 
 spite of a forty years' peace that he had signed, he obstinately 
 refused to give up Roman and papal towns and territories * 
 that he had seized, and fremens ut leo, as the old chronicler says, 
 he so terrified the Romans with his threats that Pope Stephen, 
 barefoot and bestrewn with ashes, led suppliant processions 
 to the three great churches of Rome, bearing aloft on a cross 
 the violated treaty of peace. At last, in despair the Pope paid 
 a visit (in 573) to the I/ombard king at Pavia. But all was in 
 vain ; so he continued his journey and crossed the Alps in 
 order to appeal in person to Pipin, king of the Franks. 
 
 Pipin the Short (Pepin le Bref) and his brother Carlmann 
 had for a time held the supreme power after the death of their 
 father, Charles Martel, but were nominally only maires du 
 palais of the last puppet-king of the Merovingian dynasty, 
 the roi faineant Childeric III. Carlmann, tired of a worldly 
 life, had in 746 retired to a monastery founded by himself 
 on Mount Soracte, near Rome, and thence to the Bene- 
 dictine convent of Monte Cassino. I^eft as sole ruler of 
 the Franks, Pipin had appealed to the Pope (then Zacharias) 
 to decide whether a roi faineant or he who really held and 
 exercised the kingly authority ought to bear the regal title. 
 To this Zacharias gave the answer desired, and delegated 
 Boniface, the English Apostle of Germany and at this time 
 Archbishop of Mainz, to crown Pipin at the solemn conclave 
 of Soissons in 751. 
 
 Now when two years later the successor of Pope Zacharias, 
 
 1 In letters of Pope Stephen II to Astulf he talks of restitution ' to Rome ' 
 and ' to the Republic,' but he soon slides into such expressions as ' to 
 St. Peter ' and ' to the Holy Church.' For explanation of the confusion made 
 by writers between Stephen II and Stephen III, see Ijst of Popes, p. 249. 
 
 234 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Stephen II, crossed the Alps, as I have said, to appeal to King 
 Pipin, he was met on his journey by the young prince Charles 
 (afterwards Charles the Great) , who accompanied him till the 
 king himself came forth on horseback to receive his guest. 
 Straightway, it is said, even before they had reached the palace, 
 Pipin gave his promise on oath that he would ' restore the 
 Exarchate and all other places and rights belonging to the 
 Republic of Rome ' — or, in other words, to the Papal State. 
 He then insists that Stephen shall pass the winter months at 
 the Abbey of St. Dionysius (St.-Denis) ; he writes urgent and 
 threatening letters, all in vain, to the Iyombard Astulf ; he 
 renews his promise to the Pope in solemn assemblies ; and 
 Pope Stephen, in return, crowns in the church of St.-Denis 
 not only Pipin himself, but his consort Bertharid (Berthe au 
 grand, pied) and their two sons, Charles and Carlmann — an 
 act that is regarded as the papal and Roman sanction of 
 Pipin's dynasty, seeing that he himself had already been 
 crowned king of the Franks by St. Boniface. Indeed, it nearly 
 amounted to a revival of the Roman Empire — a feat reserved 
 for Pope Leo — for at the coronation Stephen, as the represen- 
 tative of Rome, and as himself vested with almost imperial 
 authority, conferred on the Prankish monarch the supreme 
 title of Patrician, which had been bestowed by Emperors only 
 on eminent members of the imperial house, or had been borne 
 by such rulers as Odovacar and Theoderic. 
 
 Pipin fulfilled his promise. Soon after his second coronation, 
 at the head of a large army and accompanied by the Pope 
 and a great cavalcade of prelates, he marched over Mont 
 Cenis, drove Astulf back into Pavia, and forced him to promise 
 the restitution of Ravenna and other cities of the former 
 Exarchate, expressly stipulating that they should be restored, 
 not to the Eastern Emperor, but to St. Peter — that is, to the 
 Pope. But no sooner had Pipin withdrawn from Italy than 
 Astulf, as was his custom, refused to keep his word. He 
 marched south, devastated the Roman and papal territories, 
 and threatened to sack Rome if the Pope were not surrendered 
 to him. Pope Stephen, in his dire distress, sends Pipin a 
 
 235 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 letter, not from himself, but from no one less than St. Peter, 
 who states that the Virgin Mother of God and the Thrones 
 and Dominations and all the host of heaven and all the com- 
 pany of saints and martyrs join him in his appeal, and that if 
 Pipin gives no attention to it he, Peter, by the authority of 
 the Trinity and of his Holy Office, excludes him, Pipin, from the 
 kingdom of God and from the life eternal. So once more 
 King Pipin crosses Mont Cenis, once more captures Pavia (756), 
 and forces Astulf, who had hastily abandoned his siege of 
 Rome, to renounce his conquests in the Exarchate and the 
 Pentapolis ; and he then sends the keys of all these cities to 
 the Pope. 1 
 
 In this same year Astulf died. His brother Ratchis, who, it 
 will be remembered, had abdicated and retired to Monte 
 Cassino, now came forward, hoping to be re-elected king ; but 
 the Pope persuaded him to return to his monastery and 
 favoured the election of Desiderius, Duke of Tuscany, who 
 was lavish in his promises to support the Papacy in its demand 
 for all the original territory of the Exarchate and Pentapolis 
 — promises which, as usual, remained unfulfilled ; for the new 
 I/ombard king renounced nothing except Faenza and Ferrara. 
 
 But the land-hunger of the Holy See was not to be sated by 
 such a sop. Stephen's brother, Paul, had succeeded him as 
 Pope, and the ever-increasing papal claims to vast territories 
 (for the claims of ' St. Peter ' had now totally eclipsed those of 
 the ' Holy Roman Republic ') were beginning to excite much 
 hostility among the Roman nobility — a fact to be noted, 
 seeing that, far more than any squabble between Pope and 
 Eastern Emperor, this was the real beginning of the Guelf and 
 Ghibelline feud. 8 
 
 1 The cities included Ravenna, Ancona, Bologna, Faenza, Ferrara, etc. 
 Pipin's Donation was made ' to Saint Peter, to the Holy Roman Republic, and 
 to all succeeding Pontiffs.' In answer to envoys from Constantinople he 
 asserted that he had come to Italy solely ' for the love of St. Peter and for 
 the pardon of his sins.' The document of Pipin's Donation was kept in the 
 ' Confession ' (see Index) of St. Peter's at Rome, and still existed when the 
 writer of Pope Stephen's Life in the Liber Pontificate was alive (c. 850-900 ?). 
 
 2 In its first phase we have the Papacy supported against the Roman 
 nobility by barbarian mpnarchs and revived Emperors, who encourage by 
 236 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLI ]&£_:;_ __ 
 During the next twelve years we have constant negotiation 
 and temporary combinations — much rocking of the balance, 
 but no permanent disturbance of equipoise. Treaties are 
 proposed, made, and broken again and again by the five 
 masters to whom Italy is enslaved, and things remain much 
 as they were. In 767 Pope Paul dies, and in the following 
 year King Pipin. He leaves the Frank kingdom to his two sons 
 Charles and Carlmann, whose violent quarrels cause great 
 disturbance and exacerbate existing feuds even in the cities of 
 Italy. But after three years Carlmann dies, and his widow with 
 her children finds a refuge at the court of Desiderius in Pavia. 
 Charles thus becomes (in 771) the monarch of the Frank 
 kingdom of Neustria and Austrasia and all its dependencies. 
 
 Before relating the events that led to the conquest of the 
 Lombards by Charles, and to his coronation as Emperor, it 
 may be well to glance at the state of things in Rome after the 
 death of Pope Paul in 767 — just in order to gain some conception 
 of the almost incredible savagery with which the aristocratic 
 and ecclesiastical factions carried on their feuds. Pope Paul 
 was on his deathbed, but still alive, when the Duke of Nepi 
 (a little town of the papal-Roman duchy) hastened to Rome 
 with a strong force and set his brother Constantine on the papal 
 throne. As Constantine was a layman, he had to be ordained 
 cleric, sub-deacon, deacon, and priest, and then consecrated 
 as bishop and Pope, all on the same day. A year later a 
 priest, Philip by name, was put forward by the Lombard 
 faction. He was consecrated in the Lateran and took his seat 
 on the papal throne in St. Peter's, and gave his papal benedic- 
 tion to the congregation. But the next month (August 768) 
 a third Pope, Stephen III, a friend of the late Pope Paul, 
 was elected by a combination of clerics, army, and people. 
 ' This new election,' says Villari, ' did not allay popular 
 excitement, since before the new Pope was consecrated 
 
 Donations its ravening greed for temporal power. Dante uses bitter words 
 about this she-wolf : ' Ivaden in her leanness with all ravenings . . . she 
 never sates her craving hunger. . . .' ' Many are the animals with which 
 she weds.' (Inf. i.) And still stronger is his Biblical putlaneggiar 00' regi 
 (Inf. xix). One of these regi was, of course, Charles of Anjou. 
 
 237 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the victorious party decided to take vengeance on Con- 
 stantine and his adherents. Some of these had eyes and 
 tongue torn out. The infuriated mob then rushed to the 
 house in which the ex-Pope was confined. They overwhelmed 
 him with insults, set him on horseback on a woman's saddle 
 and took him to a monastery. Hence he was conducted to 
 the I/ateran Basilica, where the assembled bishops formally 
 deposed him, stripping off his pallium and his pontifical leg- 
 gings. Shortly after this his enemies dragged him out of the 
 monastery, dug out his eyes, and left him lying on the street 
 almost dead.' A priest who had been a chief instigator of the 
 election of Pope Philip, and who had sought sanctuary in the 
 Pantheon (S. Maria ad Martyres), was torn away from the 
 sacred image to which he was clinging, dragged to the Lateran, 
 and in like fashion blinded — and died in consequence. 
 
 But we must return to Charles. Through the death of his 
 brother he had become sole ruler of the Franks. Not long before 
 this happened he had been persuaded by his mother Bertharid 
 (Berthe) to ally himself with the Lombard king — one of those 
 numerous alliances which, as I have remarked, characterized 
 this period and kept the balance swinging. He was even 
 persuaded to marry the Lombard princess Desiderata, daughter 
 of Desiderius. When Pope Stephen III heard of this proposed 
 marriage he was, not unnaturally, consternated. His letter 
 on this occasion — inserted by Charles himself in his collection 
 of papal letters and still to be seen at Vienna — is couched in 
 violent language. He calls diabolic any union between the 
 noble race of Franks and the most iniquitous Lombard race, 
 and adds that he had laid his letter on the tomb of St. Peter 
 and was now sending it with tears in his eyes. And yet — 
 such were the vacillations of the balance — in the very same year 
 (771) in which Charles became sole king (but before it happened, 
 which was in December) Stephen had been holding solemn 
 meetings in St. Peter's with Desiderius, who with a considerable 
 bodyguard had come to Rome, nominally on a pilgrimage, but 
 really in order to rescue the Pope from certain turbulent 
 nobles and ecclesiastics — an object that was effected, the leaders 
 238 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 of the hostile faction being seized and blinded. 1 However, in 
 a few months the wind again shifted, for when Stephen heard 
 that Charles had broken with the Lombard king — had indeed 
 insulted him mortally by sending Desiderata back to her 
 home — he too broke with Desiderius and began to court the 
 favour of the Frank monarch. But death put an end to his 
 intrigues (February 772). 
 
 Between the accession of Charles as supreme monarch of 
 the Franks and his coronation as Emperor just twenty-nine 
 years elapsed. Of this period I shall give here a brief account, 
 reserving some points of special interest, such as the question 
 of the Donations, and some picturesque details connected 
 with the Coronation, to be treated in a following chapter. 
 
 To Pope Stephen III succeeded Hadrian I, a man of strong 
 character. His reign of twenty-three years was momentous. 
 One of his first acts was to send envoys to protest against the 
 conduct of Desiderius, who, enraged at the insults of Charles 
 and doubtless incited by the widow of Carlmann, had seized 
 Faenza and Ferrara and was threatening Ravenna. Hadrian's 
 embassy failed, and soon afterwards the Lombard king reached 
 Viterbo on his march towards Rome. 
 
 Then the Pope appealed urgently to Charles, and the Frank 
 monarch hastened to the rescue. He made a descent on Italy 
 with two armies. One, under the command of his uncle, a 
 son of Charles Martei, crossed by the pass of Jupiter Poeninus 
 — the Monte Giove, Mont Joux, or Great St. Bernard of to-day ; 
 the other he himself led over Mont Cenis ; and a desperate 
 battle was fought (about June 773) in the Alpine defiles, 
 which had been strongly fortified by the Lombards. Desi- 
 derius was driven back to Pavia, where he was closely invested 
 by one Frank army, while the other captured Turin, Milan, 
 and other cities, including Verona. 2 After besieging Pavia 
 
 1 Christophorus and Sergius. They had led the rioters who deposed 
 Constantine and Philip and elected Stephen, and now they were endeavouring 
 to dominate him. 
 
 s In Verona were the widow and children of Carlmann, as well as Adelchis, 
 the son of Desiderius. The former were captured and sent to a monastery ; 
 the latter escaped to Constantinople. 
 
 2 39 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 vainly for six months, Charles determined to celebrate the 
 Easter festival of 774 at Rome. This, the first of his visits 
 to Rome, momentous on account of the confirmation of 
 Pipin's Donation, will be described in a later chapter. In 
 June he left Rome and returned to Pavia, which ere long 
 surrendered. 1 Desiderius, together with his wife and daughter, 
 was sent to France. Here he was compelled to become a monk, 
 and died in obscurity. Thus ended the Lombard monarchy. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Charles, who was about thirty-two years of age, was now 
 master of all the Frank dominions north of the Alps and of 
 all the Lombard dominions in Italy as far south 2 as the river 
 Garigliano (I/iris). He felt himself already justified in assum- 
 ing the title Rex Francorum et Longobardorum in addition to 
 that of Patricius Romanorum, which his father Pipin had borne. 
 But his empire was yet to extend itself mightily. He was 
 destined to rule the whole of Western Europe between the 
 limits of the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Eider, the Elbe, the 
 Save, the Iyiris, the Mediterranean, and the Ebro ; and his wars 
 of conquest began without further delay. Leaving Pavia, he 
 hastened northwards and commenced at once the first of the 
 eleven campaigns in which during the next eleven years, with 
 great difficulty and much bloodshed, he subdued the Ostfalen 
 and Westfalen Saxons — savage and embittered foes of Chris- 
 tianity, led by their famous chieftain Widukind. 3 In this first 
 campaign (775) he inflicted a severe defeat on these Saxon 
 heathen, but scarce had peace been restored when news arrived 
 
 1 A legend, curiously similar to that of Tarpeia, relates that a daughter of 
 Desiderius (was it the unfortunate Desiderata ?) was in love with Charles 
 and opened the city gate at night to the Prank horsemen, who trampled her 
 to death as they rushed in. 
 
 * The Lombard duchy of Benevento, though mentioned in the Donation 
 as given over to the Church, seems to have retained independence during all 
 this period. It later formed a part of that Southern Italy whose history 
 was so diverse from that of the rest of the peninsula. 
 
 ■ Note in passing (for these northern conquests of Charles the Great belong 
 to German, not to Italian history) that in 785 he transplanted many Saxons 
 to Frank territory, and a general conversion to Christianity followed. In 
 788 and 791 he subjugated the Bavarians and Avars and incorporated them 
 in his Empire. 
 
 240 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 from Italy that some Lombard duke was plotting to set himself 
 up as Lombard king and that Adelchis, the son of the unfor- 
 tunate Desiderius, had sailed across from Constantinople with 
 a fleet of Byzantine vessels to take part in the rising. I/ike a 
 thunderbolt Charles flashed down from the Alps and crushed 
 the rebels with an unexpected ferocity, due doubtless to his 
 pent-up indignation. 1 Then, with like suddenness, he hastens 
 back to the north. Here he again punishes the Saxons. A 
 few months later he is in Spain, fighting the Saracens, taking 
 Pampluna and advancing as far as Saragossa. Called back 
 once more (778), he retreats northward, and on the southern 
 slopes of the Pyrenees, at Roncesvalles, the whole of his rear- 
 guard—some say 30,000 men — and many of his paladins are 
 cut down by the Basques (Vascons) — an incident that later 
 won its" way to great notoriety through the legends connected 
 with Orlando that were used by the poets of the Gestes de 
 Charlemagne and the Chanson de Roland, and later again by 
 Boiardo and Pulci and Ariosto, while for us English the disaster 
 has been set to music by Milton in his resounding but strangely 
 misleading verse : 
 
 Where Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
 By Fontarabia. 
 
 If Milton thought that Charles was slain at the dolorosa rotta 
 of Roncesvalles he was much mistaken, for although, as Dante 
 says, he ' lost the holy emprise ' {perde la santa gesta) of ex- 
 pelling the Saracens from Spain, within a few months he had 
 again scourged the irrepressible Saxons and was once more in 
 Italy, whither Pope Hadrian supplicated him to come ; for His 
 Holiness was again being much annoyed by the nominally 
 subjugated but practically independent Lombard Dukes of 
 Spoleto and Benevento, who paid scant attention to territorial 
 claims of the Papacy or to Donations of Pipin and Constantine. 
 After spending Christmas at Pavia Charles again visited Rome, 
 where he celebrated the Easter festival of 781, and caused 
 
 1 The brother of Paul the Deacon was imprisored and cruelly treated, 
 and Paul probably regretted the high praises that he had lavished on the 
 magnanimity of the great Frank monarch. 
 
 Q 2^1 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 his four-year-old son Carlmann to be rebaptized by Hadrian 
 as Pipin and crowned as ' King of Italy,' and his two-year-old 
 infant Louis (Ludwig) as King of Aquitania — the importance 
 of which ceremonies lies in the fact that Charles therewith 
 formally acknowledged the Pope's right to create kings and 
 thus sowed the seeds of future quarrels about Investiture. 
 
 The occurrences of the next few years were of no far-reach- 
 ing importance. Once more Pope Hadrian, harassed by the 
 Duke of Benevento, hysterically supplicates Charles's presence, 
 and once more Charles visits Italy, spending Christmas at 
 Florence and Easter (787) at Rome. Then a transient ex- 
 citement is caused by the landing of Adelchis, son of Desi- 
 derius, in South Italy, supported by Byzantine troops ; but 
 these are chased across to Sicily by the Franks and their 
 Lombard auxiliaries, and we hear no more of Adelchis. 
 
 A minor historical incident connected with this visit of 
 Charles to Italy is of great interest for the student of architec- 
 ture. We are told that Charles gave evidence of his loyal 
 recognition of the Pope's temporal rights by begging his per- 
 mission to remove ' certain marbles and mosaics ' from Ravenna 
 in order to decorate with them his palace and his cathedral 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). This cathedral, in which he is (or 
 was) buried, was built on the lines of S. Vitale, and the removal 
 of ' certain marbles and mosaics ' meant no doubt the wholesale 
 spoliation of some of the finest churches of Ravenna as well as 
 of the palaces of Theoderic and the Exarchs. 
 
 Between 790 and 795 we hear of Charles warring with the 
 Avars, and of course with the Saxons, and of a rebellion in 
 the Friuli headed by his illegitimate son Pipin — who ends his 
 days in a monastery ; and of a synod convoked at Frankfurt 
 in which the king takes a lively part as theologian ; and of 
 a Latin epitaph of thirty-eight elegiacs written by him x on 
 Pope Hadrian, who died in 795 and was succeeded by the 
 famous Leo III. 
 
 1 Perhaps, as Gibbon suspects, with the help of his English adviser, Alcwin. 
 But the verses, some of which are given by Gibbon, are poor stuff ; and is 
 " Hadrianus ' a possible commencement for a pentameter ? 
 
 242 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 The new Pope lost no time in showing what line of policy 
 he meant to adopt. He at once sent Charles the banner of 
 the city of Rome and the golden keys of St. Peter's, thus 
 acknowledging him as Patrician and as Defender of the Church, 1 
 and he at once began to date his Bulls from the accession of 
 the ' King, of the Franks and Lombards,' and not from that of 
 
 
 Leo's Tricmntum Mosaic 
 From a photo by Brogi 
 
 the Emperor, thus breaking the last bond of Eastern sovranty. 
 Charles returned these courtesies by assuring His Holiness that 
 he would defend the Church against external foes and internal 
 heresies, and begged him to aid his exploits, like Moses, with 
 uplifted hands. 
 
 1 See illustration. It depicts a copy.of part of a mosaic put up by Leo III 
 in his Triclinium (Banquet Hall) at the Lateran. The original was destroyed 
 about 1740, and copies made from old drawings were soon afterwards erected 
 by Benedict XIV and placed under the Tribune which stands near the Santa 
 Scala (the marble stair from Pilate's house), close to the Lateran Museum. 
 St. Peter, whose figure reminds one of the Vatican statue, is presenting the 
 papal stola to I<eo and the (star-spangled ?) banner of Rome to Charles. 
 
 2 43 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 It was shortly after this that a coup d'etat took place 
 in Constantinople which, theoretically, ended the ' Roman 
 Empire' of the East, if such an Empire may be said to 
 have ever existed. 1 The unfortunate youth Constantine VI 
 was deposed and blinded by his mother Irene, who assumed 
 the imperial diadem and was allowed for five years to hold 
 a splendid court and parade the streets of the capital in a 
 gilded chariot drawn by milk-white steeds, attended by a 
 servile throng of nobles, while her blind son groped his way 
 about the palace grounds, neglected, despised, or forgotten. 
 
 And now at Rome occurred that which was the immediate 
 cause of the revival, or the continuation, if that word is pre- 
 ferable, of the Roman Empire in the person of Charles the 
 Great. Emboldened by the complete rupture with the Eastern 
 Empire, and possibly hoping to establish some such republican 
 or oligarchical autonomy as that which was already taking 
 shape at Venice and Naples and in other cities, the Roman 
 aristocracy, both lay and cleric, in collusion with partisans 
 of the late Pope, Hadrian, attacked Leo as he was leading a 
 solemn procession through the streets. Thrown from his 
 horse, he was left apparently lifeless and (we are assured by 
 
 1 Feeling ran, and still runs, very high on this much-debated point. I 
 prefer to speak of the ' Eastern Bmpire ' — which was doubtless in one sense 
 the continuation, in a kind of Babylonian exile, of the original Bmpire — and 
 to reserve the epithet ' Roman ' for that Empire of which Rome itself was 
 the metropolis. There can, however, be no doubt that Charles was regarded 
 by contemporaries as the immediate successor of the unhappy Constantine VI 
 — as the sixty-eighth from Augustus — but to the Italians Rome was the 
 ' Mother ' and Constantinople only the * Daughter ' of the Roman Empire. 
 Even the Lauresheim Annals, quoted by Bryce to support his theory, after 
 stating that the ' name of Emperor had now ceased among the Greeks by 
 reason of the usurpation of the title by a woman,' adds as a potent argument 
 for the election of Charles that he ' held Rome itself, where the Caesars had 
 always been wont to sit.' There are, moreover, many evidences that the 
 Roman people regarded themselves and Rome as the one source of the 
 Imperium Romanum. Thus, a bulla of I<eo's time is described by Gre- 
 gorovius which shows Charles's portrait as Imperator and on the obverse a 
 gate of the city of Rome with the legend Renovatio Romani Imperii. None 
 would deny that the Eastern Empire was often regarded as the Roman Empire 
 (see, for instance, Justinian's description of the Roman Eagle ' in the extreme 
 part of Europe,' in Dante's Paradiso), but the feeling at Rome was, I think, 
 as I have stated, and my restricted use of the adjective ' Roman ' seems to 
 me to contain no dangerous heresy. 
 
 244 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 a writer in the Liber Pontificalis) with his eyes and tongue 
 torn out. These, however, adds the chronicler, were miracu- 
 lously restored to him. His friends then conceal him in a 
 convent. Hence he escapes, let down, like St. Paul, by means 
 of ropes, and reaches Spoleto, and sends a piteous appeal to 
 Charles. The king is, however, too much occupied with a 
 revolt of the Saxons and invites Leo to visit him at Paderborn, 
 between Cologne and Hanover, proposing to send the young 
 Pipin (the legitimate Pipin, king of Italy) and other notabilities 
 to escort him. This takes place, and Leo is received at 
 Paderborn with great honour, Charles and his warriors kneeling 
 to receive his blessing. 
 
 But from Rome soon arrive most serious accusations. It 
 is alleged that if the king would only look into the matter 
 he would find it necessary to depose Leo. At length Charles, 
 following the advice of his English counsellor Alcwin that he 
 should attend rather to the head of his Empire than to the 
 feet, determines to leave the Saxons for a time to their devices 
 and to visit Rome. But rinding this impossible — for the 
 Bretons and the Saracens are giving trouble as well as the 
 Saxons — he sends Pope Leo thither, accompanied by prelates 
 and officials, ordering a public trial to take place. The Pope 
 makes a triumphal j ourney through Italy, and is met (November 
 799) outside Rome, at the Milvian Bridge, by a vast throng of 
 clerics, senators, nobles, and delegates of the army, the people, 
 and the guilds (scholae) . He then celebrates Mass at St. Peter's 
 and gives his benediction to the multitude ; and a few days 
 later at a formal trial, held in that Banquet Hall (Triclinium) 
 of the Lateran which he himself had built, his accusers are 
 convicted of libel and are sent to France to receive the verdict 
 of Charles. 
 
 But Charles was determined to judge the case himself at 
 Rome, and in the autumn of the year 800, being at last free 
 from his enemies, he undertook the journey. At Mentana, 
 fourteen miles from the city — a spot now well known as the 
 scene of one of Garibaldi's fights — he was met by Leo and a 
 great multitude, and on the first day of December he held 
 
 245 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 a solemn conclave in the basilica of St. Peter, clothed as 
 Patrician in toga and chlamys and surrounded by his paladins 
 and nobles and all the prelates and aristocracy of Rome. No 
 contemporary account of this trial, or of the accusations, has 
 survived, but we know that on December 23, after all the 
 evidence had been heard, Pope I^eo ascended the pulpit and, 
 laying his hand on the Gospels, declared his innocence — a 
 scene that is depicted in one of Raffael's celebrated frescos. 
 The accusers — as to whose guilt or innocence we have no 
 means of judging — were condemned to death ; but at the inter- 
 cession of I>o, it is said, the sentence was commuted to that 
 of lifelong exile in France. On the same day, says Villari, 
 there arrived two envoys of the Patriarch of Jerusalem who 
 gave over to Charles the keys of that city and of the church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 On Christmas Day a solemn Mass was celebrated by the 
 Pope in St. Peter's, and when the service was concluded he 
 and Charles went to pray at the tomb of the saint — that is, 
 they prostrated themselves, in the sight of all the congregation, 
 before the high altar, where the Confessio, or latticed shaft, 
 led down to the apostle's sepulchre. When Charles rose from 
 prayer Pope I^eo placed on his head a golden crown, or 
 diadem ; whereat from the whole assembly that thronged the 
 vast basilica arose the loud and doubtless well-rehearsed accla- 
 mation : ' Carolo, piissimo Augusto, a Deo coronato, magno, 
 pacifico Imperatori, vita et victoria ! ' Then Pope I^eo, 
 having anointed Charles and his son Pipin, invested the 
 new-crowned Emperor in the purple robe, and by kneeling 
 before him, or, as others say, by kissing him, paid him 
 obeisance or adoration. 
 
 It may be asked what motive induced the Pope to ' adore ' 
 an Emperor whom he himself had, one may almost say, created. 
 Doubtless there was in the papal mind some superstitious 
 attribution of divine sanctity to the idol that his own hands 
 had fashioned, so that he adored in Charles the Elect of God ; 
 but, whatever his theories may have been, or ours may be, 
 in regard to the relations of Pope and Emperor — which theories 
 246 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 are scarcely worth discussion here, or elsewhere — it is per- 
 fectly intelligible that, owing Charles immense gratitude for 
 liberation from a very perilous situation, he was glad enough 
 at the time to recognize in him a temporal overlord, though 
 he evidently regarded the Papacy as the sole agent of the 
 Divine will and of higher authority than the Empire. 
 
 But was the Papacy on this occasion the medium of heaven's 
 choice ? Was Charles selected by the Pope acting for heaven, 
 or for himself ? And was his coronation as Emperor legiti- 
 mately consummated by this arbitrary and somewhat theatrical 
 act of Pope Leo, or had it no right but might, being planned 
 and prearranged by Charles himself ? Or, lastly, was it the 
 outcome of the deliberate choice, or sanction, of the Roman 
 Senate and the Roman people ? 
 
 The writer Eginard, or Einhart, the private secretary and 
 biographer of Charles the Great, asserts — and he probably 
 had it from Charles himself — that the king was completely 
 taken by surprise, having had no inkling whatever of the 
 dramatic scene that the Pope had devised. Everything 
 however tends to prove that all had been prearranged — 
 probably at Paderborn — and that Charles came to Rome 
 with the express purpose of receiving papal and public sanction 
 to a title which he regarded as already his own. 1 
 
 Gregorovius tells us that ' a formal decree of the supreme 
 assembly of all the Roman prelates, clerics, nobility, and 
 people preceded the coronation.' It certainly seems as if 
 the acclamations at the coronation had been preconcerted 
 and rehearsed. Anyhow it is clear that, whatever Charles 
 and Pope I,eo may have thought, the Roman people, or 
 perhaps we should say the Italian people, thought that they 
 had elected the Frank monarch as their own Imperator and 
 Augustus — a veritable Roman Emperor crowned in Rome. 
 
 1 Diplomas (not quite certainly genuine) from Pope Hadrian's time (772-95) 
 give Charles the title Imperator. The MS. copy of the Bible given by Alcwin 
 to Charles as a Christmas gift some time before the coronation was addressed : 
 
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KINGS, EMPERORS, AND POPES (568-800)— continued 
 
 ITAI.Y 
 
 Eastern Emperors 
 
 Popes 
 
 
 Justinian II 
 
 John V 
 
 685 
 
 
 685 
 
 Conon 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 (deposed 695) 
 
 Sergius I 
 
 687 
 
 Cunibert 
 
 
 (and two Anti- 
 
 
 688 
 
 Leontius 
 
 695 
 Tiberius Aspimar 
 
 popes) 
 
 
 Liutbert 
 
 697 
 
 
 
 700 
 
 
 
 
 Ragimbert 
 
 
 John VI 
 
 701 
 
 701 
 
 
 
 
 Aribert II 
 
 
 
 
 701 
 
 Justinian II 
 Restored 705 
 
 John VII 
 
 705 
 
 Ansprand 
 
 Philippicus Bardanes 
 
 Sisinnius 
 
 708 
 
 712 
 
 7" 
 
 Constantine 
 
 ,, 
 
 Liutprand 
 
 Anastasius II 
 
 
 
 712 
 
 713 
 
 
 
 
 Theodosius III 
 
 Gregory II 
 
 7i5 
 
 
 716 
 
 
 
 
 Leo III (Isaurian) 
 718 
 
 
 
 
 Constantine V 
 
 Gregory III 
 
 73i 
 
 
 74i 
 
 Zacharias 
 
 74i 
 
 Hildebrand 
 
 
 [Stephen II dies 
 
 
 744 
 
 
 two days after 
 
 
 Ratchis 
 
 
 election ; his 
 
 
 744 
 
 
 successor there- 
 
 
 Astulf 
 
 
 fore also called 
 
 
 749 
 
 
 Stephen II] 
 
 
 
 
 bro-/ Stephen II 
 therslPaulI 
 
 752 
 
 Desiderius 
 
 
 757 
 
 756 
 
 
 [Constantine and 
 
 
 (deposed 774) 
 
 
 Philip elected 
 
 
 Charles the Great 
 
 
 and dethroned. 
 
 
 Assumes title 
 
 
 767] 
 
 
 Rex Longobardorum 
 
 
 Stephen III 
 
 768 
 
 774 
 
 Leo IV 
 
 Hadrian I 
 
 772 
 
 His son Pipin crowned 
 
 775 
 
 
 
 King of Italy 
 
 Constantine VI 
 
 
 
 781 
 
 780 
 
 
 
 Charles crowned as 
 
 (deposed and blinded 
 
 
 
 Emperor of the Romans 
 
 by his mother Irene, 
 
 
 
 800 
 
 797) 
 
 Leo III 
 
 795 
 
 249 
 
KINGS OF THE FRANKS 
 
 i. The Herovings. Ci,odion (428-48) ; Merowig (Meroveus, 448-58. 
 Age of Attila) ; ChudERIC I (458-81) ; Chi,odovech (Clovis, Chlodwig, Ludwig, 
 Ludovicus, Louis, 481-51 1. Age of Theoderic). Pour sons of Clovis divide 
 the realm, of whom survives as sole king Chi,oTar (Clotaire, Lothaire, 558-61) ; 
 Chuperic (561-84) . . . ; Chi<otar II (613-28) ; Dagobert (628-38) ; 
 Ci,ovis II (638-56) . . . ; Ctovis III (691-95), who had Pipin of Heristal 
 as his maire du palais ; then several puppet-kings, so-called rois fainiants, 
 till Chuderic III, the last of the Merovings, is deposed and sent into a 
 monastery by Pipin the Short in 751. 
 
 LINEAGE OF CHARLES THE GREAT 
 (CHARLEMAGNE) 
 
 Pepin le Vieux * 
 
 or Pipin (Pippin) of Landen 
 
 (Master of the Palace in Auslrasia under Chlotar II and Dagobert) 
 
 d. 639 
 
 I 
 
 Grimwald * 
 d. 656 
 
 Gertrud 
 
 Begga (m.) Ansegisel 
 
 Pipin of Heristal * 
 d. 714 
 
 Charles Martel l 
 b. 689, d. 741 
 
 Pipin the Short * 
 
 Deposes Childeric III 
 
 and becomes king 
 
 751 ; 
 d. 768 
 
 Carlmann 1 
 
 Retires to Monte 
 
 Cassino 746; 
 
 d. 755 
 
 Charles the Great 
 
 b. 742 ; 
 
 King of Neustria 768 ; 
 
 Sole Frank king 771 ; 
 
 King of Lombards 774 ; 
 
 Emperor 800; d. 814 
 
 I 
 
 Carlmann 
 
 King of Austrasia, 
 
 Burgundy, and 
 
 Provence 768 ; 
 
 d. 771 
 
 250 
 
 Magistri pal alii (maires du palais). 
 
CHAPTER I 
 GREGORY THE GREAT 
 
 IN 589 there was a great inundation of the Tiber, followed 
 by a severe outbreak of the plague, which, as we have 
 seen, had for many years been haunting Europe. Pope 
 Pelagius II was one of the many thousands of victims at Rome. 
 As his successor the unanimous vote of the Romans chose 
 Gregory. Gregory was born about the time when Belisarius 
 captured Ravenna (540), or a little later, when Baduela was 
 reviving the Gothic domination in Italy. The exact date is 
 unknown, but some say that it was the very day (March 21, 
 543) on which the great saint died whom he specially revered, 
 and whose life he wrote — St. Benedict. His family was of 
 senatorial rank and exceedingly wealthy. His parents, zealous 
 Catholics, trained him in theology and philosophy ; x but he seems 
 to have chosen, like St. Ambrose, a political career, for when 
 quite a young man he was Prefect, or Praetor, of Rome. Ere 
 long however religious interests began to predominate with 
 him, and he used much of his great wealth in founding six 
 monasteries in Sicily, and a seventh in Rome, giving up for 
 the purpose his ancestral palace on the Celian Hill, where now 
 stands the church of S. GregorioMagno. 2 Here for some years 
 he lived an austere life, and when about thirty-six years of 
 age he became deacon, yielding probably to the persuasions 
 of Pope Benedict I, who ordained him. From this time on- 
 ward he seems to have taken much interest in mission work ; 
 
 1 He admits (Ep. vii) that he knew no Greek : quamvis Graecae linguae 
 nescius. 
 
 * One little room of the original palace is still preserved ; also, in a chapel, 
 the marble table at which he daily entertained twelve poor persons — and 
 once, unaware, an angel as thirteenth. 
 
 2 5 I 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and his enthusiasm may have been stimulated, or even first 
 aroused, by the sight of those fair-haired English youths, 
 exposed for sale as slaves, whose beauty, we are told by 
 Bede, forced from him the exclamation : ' Non Angli, sed 
 Angelit ' 
 
 It is also stated by Bede, who, as also the English ' monk 
 of Whitby,' is one of Gregory's earliest biographers, that he 
 started on a missionary expedition to convert our Anglo-Saxon 
 forefathers ; but after three days' journeying he gave up the 
 project and returned to Rome. This happened either because 
 his Roman friends insisted on his return, or because the 
 following tale is true ; and why should it not be true ? Indeed, 
 there is reason to believe it, for in spite of his resolute and 
 strenuous character Gregory was full of strangely childish 
 superstitions. 1 During the midday halt, it is said, a grass- 
 hopper alighted upon the wayworn missionary, who, ad- 
 dressing the friendly creature by its Latin name, locusta, was 
 struck by the similarity of the word to Loco sta ! — ' Stay in thy 
 place ! ' — and he accepted the omen. After his return he 
 was selected by Pope Pelagius to be his nuntius or official 
 correspondent (apocrisarius) in Constantinople, and on the 
 Pope's death in 590, being at that time in Rome, he was chosen 
 to succeed him. The election of a Pope needed still in this 
 age the sanction of the Eastern Emperor, and Gregory is said 
 to have written urgently begging him to refuse his consent ; 
 but the letter was intercepted, and an attempted flight was 
 foiled, and Gregory at last yielded, and at once, even before the 
 arrival of the imperial sanction, showed his vigorous character 
 
 1 Gregory himself describes to us how the devil (or the Fiend of Arianistn) 
 appeared in a church in the form of a black pig and caused great commotion. 
 He wrote several books on relics and miracles and was a great authority on 
 Hell Fire. Some say he invented Purgatory. He gives quite seriously the 
 story about Theoderic being cast into Etna by fiends. From Palestine he 
 brought the (so-called) arm of St. I<uke, and anot&er belonging to St. Andrew, 
 to Rome, and was as devout a believer in the rain-bringing efficacy of the 
 * coat of St. John,' which in seasons of drought used to be shaken in front 
 of the portal of the L,ateran, as any Kafir might be in the hocus-pocus of a 
 rain-doctor. Dante-readers will remember the weird legend of the Emperor 
 Trajan being brought back to life (after nearly five hundred years) by Gregory's 
 prayers, in order to be baptized. 
 252 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT 
 
 by instituting solemn processions for the purpose of deprecating 
 the wrath of heaven and staying the plague. 
 
 It was ordered that all the prelates, priests, monks, and nuns, 
 and a great multitude of citizens, clothed in black veils or 
 hoods and divided according to the seven regions of the city, 
 should visit their principal churches, which were all draped 
 in black, and should then proceed to the basilica of the Mother 
 of God (S. Maria Maggiore). The streets were filled with 
 endless processions of suppliants bearing burning tapers and 
 torches and chanting dirges and Kyrie Elei'sons, while ever 
 and anon some black-robed figure would sink to the ground 
 smitten by the deadly disease — a scene in which, says Gre- 
 gorovius, the Middle Ages seem first to reveal themselves 
 to us in the history of Rome. 
 
 Now when the main procession was approaching St. Peter's 
 and Gregory himself had just reached the middle of the bridge 
 there appeared in the sky, hovering above the Mausoleum of 
 Hadrian, which faces the bridge, the figure of an angel bearing 
 a flaming sword ; and he was seen to thrust the sword into 
 its sheath, to signify that the plague was stayed. And celestial 
 voices were heard singing the ' Queen of heaven ' (Regina 
 cadi), and Pope Gregory made response, intoning the Or a pro 
 nobis. Hence Hadrian's Mole was named the Castle of the 
 Angel (Castel Sant' Angelo). When first a statue of the 
 angel was erected is uncertain. Gregory's successor, Pope 
 Boniface IV, is said to have built a chapel on the summit of 
 the Mole and to have called it ' S. Angelus inter Nubes.' A 
 marble statue, made about 1550 by Montelupo, seems to have 
 been replaced in 1740 by the present bronzen figure, which is 
 by a Flemish sculptor. 
 
 During the first part of his pontificate Pope Gregory was 
 very strongly and openly adverse to the Lombards. His 
 letters are full of exhortation to the Italian cities to resist the 
 barbarian and heretic, and he even urges clerics to take up 
 arms. Nor was he less zealous in defending the cause of the 
 Italians against Byzantine oppression, as we can see from his 
 letters addressed to the Empress Constantina, in which he 
 
 2 53 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 describes the pitiable state of the people of Sicily and Sardinia 
 (where pagan idolatry seems still to have existed) and the 
 shameless extortions and injustice of the Byzantine officials. 
 The Lombards, however, were the main source of his anxiety. 
 It will be remembered how Agilulf , who was chosen Lombard 
 king by Theodelinda in the same year as Gregory became Pope, 
 came marching south in 593 and devastated the Roman terri- 
 tory — and how Gregory broke off his public lectures on Ezekiel 
 and spent his whole energies in rebuilding the city walls and 
 organizing the forces, till he did not know ' if he were a pastor 
 or a temporal prince.* By his intense patriotism and his 
 vigorous activity he becomes thus the recognized civil head 
 of Rome ; he conducts negotiations and looses or binds 
 treaties with Lombard kings and Lombard dukes and Byzantine 
 Exarchs. 
 
 His patriotism was equalled by his religious zeal. Not only 
 as Christian had he such abhorrence of paganism that he was 
 suspected of wholesale destruction of ancient monuments and 
 ancient literature, but as Catholic he abhorred perhaps still 
 more fiercely all forms of heterodoxy. The conversion of the 
 pagan Angles and Saxons had been, as we have seen, one of 
 his early ideals, and in 596, six years after his elevation to the 
 papal throne, he sent missionaries, led by St. Augustine the 
 younger, to Queen. Bertha, the Frank and Catholic wife of 
 Ethelbert, the king of Kent. In a letter to the Bishop of 
 Alexandria Gregory thus describes this undertaking : ' In- 
 asmuch as the nation of the Angles, who dwell in the most 
 remote corner of the world, still obstinately persist in the 
 worship of stocks and stones, it entered into my mind to send 
 them a monk [a Roman abbot, says Green] to preach unto 
 them, if God so willed ; whom when with my licence the 
 bishops of Germany had consecrated they helped him to reach 
 that nation at the end of the world.' He then reports miracles 
 rivalling those of the Apostles, and the conversion of ten 
 thousand of the Angles. 1 However we may regret the extir- 
 
 1 In letters' to Augustine he is full of exultation, but warns him against 
 being purled up with pride on account of his gift of miracles. Ethelbert, 
 
 2,5-4 
 
a 
 a 
 
 Q 
 Z 
 
 a 
 
 z 
 
 M 
 h-t 
 
 M 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 w 
 w 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT 
 
 pation of the ancient British Church, it cannot be denied that 
 Gregory's missionary zeal reintroduced among our ancestors 
 the civilization of the Roman world — which, I suppose, was a 
 benefit. 
 
 Another missionary enterprise, the success of which seems 
 to have made Gregory very happy, was the conversion of the 
 Lombards — that is, their conversion from Arianism to orthodox 
 Catholicism. As in the case of Berta and Ethelbert, the queen 
 was a good Catholic — having been a Bavarian princess — and 
 it was through Theodelinda that Gregory towards the end of 
 his life found it possible to be on friendly terms with the 
 Lombard monarch and to exert an influence that finally re- 
 sulted in the complete purification of the Lombard people 
 from the pollution of Arianism. Agilulf probably remained a 
 heretic to the end, although Paul the Deacon denies this. 
 Perhaps the king was not a zealot, and preferred to show 
 favour, or tolerance, for both sides. Anyhow, when his heir, 
 the little Adelwald, was born (end of 602) he allowed him, as 
 we have seen (p. 221), to be baptized as Catholic. The letters 
 that Pope Gregory wrote on this occasion to Queen Theodelinda 
 are most interesting in themselves, and have a further interest 
 for us from the fact that one at least of the presents which 
 he sent to his little godson is to be recognized on the ancient 
 relief that is still to be seen above the portal of the cathedral 
 church of S. Giovanni in Monza, which was originally built by 
 Theodelinda. 1 
 
 like Agilulf, ' refused to forsake the gods of his fathers ' (Green). The rela- 
 tions between Augustine and the remnants of the ancient British Christian 
 Church (see p. 69) seem to be evidence of the intensely Catholic (or rather 
 Roman) proselytism of Gregory and his emissary. The ancient Irish Church 
 (St. Patrick, c. 430) was probably, like the British, to a great extent indepen- 
 dent of the Papacy. By this time it was not only acting as a bulwark against 
 Anglo-Saxon paganism and converting the Picts (St. Columba, c. 560}, but 
 was sending its missionaries to continental Europe. One of these many 
 learned and zealous Irish missionaries, the ' Apostle of the Burgnndians,' 
 Columban (c. 543-615), spent two years with Theodelinda and Agilulf. He 
 had been expelled from France and had settled at Bregenz, on Lake Constance, 
 near which his disciple founded the celebrated monastery of S. Gallen. 
 
 1 See the drawing, copied from a photo by Signor Bianchi, of Monza. Below 
 we see the Baptism and various saints ; above is the queen offering a crown 
 to St. John. To the left she is kn.eehng, and behind her are three crowns — 
 
 *55 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 ' The letter that you sent me from the Genoese country,' 
 writes Gregory, ' made me a sharer in your joy by informing 
 me that by the grace of Almighty God a little son hath been 
 bestowed on you, and also, what redounds to your praise, 
 that he has been enrolled in the Catholic faith. ... I pray 
 God that He may guard you in the way of His commandments 
 
 Lunette above the Portai, of Monza Cathedrai, 
 
 and may make my most excellent little son Adelwald to grow 
 
 up in His love.' Then, after saying how grievously he is 
 
 affected with the gout, he adds that to the little Adelwald 
 
 he is sending ' certain relics, namely, a cross with [a fragment 
 
 of] the wood of the Holy Cross of the I^ord, and a copy of the 
 
 Holy Gospel in a Persian case. And to my little daughter, 
 
 his sister, I send three rings, two of jacinth and one of onyx. . . .' 
 
 About a year after this (March 14, 604) the gout from which 
 
 during four years he had suffered ever more intensely ended 
 
 his life. This disease was perhaps that male di fianco which 
 
 he is said to have chosen, instead of two days in Purgatory, 
 
 one perhaps the famous Iron Crown (see Fig. 19), and another the queen's 
 crown, still in her 'Treasury' at Monza, where also are the Hen and Chickens 
 (Fig. 20), goblets, etc., that, together with a representation of Gregory's 
 cross, are to be seen to the right in the relief. The carvings on the base 
 seem to me to be Roman work—-probably from §onje ancient; monument. 
 
 z$6 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT 
 
 as a punishment for having succeeded by his prayers in rais- 
 ing Trajan from the dead and baptizing him, so that the 
 pagan Emperor was, against the ruling of destiny, admitted 
 to heaven. 1 
 
 Hodgkin, in his Italy and her Invaders, describes Pope Gregory 
 as ' a great Roman rather than a great Saint.' Certainly there 
 is very much in his character, as evidenced by his life and 
 his writings, that excites our admiration and our affectionate 
 sympathy ; but there are traits which excite neither. One 
 of these is his proclivity towards gross superstitions ; another 
 is his blind intolerance in regard to cla'ssic literature and art. 
 ' It is commonly believed,' says Gibbon, ' that Gregory attacked 
 the temples and mutilated the statues of the City ; that by 
 the command of this barbarian the Palatine library was reduced 
 to ashes, and that the history of Iivy was the peculiar mark 
 of his fanaticism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal 
 his implacable aversion to the monuments of classic genius, 
 arid he points his severest censure against the profane learning 
 of a bishop who studied the Latin poets and pronounced with 
 the same voice the praises of Jupiter and those of Christ.' As 
 Gibbon allows, there is no certain evidence that he actually 
 perpetrated the vandalisms laid to his charge, but he was 
 evidently proud of his ignorance of Greek, and though he did 
 not write the barbarous I,atin used a little later by Pope 
 I^eo III, Pope Stephen III, and others of that age, 2 he had 
 a fanatical detestation of pagan classicism — as shown by the 
 angry letter to the Gallic bishop alluded to by Gibbon (in 
 uno ore cum Jovis laudibus Christi laudes non se capere}, and 
 by his assertion that it is ' most unfit that the words of the 
 heavenly oracle should be subjected to the rules of the gram- 
 marian Donatus.' 
 
 A strange and not easily explainable fact must be here 
 
 1 See Dante, Purg. x, and Par. xx. The legend is told by Paul the Deacon 
 and by Branetto Latini (Dante's teacher and friend — whom he put in Hell !) . 
 
 1 Oh I<eo's Triclinium mosaic (p. 243) we have bone bolitniatis ( and bictoria 
 donas — which seems almost incredible in a work displayed to a whole refectory 
 of educated prelates^ Inscriptions and coins from about 800 often display 
 such spelling and show how rapidly the I/atin was degenerating. 
 
 r 257 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 mentioned, though one would gladly omit it. In 602 the 
 Emperor Maurice at Constantinople was deposed (see p. 220) 
 by an usurper named Phocas, who with the most monstrous 
 inhumanity murdered his victim after having slaughtered 
 his children in his sight. Now Gregory, when nuntius of Pope 
 Pelagius, had lived at the court of Constantinople and had been 
 associated intimately with the Emperor and his family, for 
 whom he professed much affection. But when Phocas made 
 patronizing overtures to Gregory, instead of repelling them 
 with scorn the Pope wrote a letter (still extant) of the most 
 servile approbation and adulation, abusing his dead friend and 
 exulting in the new hopes that he entertained for the Church 
 founded on the patronage of this monster. 1 
 
 His works are numerous — Epistolae, Dialogi, Homiliae, Libri 
 Morales, a Cura pastoralis that was translated by King Alfred, 
 etc., and also handbooks of a practical nature giving directions 
 as to the celebration of services. The Church of Rome still 
 follows in the celebration of the Mass to a great extent the 
 Gregorian rule (norm), which differs from that of St. Ambrose, 
 used at Milan. Gregory also added four modes (' tones ' or 
 scales) to the four ' authentic ' modes of St. Ambrose. The 
 music (antiphones, responses, etc.) based on these eight modes 
 is known as Gregorian Plain-song. One of the most beautiful 
 of all motifs — the Grail motif in Wagner's Parsifal — is taken 
 directly from a Gregorian ' mode.' 
 
 As theologian he seems not to have been always quite 
 inf allible, if we are to credit what Beatrice told Dante when in 
 Paradise she was explaining to him the circles and sequences 
 of the angelic hierarchies. Gregory, she said, presumed to 
 differ on this point from Dionysius the Areopagite, but ' as 
 soon as he opened his eyes in heaven he laughed at himself ' — 
 
 ... si tosto come gli occhi aperse 
 In questo cielo, di si medesmo rise. 
 
 1 His letters to the ill-famed Frank queen, Brunechilde, have also brought 
 him discredit ; but Balzani, Hodgkin, and other authorities palliate this offence. 
 For Fhocas and his column see Fig. 21 and explanation. 
 
 258 
 
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 55 
 
 Z 1 
 
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CHAPTER II 
 
 ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 300-800 
 
 MANY churches and some other buildings have been 
 already mentioned in connexion with Constantine, 
 Theodosius, Galla Placidia, Theoderic, Justinian, 
 and other historical personages, and several sculptures and 
 mosaics of historical interest have been described. It lies of 
 course beyond the scope of this volume to attempt any 
 systematic account of the rise of Italian art, but now and then, 
 as occasion offers, a few general remarks may be acceptable. 
 
 In this chapter I shall first point out some of the character- 
 istics of certain styles of architecture which prevailed in parts 
 of Italy during the period that we have already traversed, and 
 then shall add something on the subject of mosaics. The 
 very great differences of opinion that exist among writers on 
 the subject in regard to the origin, classification, chronology, 
 and nomenclature of the various styles — especially in regard 
 to the use of such words as ' Roman/ ' Byzantine/ ' Roman- 
 esque/ ' Ivombard/ etc. — make it almost impossible to hazard 
 any statement without exposing oneself to criticism. Perhaps 
 under such circumstances it may be best to use, without 
 attempting to justify, the terms which direct impressions, 
 modified by the views of others, have gradually taught me 
 to accept as the most reasonable and convenient. 1 Vagliami 
 7 lungo studio e 7 grande amore. 
 
 « For these slight sketches it would be absurd to cite the multitudinous 
 authorities that are well known to every student of Italian art ; but in the 
 case of the present chapter I might mention as still very useful for informa- 
 tion Mothes' Baukunst des Mitlelallers in Italien, and as very illuminating 
 jUvoira's Le Origini dell' Architettura Lombarda, Ricci's L'Arte dell' Italia 
 
 259 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Classic Roman art may be considered to have died — though 
 its spirit lingered on for many years, and no exact date can be 
 given for its final extinction — between the age of the Antonines 
 and that of Constantine the Great (c. 160-300). Perhaps the 
 best illustration of the almost incredible difference between 
 these two ages as regards art is afforded by the Arch of Con- 
 stantine (see Fig. 2). The arch itself, whether reconstructed 
 or not by Constantine, certainly dates from the time of the 
 Antonines, possibly from that of Trajan (c. no), and is a fine 
 example of later classic architecture ; but a glance at the 
 reliefs — those of Trajan and the Antonines side by side with 
 those of Constantine — will show far better than words can do 
 not only what the sculptors of Constantine's age were like, but 
 also how astoundingly devoid of all art-feeling the Rofnans 
 themselves must have become if they could look without 
 self-contempt Upon this picture and on that. 
 
 But even in the age of Constantine architecture was some- 
 times still inspired with the old classic grace and nobility — 
 as we see in such buildings as Diocletian's villa at Spalato and 
 in S. Costanza at Rome — and this classic spirit continued to 
 exist for many years, now and then appearing like a ghost of 
 the past — as, for instance, in the two celebrated Ravenna 
 mausoleums, that of Galla Placidia and that of Theoderic, both 
 of which are very noble buildings and essentially Roman, 1 
 though the first is cruciform and domed, and the latter is 
 likewise influenced by Eastern architecture. But this spirit 
 of the past was doomed to extinction, and a new principle was 
 to vitalize a new style. I<et us take, as affording a striking 
 proof of this, the question of the arch and the vault. 
 
 The characteristics that distinguish Roman from Greek 
 architecture are mainly derived from the appliance of the arch 
 not only to buildings such as temples, but to immense wof ks of 
 
 settentrionale, and Sir T. G. Jackson's recent work on Ronlanesque Architecture- 
 For Ravenna I found Professor Ricci's Ravenna useful, especially his views in 
 regard to the Theoderic mosaics. 
 
 1 In spite of the dome with its characteristic Byzantine device of * penden- 
 tives,' I entirely agree with Professor Ricci that Galla Placidia's mausoleum is, 
 with its massive pier-arches and barrel-vaulting, «»' opera delta decadenza 
 romana, non propriamente bizantina. 
 260 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 public utility — aqueducts, bridges, vast amphitheatres, enor- 
 mous baths. The essential difference between the two styles 
 is strikingly brought before the imagination by allowing one's 
 memory to picture the Parthenon and then the Pont du Gard. 
 Great aqueducts and great bridges were unknown to the Greeks 
 as works of architecture, though they had their Enneakrounoi 
 and their ship-bridges, like that of Xerxes. Works of such size 
 and for such objects were impossible for a style whose leading 
 principle was that of a horizontal entablature (architrave, frieze, 
 and cornice) supported on columns. It is true that the vault is 
 found in Greek architecture (e.g. in ancient tombs at Mycenae), 
 and the aeros, or gable, shows a tendency towards the 
 principle of balance, or mutual support. But the adoption 
 by the Romans of the arch, and to some extent of the vault, 
 the apse, and even the dome, 1 introduced entirely new possi- 
 bilities and made the old Greek orders lose their constructive 
 function and find a new function as decoration ; for the engaged 
 columns attached to the huge piers of Roman buildings became 
 of no practical use and were often placed, as in the great 
 amphitheatres, in ornamental colonnades, so to speak, one 
 above the other — an arrangement doubtless artistically false, 
 but which is sometimes, when the proportions are noble, 
 exceedingly impressive. The Roman arch needed no columns ; 
 it was in principle nothing but an arch cut out of a thick wall, 
 and the horizontal entablature of the old order became arcuate, 
 being often indicated, as a useless survival, by a decoration 
 running round the arch, and- even sometimes from the base 
 of one pier to that of the other. 
 
 It was here that the new spirit — the new principle — began 
 to show itself. I have mentioned Diocletian's villa at Spalato 
 and S. Costanza at Rome as survivals of classic art, and this 
 is true as regards noble form and proportion ; they are, however, 
 still more striking examples of the vitalizing of old forms by 
 a new spirit ; for amidst all the dreary degradation of classic 
 
 1 Roman vaults and domes, though we should perhaps except that of the 
 Pantheon, consisted of one solid mass (made of cement and light porous 
 stone and constructed upon a temporary wooden frame). They were thus 
 practically monoliths, as the dome of Theoderic's mausoleum actually is. 
 
 26l 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Sculpture and architecture and the wholesale plundering of 
 ancient monuments for the erection or (supposed) ornamenta- 
 tion of newer edifices — a process that was generally carried 
 out with the most senseless barbarity — a new spirit was be- 
 ginning to lead men back to the truth that in architecture 
 (as perhaps in all else) beauty and utility are somehow in- 
 timately connected, though the connexion may often be 
 difficult to trace. In this case it was the column that once 
 more was given work to do. In Diocletian's 
 villa (c. 300) we find columns really supporting 
 arches, as also in the ' Dome of the Rock ' 
 (church of the Holy Sepulchre), perhaps built 
 by Constantine at Jerusalem, while in the 
 Roman mausoleum of Constantine's daughter 
 (later the church of S. Costanza) a massive 
 superstructure of wall and cupola is borne 
 by the arches, each arch resting on short 
 horizontal entablatures supported by two 
 columns, as shown by my rough sketch. 
 This is perhaps the first known example of 
 free columns bearing the whole weight of a 
 large superstructure, as they do in the early 
 Christian basilicas ; and a further point of 
 interest is the fact that here the short, 
 coupling entablature is a distinct heralding 
 of the super-capital, or dosseret {pulvino), of another new 
 style — the Byzantine — which was destined ere very long to 
 prevail in the Eastern Empire and to affect strongly some 
 parts of Italy. I^et us now consider these two new styles — 
 that of the Christian basilica and that of Byzantine buildings. 
 
 Basilicas 
 
 The origin of the Christian basilica is not known for certain. 
 The word means (in Greek) a palatial building, or the residence 
 of a chief magistrate. In ancient Rome it was used to designate 
 a law-court or assembly-hall, the grandest example of which 
 was the Basilica of Constantine (really built by his rival 
 262 
 
 S. Costanza 
 Fuori, Rome 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 Maxentius), the colossal vaulted ruins of which are known to 
 all who know Rome. And some who do not know Rome may 
 know the Basilica at Trier, which was originally a court-house 
 or market-hall. But the theory that any such public building 
 was ceded to the Christians; or that they or Constantine's 
 architects built the first churches on the model of such edifices, 
 is now considerably discredited, and the ordinary Roman house, 
 with its atrium and colonnades, or a schola (such a ' school ' 
 as that of ' one Tyrannus,' or that schola Graeca of which we 
 hear in Rome) , is believed to have been the prototype ; and 
 the name is explained as meaning ' the King's House,' i.e. the 
 ford's House, of which the word ' church ' (kyriakori) is another 
 form. 
 
 Not long ago a small Christian church of hasilican form, 
 S. Maria Antiqua, was brought to light amid the huge ruins at 
 the northern base of the Palatine. It is believed to have been 
 originally the library of the Temple of Augustus, and it is 
 quite possible that it was one of the very first churches in 
 Rome and may have served as model for the earliest Christian 
 basilicas. One can see distinctly how the colonnades and 
 central aula were transformed into nave and tribune. The 
 walls are decorated with Byzantine frescos of a subsequent 
 age, which are rapidly fading. 
 
 As most readers are doubtless aware, an early Christian 
 basilica is usually an oblong rectangular edifice divided longi- 
 tudinally into three or five sections by rows of columns support- 
 ing wooden roofs, the roof of the central section (the ship or 
 nave) being so much higher than the roofs of the flanking 
 aisles that its supporting walls could be pierced by windows 
 and decorated by mosaics or frescos. The nave was ter- 
 minated by a semicircular presbytery surmounted by a 
 semi-dome or apse, and at the other end of the building there 
 was a vestibule or portico or a cloistered court (atrium), of 
 which a fine extant example is that of S. Ambrogio at Milan. 1 
 
 1 The vestibule (yipBrji), such as in St. Mark's, Venice, was an Eastern 
 Characteristic — and used by penitents and other profani. In Western 
 basilicas the atrium took its place, forming a forecourt to protect the church 
 
 263 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Even in very early basilicas we find at least the rudiments of 
 a transept, as, for instance, in the three greatest early basilicas 
 of Rome, S. Pietro, S. Paolo (fuori le mura), and S. Maria 
 Maggiore. 1 In the earliest basilicas doubtless the horizontal 
 architecture was used, but the new style, allowing the column 
 to do its work in combination with the arch, seems to have soon 
 found favour. In S. Maria Maggiore we have the architrave, 
 in S. Paolo and S. Clemente the archivolt, and in S. Pietro 
 (the ancient basilica) the nave columns bore architraves while 
 the outer aisle columns bore arches. 
 
 Whether Christian basilicas, or indeed any churches not 
 subterranean, existed before the ' Peace of the Church ' (313) 
 is not certain. From the time of Constantine 2 onward till 
 the days of Theoderic and the coming of the Lombards (say 
 250 years) the basilican style prevailed at Rome, where about 
 twenty 3 churches still possess more or less trace of their 
 classical or basilican originals, the columns or foundations 
 having frequently belonged to ancient temples, or the later 
 edifice having been reconstructed on the lines of the original 
 basilica. Of these the finest is probably S. Maria Maggiore 
 (founded c. 352), and a most interesting example is the lower 
 church of S. Clemente (founded c. 320, and copied in plan by 
 the later upper church), while among reconstructions must 
 now be numbered the magnificent S. Paolo fuori, which until 
 the fatal fire of 1823 was the grandest extant ancient basilica. 
 It seems strange, considering that Rome was for so long under 
 Byzantine sway and Byzantine influences, that it should 
 
 from noise, etc. The atrium of old St. Peter's (77 Paradiso) was especially 
 large and fine, with its white marble pavement and its fountain surmounted 
 by the famous bronzen pine-cone, mentioned by Dante. Note that apses 
 were not always at the east end. In Rome they are directed towards almost 
 every point of the compass. 
 
 1 See Figs. 4 and 5, and for S. Pietro see p. 297. 
 
 * Constantine's churches in Jerusalem have been mentioned, p. 39 n. The 
 Lateran Baptistery j(in which he is said, falsely, to have been baptized by 
 Silvester — a scene depicted in Raffael's fresco) and the oft-rebuilt Lateran 
 basilica are, together with S. Costanza, the chief Constantinian buildings in 
 Rome. 
 
 3 Seeing that in the time of Gratian (c. 380) there were 424 pagan temples 
 in Rome, the number of Christian basilicas seems to have been surprisingly 
 small. 
 
 -264 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 possess scarcely any trace of Byzantine architecture, especially 
 as later (i.e. after the iconoclast squabble had brought Eastern 
 artists to Rome) Byzantine influence on Roman mosaics is 
 distinctly perceptible. 
 
 The only city of Italy that rivals — and it perhaps outrivals 
 — Rome in regard to its basilicas is Ravenna, which for three 
 centuries, as capital of the Western Empire, of the Ostro- 
 gothic kingdom, and of the Exarchate, was Rome's political 
 and ecclesiastical rival. These splendid Ravenna basilicas (of 
 c. 500-600) have been already described in connexion with 
 Theoderic and Justinian. They differ from the Roman 
 basilicas in so far as they show, as do also the somewhat later 
 basilicas of Grado and Torcello, Byzantine influence in various 
 details, such as the pulvino, or dosseret (see Figs. 17 and 
 23 and p. 269), and the exceedingly beautiful and original 
 sculpture of the white marble capitals. 
 
 We have thus during the first three centuries or so of the 
 period 300-800, besides the barbarous use of ancient work in 
 the construction of new bujldings — a process that merits no 
 appellation as architecture — firstly, rare revivals of classical 
 style, of which very little trace exists, but which we can note 
 in such buildings as the Ravenna mausoleums of Galla Placidia 
 and Theoderic and can believe to have been favoured by the 
 Romanizing King of the Ostrogoths in the creation of his 
 palaces and other edifices. Then we have a new and vital 
 style, which we may call that of the Christian basilicas. 1 
 Then again, we have the so-called Byzantine style ; and about 
 this a few words must now be said. 
 
 Byzantine Architecture 
 
 When treating the reign of Justinian I spoke of the many 
 buildings erected by him orjinder his patronage (p. 202), and 
 especially mentioned his great cathedral of S. Sofia at 
 
 1 It may be well to say here that some writers apply the term ' Romanesque ' 
 to all the different styles of architecture (basijican, Byzantine, Lombard, 
 Norman, etc.) which adopted and adapted the principles of the Roman arch 
 and vault. I prefer to limit the epithet to the style that in Italy resulted 
 from Lombard influences acting on classical and basilican styles. 
 
 265 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Constantinople and the church of S. Vitale at Ravenna. It 
 will be remembered that these churches (which we may take 
 as the two finest examples of the original Byzantine style) 
 are of what is called the ' central type ' — that is, they are not 
 built on the plan of a Roman basilica. 
 
 It was found — perhaps more in the East than in the West — 
 that for certain ceremonies the basilica, especially when it 
 became cruciform by the addition of the transept, did not 
 possess the same conveniences as a circular or polygonal 
 space, such as was offered by baptistery churches, by the 
 ' Dome of the Rock ' at Jerusalem, and by buildings such as 
 S. Costanza or that greatest of all round churches (once a 
 Roman market), S. Stefano Rotondo. In the East the arms of 
 the Greek cross were therefore shortened and covered by 
 vaulted cupolas, and the central space was also covered by a 
 dome ; thus was produced the five-domed church, of which we 
 have a fine later example in St. Mark's at Venice. Also a 
 somewhat simpler form of the central type was used, namely 
 that which is seen in S. Vitale, 1 where a central octagonal 
 space is covered by a dome supported on eight massive 
 piers and is surrounded by seven deep vaulted and galleried 
 recesses and a still deeper apsidal presbytery. Similar in 
 style, but far greater and more complicated, and with an 
 oblong central space covered by a dome and two half-domes, 
 is S. Sofia — any further description of which would take us too 
 far afield. 
 
 It will have been noticed that in connexion with these 
 Byzantine churches the dome plays an important part. It 
 is indeed their most striking characteristic, and whether or not 
 it was originally copied from the huge Roman Thermae, 
 as Rivoira asserts, or came from the far East, it was, as it 
 were, re-created by the Byzantine architects — perhaps by that 
 Athemius of Tralles, in Asia Minor, who built S. Sofia for 
 Justinian. How this was done needs to be explained. 
 
 The Roman dome, or cupola, was either a monolith, like 
 
 1 On the same plan are S. I<oienzo at Milan (c. 550) and Charles the Great's 
 cathedral at Aachen. 
 266 
 
23. S. VITAI.E 
 
 Ravenna 
 
 266 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 the huge stone that roofs Theoderic's mausoleum, or con- 
 sisted of a mass cemented together over a temporary wooden 
 structure and resting on a circular building, as a lid on a pot, 
 with no lateral thrust. This system was very cumbrous and 
 expensive, and the Byzantine builders devised other methods. 
 They found it possible to construct a dome (as the dome of 
 S. Vitale) out of terra-cotta vessels or pipes fitted together 
 in spirals, and this core they covered with plaster, thus forming 
 a cupola very much lighter than the Roman. But it still needed 
 massive piers because of the stronger lateral thrust exerted 
 by a composite structure. And there was another difficulty. 
 The space to be covered with a dome was generally square 
 or polygonal. How is one to erect a round dome on a square 
 base ? If one merely fills up the corners of the square so as 
 to form a circular base the support is very weak. The solution 
 of this difficulty by what are called ' pendentives ' is one of 
 the most important feats of Byzantine architecture. 
 
 Instead of building one's dome on the square base, one 
 erects arches (say semicircles) on the sides of the square and 
 fills up to the same height the spaces between them. These 
 fillings (the 'pendentives'), whose internal surfaces will be 
 concave (apse-like) and whose contours will be that of a 
 curvilinear triangle, will form by their upper curved sides 
 a circle. 1 On this circular base the Byzantines built their 
 dome, or, in later times, erected a lofty circular ' drum ' on 
 which the cupola was poised mid-air. And note that this 
 circular base affords very strong support, for the pendentives, 
 wedged in between the arches, transmit the whole vertical 
 thrust of the dome to them. 
 
 Another characteristic of the Byzantine style is the form 
 of the capital, which, as the column has now to support an 
 enormous weight, is no longer concave, deeply cut, and with 
 projecting ornament, as the Corinthian capital, but solidly 
 convex and sculptured in shallow relief, often with very 
 
 1 It will, of course, be the circle passing through the vertices of the four 
 semicircular arches, and exactly above and equal to a circle inscribed in our 
 square. 
 
 267 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 beautiful, though conventional leaf and flower tracery or 
 basket-work 1 ornament, or with deep-drilled delicate lace- 
 like decoration, or exquisitely chiselled wind-blown foliage. 
 And finally, in order to make the arch higher and lighter, the 
 Byzantine capital was often crowned by the dosseret, or 
 pulvino, which has been already mentioned and is depicted in 
 several of our illustrations. 
 
 Still another characteristic is the use of coloured marble 
 sawn into thin plates, with which Byzantine edifices (not 
 seldom of brick) were often covered internally and externally 
 — a practice that, as we all know, is eloquently defended by 
 Ruskin, and certainly lends itself to very rich and splendid 
 effects. 
 
 Mosaics 
 
 In connexion with basilicas and Byzantine architecture 
 the subject of mosaics claims our attention for a few moments. 
 Very fine examples of ancient Roman stone; (also glass) mosaic- 
 work exist, such as the splendid Nile scene depicted in a 
 pavement at Palestrina and the celebrated ' Battle of Issus ' 
 found at Pompeii ; but the art of decorating walls and apses 
 with great mosaic pictures seems to have originated among the 
 Christians of Rome contemporaneously with the erection of 
 the first basiJican churches, and to have spread from Italy to 
 Constantinople, where it developed other characteristics. The 
 subject is one of . great interest and great extent. I must 
 content myself with selecting a few striking examples of the 
 earlier Roman and Ravennate mosaics ; for real Byzantine 
 mosaics, which were once doubtless very numerous and 
 of great magnificence, have been almost exterminated by 
 iconoclasm and I^atin Crusaders and Turks — while those that 
 still remain, in S. Sofia or other mosques, are to a great 
 
 1 Also in Solomon's Temple the capitals made by Hiram were with ' nets 
 of checker-work ' and of ' lily-work ' — which, as Ruskin (following Marchese 
 Selvatico) points out, exactly describes a well-known Byzantine type, given 
 opposite, with leaves and petals of a lily, and network or basket-work. See 
 Stones of Venice, xxvii, where it is shown that all capitals belong to the 
 concave or to the convex (e.g. Doric) order. 
 
 268 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 extent concealed 1 by plaster and matting. But we shall be 
 able to trace the Byzantine style in some of the Italian mosaics. 
 The first gteat mosaics of Christian Rome date, as is natural, 
 from the age of Constantine, for before the ' Peace ' the Christians 
 had no large churches. Moreover, the revival of glass mosaic 
 seems to date from this period. The earliest extant are per- 
 haps those of S. Costanza (c. 320). This edifice was built as a 
 
 S. VMAI.E 
 
 ' Nets of Checker and Lhy 
 Work.' S. Vitai,e 
 
 mausoleum, not as a church, and the fact that Constantine 
 was an unbaptized pagan till his last hours makes it intelligible 
 why these mosaics — some of which remain, while others are 
 known from old drawings — were almost purely decorative and 
 non-Christian, depicting vintage scenes and interlacing vine- 
 traceries and birds and Cupids, all of exquisite workmanship. 
 Another splendid early mosaic (c. 370) is to be seen in 
 S. Pudenziana — a church said to have been built on a site be- 
 longing to Pudens, the host of St. Peter (mentioned by St. Paul), 
 and consecrated to his daughter Pudentia. Here (Fig. 24) we 
 have, as in many other great apse mosaics, a grand symbolical 
 
 269 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 theme. The Saviour, a figure of great dignity with bearded 
 face and hair falling on His shoulders, is enthroned amidst the 
 Apostles in front of the walls and towers of New Jerusalem, in 
 the midst of which rises the Mount of Calvary, with the Cross 
 Triumphant, around which hover the animal-figures of the 
 Evangelists. In these great apocalyptic scenes Christ is 
 generally the central figure, and He is accompanied by angels 
 (often very majestic forms), and by all kinds of symbolical 
 images, such as the seven-branched candlestick, the rivers 
 of Paradise, the enthroned I^amb, the twelve Apostolic sheep 
 (generally issuing forth from buildings representing Jerusalem 
 and Bethlehem), the Evangelistic animals, and (stretched forth 
 from a cloud) the consecrating Hand of God. On the tribune 
 arch and the walls of the nave are generally Biblical scenes 
 or personages. Other magnificent early mosaics were those 
 of S. Paolo fuori (Fig. 4), which were put up soon after the 
 church was finished by Honorius (c. 420) ; but of these we 
 have now only reconstructions, the originals having perished 
 in the fire of 1823. 
 
 There are mosaics in the ancient basilica of S. Maria Maggiore 
 (Fig. 5) which offer striking evidence of a transition phase 
 during which Christian ideas still clothed themselves in pagan 
 forms — for it was long before Christianity entirely discarded 
 all that it had adopted^ not only from classic decorative art 
 but from classic mythology and symbolism. 1 The mosaics 
 in question — those on the nave walls — date from about 350, 
 being perhaps a century older than the wondrous scenes from 
 the life of the Virgin on the apse arch. They depict Old 
 Testament episodes, and are not only very quaint in other 
 respects, but also represent Biblical characters in pagan form, 
 the Israelite warriors being veritable Roman legionaries, the 
 angels Roman Victories, and the saints and patriarchs Roman 
 divinities. 
 
 The last Roman mosaic of the earlier and nobler style that 
 
 1 E.g. the vine, the fish, the dove, the peacock, Psyche, Cupid, etc. Orpheus 
 was used as a symbol of Christ in early art, and a thousand years later Dante 
 exclaimed, ' O supreme Jove who wast crucified for us on earth I ' 
 27O 
 
24. Mosaics in S. Pudenziana and S. Prassede 270 
 
 Rome 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 I can mention — one of very great dignity and beauty — is to 
 be seen in the apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano. It dates from 
 about 530. In the centre is the majestic figure of the Saviour 
 standing on a shimmering cloud and accompanied by St. Peter, 
 St. Paul, and the two martyrs. In the foreground are the four 
 streams of Paradise, the Lamb and sheep. A point of great 
 interest is the face of Christ, which is the new type. The 
 Christ of early art (e.g. in some Ravenna mosaics) is usually 
 young and beardless. In S. Pudenziana we have already met, 
 perhaps for the first time, the bearded face, the longer hair, 
 and the older and more serious expression, and here we have 
 the same type more fully developed and almost identical with 
 that of later Italian art. 
 
 After the coming of the Lombards the Byzantine style 
 began to get the upper hand at Rome, where for a time close 
 relations with the Eastern Empire were favoured as a means 
 of counteracting the new barbarian invasion. But towards 
 the middle of the eighth century Rome had become virtually 
 independent and, as was natural, Roman artists were again 
 in favour. Art, however, had sunk very low, though the scholae 
 seem to have still preserved some tradition of the noble 
 style. A striking evidence of this is the Triclinium mosaic of 
 Pope Leo III, a detail of which is given on p. 243. Here we 
 find not undignified figures of Christ (the full-bearded type) 
 and of the Apostles, and the seated figure of St. Peter (perhaps 
 taken from the Vatican statue) has some grandeur ; but in the 
 kneeling figures of Leo and Charles there is no little medieval 
 grotesqueness. 
 
 The magnificent Ravenna mosaics date from the period 
 c. 440-560. The earliest are those in the mausoleum of Galla 
 Placidia, which have been already partly described (p. 91). 
 They are purely Roman in style and decoratively most beauti- 
 ful, with their dark blue ground. The most remarkable of 
 them is that which depicts Christ as a young shepherd, beardless 
 but with long hair, seated amidst His flock. Some ten years 
 later are the mosaics of the Baptistery (Pig. 10), which Bishop 
 Neon ' converted ' from a Roman bath-house about 450. In 
 
 271 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the centre of the dome is the Baptism — a very flue picture on 
 gold ground — surrounded by the Apostles moving in processibn, 
 their figures depicted on a rich blue background. The mosaics 
 of the Santo Spirito Baptistery (' converted ' from another 
 Roman bath-house for the use of Theoderic's Arians) show the 
 same motif, but the Apostles are more dignified and the Christ 
 is much younger— indeed, a mere yotith. 1 
 
 Theoderic's basilica of Jesus Christ, later S. Apollinare 
 Nuovo, has already been described (pp. 168 sq.}, and it has been 
 pointed out that (according to Professor Ricci, with whom I 
 entirely agree) some of the mosaics put Up by the Arian Ostro- 
 goth king were replaced by the processions of virgins and 
 martyrs which now adorn the nave walls (Fig. 12). These 
 substitutions, erected evidently after the capture of Ravenna 
 by Belisarius (540), offer us a very useful stepping-stone, so 
 to speak, from the Roman to the Byzantine style. Nothing 
 could be finer in their calm and impressive dignity than the 
 figures of the saints and prophets and the two groups of angels 
 amidst whom are seated Christ and the Virgin, and the variety 
 of attitude and expression is as remarkable as the skill with 
 which the human form and the drapery ate sculpturesquely 
 outlined and delicately coloured, 2 whereas in the case of the 
 martyrs and virgins ' all love of form has yielded to the 
 desire for decorative effect. The figures succeed each other 
 without variety, as if stamped by the same die. 3 The folds 
 of the white garments are indicated by long", rigid, angular 
 lines, which often grossly misrepresent the bodily forms. The 
 hands are all exactly the same, the feet clumsy, the heads 
 badly drawn, the faces with only four or five shades of colour.' 
 
 Again, in S. Vitale one has only to lift one's eyes from the 
 Justinian mosaics (Fig. 17), with their jewelled magnificence 
 of diadems and court dresses, to the earlier mosaic of the apse, 
 
 1 This fact and the much less decorated style of this Arian mosaic make 
 me sometimes think that the Orthodox Baptistery must have been furnished 
 with its mosaics after the Gothic domination, i.e. after 540. But there is no 
 trace of Byzantine style in them. They are purely Roman. 
 
 s ' The heads show fourteen shades of colou* ' (Ricci). 
 
 * But it is true that such repetition in some cases ' acquires the value of a 
 musical rhythm ' and is very impressive denotatively. 
 272 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 where in calm beauty and dignity amidst white-robed angels 
 the youthful Saviour sits enthroned on the orb of the universe, 
 to feel oneself suddenly rapt away into a higher sphere. The 
 last of these Ravenna mosaics that I can mention is that of 
 S. Apollinare in Classe, where an apocalyptic vision of the 
 Transfiguration is presented. In the centre is a Cross — the 
 symbol not of blood-offering and atonement by agonizing 
 suffering, but of victory and of joy. Nigh the Cross are seen 
 the three attendant apostles on Mount Tabor, symbolized by 
 sheep ; then lines of other sheep, and flowery meads, amidst 
 which stands the grand figure of S. Apollinare. This mosaic 
 is much restored, but it is of very noble conception and 
 worthy to be ranked among the finest of the Roman school. 
 
 Magnificence and gorgeous colour, such as characterized 
 Byzantine mosaics, may of course be used for really artistic 
 and not merely decorative ends (as we see in the case of 
 some later Venetian painters), but when unaccompanied by 
 the love of true form it is bound to end in mere display 
 and to favour mechanical production and meaningless re- 
 petition. During Justinian's reign the early Byzantine style 
 in mosaics began to influence Italy, which by the reconquest 
 had been brought to a very pitiable state and had probably 
 lost all sense for art except what was kept alive by certain 
 guilds or brotherhoods (scholae) at Rome. But this Byzan- 
 tine influence has left, except at Ravenna and in a few churches 
 at Rome (e.g. S. Agnese fuori), very little trace. The Lombard 
 wars and domination may account for the disappearance of 
 much that is mentioned by chroniclers, and by the time 
 (c. 730) that the iconoclastic edict of the Emperor I<eo had 
 induced many Byzantine artists to migrate to Italy (where 
 their pictures and images were in .great favour) the art of wall 
 mosaics seems to have almost died out at Rome. Here, after 
 800, we find very few works of mosaic, and they show an 
 ever deeper decline into what Kugler calls ' Byzantine de- 
 formity.' But in some of the Italian cities that remained 
 longer under Byzantine supremacy Eastern influence not only 
 in the mosaic art but in metal-work (bronze and silver and 
 
 s 273 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 gold and enamel) retained a strong hold. At Venice, which 
 became the chief emporium for Eastern trade, there was a 
 great revival of Byzantine mosaic decoration, especially in 
 connexion with the rebuilding of St. Mark's after the fire of 
 976 and its reconstruction in Byzantine style. Of its very 
 numerous and magnificent older mosaics the earliest date from 
 this period, and after the capture of Constantinople by the 
 I^atins in 1204 the renewed influx of Byzantine artists caused 
 another great revival, the results of which extended over more 
 than three centuries — down to the days of Tintoretto. In 
 regard to these Venetian mosaics we must remember that 
 though the impulse came from Byzantine art the style was 
 much ennobled by Italian genius. 
 
 Also in South Italy and Sicily during the period 1000-1200 
 (the time of the Normans) there was evidently a large school 
 of Byzantine artists, for we find splendid Byzantine mosaics 
 adorning the great churches and palaces of Norman and 
 Saracen architecture (e.g. in Salerno, Palermo, Cefalu, Mon- 
 reale, etc.). 
 
 The influence of Byzantine painting on the art of Italy 
 will be discussed later. Here it need only be remarked that 
 many of these Byzantines were clever craftsmen without the 
 slightest sense of art and possessed great technical sleight and 
 that facility and rapidity of production which help to ruin 
 an art that is tending to degenerate. The output of icons was 
 enormous, especially after the Eastern Church had given up 
 its iconoclastic errors and had reverted to orthodox image- 
 worship. 1 Christendom was deluged with wonder-working 
 pictures — Madonnas and saints, with orange or brick-red 
 faces tinged and shaded into cadaverous green, set against 
 a background of gold and decked out with gilt ornaments 
 and gorgeous apparel. The entirely mechanical character 
 of this output is well intimated by the following assertion 
 
 1 See p. 230. In Justinian's S. Sofia there was probably only a great 
 mosaic Dross, such as still exists in some Eastern churches. All figures were 
 avoided, and at first only symbols allowed. After Irene's Nicaean Council 
 (787), and still more after the final relapse to image-worship in 860, icon- 
 manufacture became a very lucrative profession. 
 274 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 made by one of the speakers at the notorious second Council 
 of Nicaea, summoned by pious Empress Irene, who blinded 
 her own son : ' It is not/ said the icon-advocate, * the in- 
 vention of the painter that creates the picture, but the law and 
 tradition [Oea-fiodea-la ko.1 TrapdSocris] of the Catholic Church. 
 It is not the painters, but the Holy Fathers who have to invent 
 and dictate.' 
 
 Roman-Lombard Architecture (early Romanesque) 
 
 As in the history of ancient Greece, we encounter also in 
 the history of Italy, during the Lombard domination (c. 568- 
 774), a Dark Age ; and this Dark Age is longer than, if not 
 quite so hopelessly obscure as, the three centuries that followed 
 the Dorian conquest. In the case of Italy, as in that of 
 Greece, the result of conquest by a Northern race was a long 
 and dreary season which was succeeded by a splendid out- 
 burst- of art — perhaps due to the admixture of the fresh and 
 virile, if somewhat barbarous, vigour of the North with the 
 Southern, somewhat effeminate, sensibility for beauty of form 
 and colour. 
 
 We have seen how later and degenerate classical Roman 
 architecture developed new life and new forms by adopting 
 such devices as the arch-bearing column, the dome, and the 
 ' pendentive.' But we have also seen how during the three 
 centuries (300-600) in which the basilican and Byzantine 
 forms of Roman architecture were at their prime the old 
 informing spirit of native art 1 lived on, ready at any moment 
 to materialize itself in still another shape as soon as the 
 requisite conditions presented themselves ; for there seems to 
 be good reason to believe that at Rome, through all the 
 tumultuous years of barbarian and Byzantine invasion, sur- 
 viving sieges and famines and pestilences and even the tempo- 
 rary abandonment of the city by' all its human inhabitants, 
 guilds or brotherhoods existed which transmitted from one 
 
 1 I mean that artistic spirit which had been native to Italy since the age 
 of the ancient Etruscans and the Greek colonies, and which was the antiqua 
 mater, as it were, of classical Roman art, as also of all later Italian art. 
 
 275 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 generation to another certain arts and crafts. We hear of 
 ' schools ' in Rome, such as the schola Graeca founded by Pope 
 Hadrian I in 782, and scholae Francorum, scholae Saxonum, and 
 the like. It is indeed uncertain whether these were theological 
 or artistic colleges, such as exist also in our days at Rome, for 
 foreign students, or were identical with the guilds and associa- 
 tions of merchants, doctors, musicians, etc., which are men- 
 tioned by chroniclers as existing in Rome in the seventh and 
 eighth centuries and had probably existed there from early 
 times. But what makes one feel fairly certain that some 
 such guilds of architects existed is the fact that here and 
 there are to be seen beautiful specimens of architecture 
 and of sculpture which are certainly neither Byzantine nor 
 Lombardic and seem to date from what I have called the 
 Dark Age, when in Italy, to judge from all other relics, art 
 was fallen on very evil days. It must be confessed that these 
 specimens are rare, and of doubtful date and provenance ; 
 but they suggest the possibility that by reason of the Roman 
 guilds the race of native artists did not quite die out ; and it 
 seems not improbable that craftsmen of these guilds found 
 their way to the Gothic and Byzantine courts at Ravenna, 
 to the cities of South Italy and of the northern Exarchate, as 
 well as to the islands of Venetia, in all of which places traces 
 of them seem to exist. 1 
 
 But where we seem to trace quite distinctly the existence 
 of Roman craftsmen is in Northern'ltaly during the domination 
 of the Lombards — first at the court of Agilulf and Theodelinda, 
 who built many fine churches, and later in many parts of the 
 Lombard kingdom. 
 
 The Lombards were originally a very savage race — so savage 
 that Narses had to send his Lombard allies back to their 
 
 1 For instance, columns, capitals, or carvings at Torcello, Toscanella, 
 Brescia (ancient S. Salvatore), perhaps at Grado and Cividale, at Naples 
 (capitals in S. Restituita, and perhaps the Joseph relief) and other southern 
 towns ; moreover, many beautiful sarcophagi, as in S. Apollinare in Classe 
 at Ravenna. Some of these relics may possibly be classical Roman work, 
 which was often appropriated ; but not seldom they seem to be genuine Italian 
 work in the ancient style and to date from the seventh or eighth century. 
 276 
 
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ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 Northern homes on account of their barbarities — and during 
 the first years of their Italian domination, in the reigns of 
 Alboin and Clefi and the following ten years of anarchy (575- 
 585), doubtless civilization suffered a great deal at the hands 
 of this gens nefandissima et scehratissima. But the descendants 
 of these Northern barbarians already in the early days of Agilulf 
 and Theodelinda (590) began, as we have seen, to contemplate 
 with amazement the portraits of their savage ancestors, and to 
 feel enthusiasm for the arts and refinements of the land that 
 they had conquered. At Pavia, Cremona, Bergamo, Perledo, 
 and other places in the Como district Theodelinda erected 
 churches and towers, and at Monza she rebuilt and adorned 
 with frescos the summer palace of Theoderic (some say, in 
 ' Byzantine style ') , and adjoining it built a fine basilica, 
 whose seventy ampullae of sacred oil and whose Treasury 
 and curious lunette were described in the last chapter. 
 
 The question here arises, whence did Theodelinda get her 
 architects and sculptors for all these buildings ? Whence, 
 too, did her husband, King Agilulf, procure the ' Italian arti- 
 ficers ' whom he sent to the Avars in order to teach them 
 shipbuilding {ad faciendas naves) ? Were these architects and 
 artificers Italian, 1 or Byzantine craftsmen from Ravenna ? 
 Or, if not, what other Italian city could have produced them ? 
 There is a seductive theory — based, it must be confessed, on 
 a rather slight foundation — that, driven away from Rome, 
 where art and learning, and language too, had sunk to a very 
 low level, many members of the Roman artistic brotherhoods 
 made their way northward and chose for their headquarters, 
 that little island in Lake Como, the Isola Comacina, which, 
 it may be remembered, was fortified by Theoderic and was 
 later a strong firofiugnaculum of the Byzantine Exarchate, but 
 was captured by the Lombards during the reign of Autharis 
 (587). This theory is founded on the fact that ' Comacine 
 
 1 Or were they Lombards ? And were the early Lombard churches built 
 in a rough barbaric style imitated from that of the still earlier wooden struc- 
 tures of their Northern home ? See Ruskin, Stones of Venice, i, 27. It seems 
 possible that unskilful building may account for the entire disappearance of 
 almost all these primitive Lombard churches. 
 
 277 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 master-builders ' are mentioned by chroniclers. For instance, 
 by the laws of Rotharis (c. 640) these magistri Comacini are 
 granted certain privileges in regard to slaves, menials, con- 
 tracts, etc., and a century later (739), in the reign of I,iutprand, 
 a Comacine master named Rodpert (apparently a Northman, 
 not a Roman !) is mentioned as being present at Toscanella, 
 evidently engaged in building the beautiful basilica of S. Pietro 
 (Fig- 25). 
 
 These Comacine masters, so called, it is generally supposed, 
 from the island 1 or the region of Como, play a great part in 
 some modern theories concerning the origins of Romanesque 
 architecture — that architecture which after a very long and 
 dark period of undeveloped existence (from c. 600 to c. 1000 
 or later) seems to have burst forth with almost incredible 
 suddenness in all its beauty and perfection. 
 
 But whether the word comacinus has anything to do with 
 the island, or with Como, is very uncertain, and I am not at 
 all sure that we should contemptuously reject the suggestion 
 that it may merely mean a member of a guild of brother 
 masons — co-maciones, the I/Ow-I/atin macio being the source • 
 of our word ' mason ' — although we may not be prepared to 
 believe that these magistri Comacini, to whom so many privileges 
 and freedoms were granted, were none other than freemasons, 
 the medieval inheritors and transmitters of the masonic 
 mysteries of King Solomon. 2 However that may be, we may, 
 I think, regard it as a fact that Italian, probably Roman, 
 architects and sculptors were largely employed by the I/ombard 
 conquerors, and that, if not the architects, the sculptors in 
 their carvings had to accommodate their artistic idiosyncrasies 
 as best they might to the characteristic tastes of their masters. 
 Now their masters exhibited delight in grotesqueness and in more 
 
 1 Its subsequent history may interest the reader. In 962 Berengarius 
 took refuge there, but was betrayed by the Larian people to Otto. In 1 169 
 the settlement was razed for having sided with Milan. The latest news I 
 have of it is imparted by a prospectus issued by its proprietor, who advertises 
 its charms as a site for a modern hotel and casino ! 
 
 * Sir T. G. Jackson suggests that a ' freemason ' was originally merely a 
 worker in freestone (soft, sandy stone). 
 278 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 or less monstrous animal forms and a total insensibility to re- 
 pulsive ugliness — for we meet these characteristics in all their 
 naked hideousness north of the Alps and wheresoever in North 
 Italy we encounter what is evidently Lombard, or ultra- 
 montane, work pure and simple. 1 But in the architecture 
 itself — not merely its detail — the Roman, or Comacine, evi- 
 dently held his own as master-builder, and, while accommodating 
 himself to the requirements and the traditional ideas of his 
 Lombard employer, gradually developed a new style, that 
 which we know as Lombard Romanesque, the source, if I 
 am not mistaken, of all other Romanesque architecture — 
 Tuscan, German, and Norman. But this is a question that 
 will occupy us later, when we consider the special character 
 of this Romanesque architecture, which after long obscuration 
 so suddenly appeared in wonderful perfection. Here I shall 
 only add a few somewhat debatable data in connexion with 
 the rare relics of the first and darker half of the Dark Age of 
 Romanesque architecture — the period from the coming of the 
 Lombards to the coronation of Charles the Great. 
 
 The first Lombard basilica mentioned by chroniclers is one built 
 near Bergamo by Theodelinda's first husband, King Autharis. 
 Theodelinda's many buildings we have already mentioned. 
 Of her Monza basilica — a building with octagonal centre — 
 there exist only some old round and octagonal columns with 
 ancient capitals worked over with Lombard birds and beasts ; 
 of her palace only a few doubtful remains survive. Of the 
 original Lombard S. Michele in Pavia only a few charac- 
 teristic Lombard capitals are extant. The cathedral of 
 Padua offers perhaps the earliest (much restored) Lombard 
 facade, with blind arcades and plain round windows. (The 
 grand Romanesque wheel or rose windows were later.) The 
 old church of S. Salvatore at Brescia, now a part of the Museum, 
 
 1 A striking example is afforded by the grotesque Lombard carvings on 
 the beautifully proportioned Baptistery tabernacle at Cividale (c. 740). 
 A similar Roman-Lombard tabernacle of about the same date, but entirely 
 free from repulsive grotesqueness, is in S. Apollinare in Classe, the beautiful 
 Roman-Lombard sarcophagi in which church offer an extraordinary contrast 
 to the barbarous reliefs at Cividale. 
 
 279 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 has some very beautiful white marble capitals with carved 
 foliage as well as others that are characteristically Lombard 
 and grotesque. The latter are attributed to the reign of 
 Desiderius ; the former were perhaps appropriated Roman 
 or Byzantine work ; but they may be ' Comacine,' i.e. Roman- 
 Lombard. At Lucca, in S. Frediano 
 (built originally by an Irish bishop 
 c. 570) , there are some very fine ancient 
 or Roman-Lombard columns, and there 
 is an apsidal colonnade with archi- 
 traves instead of arches, which is 
 perhaps Roman-Lombard. At Pavia 
 the celebrated S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro, 
 perhaps built by Agilulf or Theodelinda, 
 was rebuilt or restored by Liutprand, 
 who, as we have already heard, brought 
 thither the bones of St. Augustine. 
 Of the original edifice a few capitals 
 and a part of the fagade are extant. 
 Other churches which possess relics 
 of early Roman-Lombard architecture 
 or sculpture are the ancient but 
 newly rebuilt basilica of S. Abbondio 
 near Como, S. Giusto and S. Martino 
 (Fig. 41) at Lucca, the Pieve di 
 Arliano near Lucca, the chapel of 
 S. Maria della Valle at Cividale (c. 750), 
 S. Fedele at Como, and S. Ambrogio at Milan, the atrium of 
 which dates originally from c. 790. 
 
 But by far the most complete and attractive relic of this 
 Roman-Lombard period is to be found at Toscanella, 1 anciently 
 Tuscania, a small but once strongly fortified town near Viterbo, 
 in the south of Lombard Tuscia. Here there are two basilicas. 
 That of S. Pietro was originally built in 628 (to receive the bones 
 of three saints), but, as was so often the case with the earliest 
 
 1 The diminutive form is due to the contempt of some Pope whom Tuscania 
 had defied. 
 
 280 
 
 Lombard Work at 
 S. Abbondio, near Como 
 
26. S. Maria Maggiore, Toscanbwa 
 
 280 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 Lombard churches, which were probably unskilfully erected, 
 it was rebuilt — perhaps by the Comacine master Rodpert, 
 already mentioned — in the reign of Iiutprand (c. 740). From 
 this period dates much of the very fine interior. Some of the 
 columns and capitals are antique or else good imitations by 
 
 I'D 
 
 j "■" 
 
 KEL=4- 
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 ^TO^nWtF^m&*/|ij| 
 
 S. PlETRO, TOSCANEMyA S. AMBROGIO, MII.AN 
 
 Note the pilaster above the nave pier — ' the first form of the great 
 distinctive feature of Northern architecture — the vaulting shaft.' 
 Such shafts are, according to Ruskin, petrified survivals of the 
 timber uprights of the wooden churches of the North. ' The 
 Lombards brought them into Italy in the seventh century and 
 they remain to this day in S. Ambrogio of Milan and S. Michele of 
 Pavia.' 
 
 Comacine or Roman craftsmen. Others, as the one depicted, are 
 unmistakably Lombard, though not of a grotesque and bar- 
 barous character. The exterior is mainly later Romanesque, and 
 it shows many characteristics of the style, such as the deeply 
 recessed windows, the brick and marble arcades, and the zigzag 
 ornament so common in Norman architecture. The very 
 beautiful facade, with its magnificent rose window (Fig. 25), 
 dates mostly from a reconstruction of about 1040; but the 
 
 281 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 splendid recessed portals are doubtless in part old Roman- 
 I/ombard originals. The other basilica, that of S. Maria 
 Maggiore, was the earlier of the two, and was the bishop's seat 
 till 650, but there is little or nothing surviving of the original 
 building, which was entirely rebuilt about 800. Its facade 
 is of about the same date as that of S. Pietro. 
 
 It seems very probable that the Roman-Iyombard style of 
 architecture was introduced by the Franks into countries 
 north of the Alps. Especially along the great waterway of 
 the Rhine we find early examples of Romanesque. The 
 renowned Abbey of I/auresheim at Lorsch, not far from Worms, 
 was founded at the end of the reign of Pipin the Short (c. 767), 
 and was dedicated in the presence of Charles the Great in 774, 
 the same year in which he transported the last Lombard king, 
 Desiderius, to France. At Cologne the original of S. Maria 
 im Capitol was most probably a church in Roman-Lombard 
 style built in the eighth or ninth century. At Aachen (Aix-la- 
 Chapelle) Charles built his cathedral, as we already know, 
 after the model of S. Vitale at Ravenna. 1 
 
 In connexion with this period (300-800) one should mention 
 bell-towers, for although the innumerable campanili of Italy 
 are mostly of later date and will be considered when we come 
 to the subject of true Romanesque, some of those still existing 
 were erected in the seventh or even perhaps in the sixth 
 century. It may be remembered that in the Theoderic mosaics 
 views are given of what seem to be intended to represent the 
 chief buildings of Ravenna and of Classe, and that there is no 
 sign of any campanile. It seems therefore likely that the 
 ancient circular campanili of the cathedral, of S. Apollinare 
 Nuovo, and of S. Apollinare in Classe were not built till about 
 600, or perhaps even a century later. Gregorovius tells us 
 
 1 The splendid church at Trier (Trdves), on the Mosel, claims to be the oldest 
 in Germany, but has been totally reconstructed. It stands on the remains 
 of a Roman building which was used as a Christian church already in the 
 fourth century. Burnt down about 550, it was later rebuilt — evidently in 
 early Roman-I<ombard style, for there are relics of arches and sculptures that 
 resemble very closely those of Northern Italy in the age of Theodelinda. 
 As reconstructed in the eleventh century the building is a fine specimen of 
 German Romanesque, but is disfigured by steeples and modern restorations. 
 282 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND MOSAICS 
 
 that the bell-tower of old St. Peter's in Rome was erected by 
 Pope Stephen II about 755, and that it was the first campanile 
 built (in Rome?). If the old drawing given on p. 295 is 
 correct, this campanile was evidently square, as is also that 
 of the Torcello cathedral, which may date from the ninth 
 century. Probably — or almost certainly — some form of bell- 
 tower existed long before the earliest extant campanile, for 
 church bells were first used, it is said, at Nola, in Campania, 1 
 about the year 400. Large bells, however, were not in use 
 till about 600. By 700 they were fairly common. They are 
 mentioned by Bede. 
 
 1 By the French bishop S. Paulinus, whose festa is still kept at Nola in 
 June. 
 
 283 
 
CHAPTER III 
 VENICE AND OTHER CITIES 
 
 WE have seen how at the beginning of the eighth 
 century the cities under Byzantine supremacy 
 were becoming very discontented. At Rome the 
 Exarch had been obliged to hide under the Pope's bed to 
 escape from an infuriated mob, and the atrocities committed 
 at Ravenna by the Eastern Emperor Justinian II had excited 
 great indignation and a general rising among the cities of 
 the northern Exarchate and the Pentapolis. These rebellions 
 had shaken to its foundations the Byzantine power in Italy, 
 and we may now (about 730, when the iconoclastic quarrel 
 had caused final cleavage between East and West) consider 
 Rome and the Exarchate to have become practically auto- 
 nomous. But the autonomy of the Exarchate was short- 
 lived. It very soon fell into the power of the Lombards, 
 who captured Ravenna. In 734, at the intercession of the 
 Pope, the Venetians retook the city and handed it over again 
 to the Empire — a proof, be it noted in passing, that Venice 
 was already powerful and independent. Then, a few years 
 later again (752), the Lombards under Astulf conquered the 
 whole of that region of Italy, and thus put an end for ever to 
 the Exarchate, except as a geographical denomination, under 
 which the country figures in the Donations of Pipin and Charles 
 the Great. 
 
 Several hundreds of years were yet to elapse before foreign 
 domination should so far have passed away as to allow the 
 rise of those Republics which played such an important part 
 in the history of Italy ; but even in the seventh century, 
 amidst the general disintegration caused by the partial 
 284 
 
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 55 
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VENICE AND OTHER CITIES 
 
 conquest of the country by the Lombards, by the embitter- 
 ment between Rome and Constantinople, and by the dissolu- 
 tion of Byzantine power in Italy, several of the greater cities 
 had acquired some measure of self-rule. This was especially 
 the case with Rome and Venice. 
 
 At Rome, in spite of the rapidly increasing power of the 
 Popes, a republican spirit seems to have prevailed at this 
 period, although the form of government was somewhat 
 oligarchical. 1 The story of Rome in these ages has already 
 entered largely into our narrative. It consists to a great 
 extent of discords and tumults, political and ecclesiastical, 
 which need not here be repeated, as they no longer have 
 much importance, whereas what is permanently interesting, 
 such as the personalities of Gregory the Great and the two 
 Iyeos, has occupied a good deal of our attention, as also 
 have various questions connected with Roman architecture. 
 I shall therefore now turn to Venice, which affords the 
 earliest and most striking example of an independent Italian 
 city. 
 
 Centuries before the time of Attila the islands off the coast 
 of Venetia had been frequented, and more or less permanently 
 inhabited, by fisher-folk, and on some of them wealthy Romans 
 had built their villas ; for in early days the Veneti, or Heneti, 
 harassed by the Celts, had put themselves under the pro- 
 tection of Rome, and when the north of Italy (Gallia Cisalpina 
 — also called Gallia Togata, or ' Toga'd Gaul ') was made a 
 Roman province the Venetian territory, with its towns of 
 Patavium (Padua), Aquileia, and Altinum, became an integral 
 part of the Empire. In those early times, long before Venice 
 existed, the islands now called Torcello and S. Giorgio 
 Maggiore were often chosen by Roman patricians as suitable 
 spots for summer residence, and the litus of Gradus (now 
 the fashionable lido of Grado) was already, it seems, joined 
 
 1 At this time Rome had its duke, who was in command of the army and 
 shared the civil power with the nobles (Optimates). The papal authority grew 
 up side by side with the oligarchical, or republican, and at times evidently 
 almost superseded it, giving, as Villari says, a curious physiognomy to that 
 which was in its real nature a commune. 
 
 285 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 to the mainland by a causeway and had its pastures and its 
 vineyards. So when Attila swooped down on Venetia and 
 sacked Aquileia the fugitives who flocked to Grado and to the 
 islands and lidi of the lagunes found there something besides 
 desolate mud-banks. There seem to have been twelve distinct 
 settlements made by these refugees. Grado was chosen as 
 a refuge by the Aquileians, Heraclea (which was at first the 
 chief town of Venetia maritima, but was afterwards destroyed) 
 was occupied by the people of Belluno, Torcello and Burano 
 by those of Altinum, and Malamocco and Rivoalto (the Rialto) 
 by the Paduans. In 466 the representatives of the settlements 
 met at Grado and elected twelve Tribunes, one as chief magis- 
 trate for each community. 1 
 
 How far Venetia came under the Gothic domination is un- 
 certain. In Baduela's (Totila's) reign we hear of the Goths 
 occupying it, but it is doubtful whether Theoderic ever made 
 it a part of his dominions, although we find Cassiodorus, the 
 minister of the Goth king and his successors, writing to the 
 Tribuni maritimorum in the year 537 (or possibly an Indictio 
 earlier, i.e. in 523) and urging them not to forget to transport 
 by sea, or rather by the ' river scenery ' of the lagunes, certain 
 tributes of oil and wine from Istria to Ravenna. Whether 
 this was requested in the way of business or demanded as a 
 duty owed to the liege-lord Theoderic, or Vitiges, is not quite 
 clear, but in spite of the somewhat domineering tone of the 
 letter it affords a very early — perhaps the earliest — proof that 
 the Tribunes of maritime Venetia were officially recognized 
 and that the Confederacy enjoyed even at this early period 
 at least a certain measure of self-rule. For this reason and 
 for the sake of its graphic touches it may be well to give the 
 following passages from it — in doing which I make some use of 
 Mr. Hodgkin's translation (Letters of Cassiodorus, Book XII, 
 ep. 24) : 
 
 ' We have given orders that Istria should send wine and oil, 
 of which there are abundant crops this year, to the royal 
 
 1 The so-called chair of Attila (Fig. 27) may have been the sella curulis of 
 
 the Torcello Tribune. 
 
 286 
 
VENICE AND OTHER CITIES 
 
 residence at Ravenna. Do you, who possess numerous ships 
 on the borders of the Province, show the same devotion in 
 forwarding the stores which they do in supplying them. . . . 
 This is added to your other advantages, that to you an alter- 
 native route is open, marked by perpetual safety and tran- 
 quillity ; for when by raging winds the sea is closed, a way 
 lies open to you through the most charming river scenery. 
 Your keels, drawn by cables, fear no rough blasts ; they touch 
 the earth with pleasure and take no harm, however frequently 
 they come in contact with it. Beholders from a distance, 
 not seeing the channel of the stream, might fancy them moving 
 through meadows. ... It is a pleasure to recall the situation 
 of your dwellings as I myself have seen them. Venetia, the 
 high-extolled [a reference to the old name Heneti, which in 
 Greek is somewhat like a word meaning ' praised '], formerly 
 full of dwellings of the nobility, touches on the south Ravenna 
 and the Po, while on the east it enjoys the delightful Ionian 
 [Adriatic] shore and its alternating tides. Here after the 
 manner of water-fowl you have fixed your home. Scattered 
 amidst the wide expanse of waters are seen your dwelling-places, 
 which nature indeed produced, but which are cemented by 
 human labour into firm foundations ; for, collected by twisted 
 and knotted osier-work, the earth is turned into a solid mass 
 which the ponderous surf on the shallow shore is unable to 
 sweep away.' He then describes their wealth of fish and salt, 
 and once more urges them to repair and hold ready their 
 ships, ' which are tethered, like so many beasts of burden, to 
 your walls.' 
 
 During and after the reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines 
 the relations of Venetia maritima to the Eastern Empire were 
 friendly ; but they show no sign of vassalage. When in 538 
 Narses was sent from the East to co-operate with Belisarius 
 in Italy, the Venetian islanders aided him to transport his 
 troops by sea, and it is stated (though also denied) that in 
 return he sent them Byzantine builders, who erected on the 
 Rivoalto the basilica of S. Teodoro, that most ancient of 
 the churches of Venice, which was demolished to make room 
 
 287 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 for St. Mark's when that saint's bones were brought from 
 Alexandria in 828. 
 
 With the help of the Byzantines the Venetian confederacy 
 was for a long time able to defend itself against the Lombards, 
 and it possessed during this period a considerable amount 
 of independence and naval power. 1 Its population also was 
 greatly increased by fugitives from the mainland cities, 2 and 
 a great advantage (for such it really was politically) accrued 
 to the islanders about the year 580 through the flight of the 
 Patriarch of Aquileia to Grado ; for thus the confederacy 
 obtained an ecclesiastical Head recognized by the Pope. In 
 584 a kind of Parliament was constituted, consisting of specially 
 elected Tribunes (Tribuni major es). 
 
 But among these island communes internal quarrels broke 
 out, and they were constantly threatened by the I/ombard 
 dukes of Friuli. They therefore determined to consolidate 
 themselves into a state. In the year 697 the Patriarch — 
 apparently without the sanction of Emperor or Exarch — 
 summoned a Parliament at Heraclea, and a supreme Head of 
 the State was elected — the first of those Doges who ruled 
 the Venetians almost uninterruptedly for thirteen centuries. 
 The official seat of the Doges was at first Heraclea. They 
 were elected for life and were allowed almost regal state and 
 authority. All public office depended on them. In their 
 hands lay the investiture of bishops and patriarchs, whose 
 appointment they could veto. They could convoke or dissolve 
 at will the ecclesiastical synods and the public assembly, or 
 Parliament — the Arengo, as it was called — which remained 
 until its final dissolution in 1423 the one important demo- 
 cratic element in the Venetian government. 
 
 The first Doge of maritime Venetia was (to use henceforth 
 
 1 When Longinus, Narses' successor, visited the islands to demand their 
 aid as subjects of the Emperor, they refused to recognize the claim, but sent 
 envoys with Longirms to Constantinople, and in return for important trading 
 privileges accepted as an empty form the suzerainty of the Emperor. 
 
 2 One of these, Altinum, the inhabitants are said to have left on account 
 of an augury that recalls Attila and Aquileia — the sight of doves and other 
 birds leaving the city and carrying with them their young. 
 
 288 
 
VENICE AND OTHER CITIES 
 
 Italian names) Paoluccio Anafesto. He was slain in a party 
 broil, and followed by Marcello, bis Magister militum. In the 
 reign of tbe third Doge, Orso, the Lombards, as we have already 
 heard, made themselves masters of the Exarchate and took 
 Ravenna. The Byzantine Exarch fled for refuge to the Vene- 
 tian islands, and, supported by letters from Pope Gregory III, 
 persuaded the Doge and the Arengo to recover Ravenna 
 for the Empire. This bold undertaking was successfully 
 carried out (734), which is a proof that the Venetians already 
 possessed not only a fleet powerful enough to capture the port, 
 Classe, but also land forces efficient enough to take the strongly 
 fortified city itself. 1 
 
 But internal discord was again threatening the young state. 
 The pro-Byzantine faction succeeded in murdering Doge 
 Orso, who was the head of the nationalist party, and for five 
 years (737-41) the title of Doge was in abeyance, the govern- 
 ment being carried on by annual Magistri militum under the 
 supreme control of the Exarch of Ravenna. Then a counter- 
 revolution set on the throne the son of Orso, Diodato, the 
 unfortunate Magister being abbacinato — blinded by the red-hot 
 brazen basin in the cruel Byzantine fashion. The new Doge 
 was elected, not as usual at Heraclea, but at Malamocco, 2 
 which was now (742) made the ducal residence. 
 
 Under Astulf (c. 752) the Lombards, as we have seen, con- 
 quered the whole of the Venetian mainland and put an end 
 to the Byzantine Exarchate ; but they evidently did not 
 forcibly subdue the maritime Venetians, whom we find on 
 terms of friendly and independent alliance with them. Then, 
 when Pipin and his Franks came, and still more when Charles 
 captured Pavia and King Desiderius and put an end to the 
 Lombard power, the Venetians were obliged to adopt another 
 policy. At that crisis they were guided by the wise and firm 
 rule of Doge Galbaio, and it seems (if we may believe an old 
 inscription on a plate of lead that may be seen in the British 
 
 1 For this exploit Doge Orso received from the Emperor the title ' Hypatos ' 
 (equivalent to ' Highness '). 
 
 2 Old Malamocco, now sunk in the waves, was somewhere (uncertain where) 
 on the present channel through the I<ido called II porto di Malamocco. 
 
 T 289 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Museum) that twenty-four Venetian galleys ascended the 
 Po and the Ticino to aid Charles in besieging Pavia, and 
 that the captive Lombard king was guarded for a time by 
 Venetians. 
 
 But this Prankish policy led to a revival of internal discords, 
 and difficulties with the Pranks themselves also arose through 
 the expulsion of Venetians from Ravenna and Pentapolis on 
 account of their addiction to the slave trade (which Charles 
 had abolished by law). Then feuds between Doge and 
 Patriarch and between Heraclea, Jesolo, and other towns of 
 the Venetian Confederacy ere long ended in the murder 
 of the Patriarch, the total destruction of both Heraclea and 
 Jesolo, the exile of Doge Galbaio and his son, whom he had 
 associated with himself as Doge-apparent, and the election 
 of a Frank partisan named Obelerio. But the rival faction, 
 which favoured Byzantine suzerainty and was composed 
 largely of the now homeless Heracleans, gained in turn the 
 upper hand, and brought about an alliance with the pastern 
 Emperor. This naturally determined the Prank monarch 
 to put an end to the constant troubles caused him by the 
 restless and unsubmissive islanders. In order to conquer 
 and annex them he caused his son Pipin, the king of Italy, 
 to attack their strongholds with a powerful army and fleet. 
 Then Doge Obelerio, who advised submission, was deposed 
 by the infuriated Venetians, and a Heraclean named Agnello 
 Partecipazio (to give him the later, Italian, form of his name) 
 was elected, not as Doge, but as military commandant. The 
 Pranks soon captured Grado, Brondolo, and Chioggia. They 
 then attacked the lidi of Pellestrina and Malamocco, and 
 after much fierce fighting they succeeded in capturing Mala- 
 mocco itself ; but meanwhile the islanders had retreated and 
 established their headquarters on the Rivoalto, and after six 
 months of vain attempts to dislodge them, defeated by their 
 resistance, by the labyrinthine intricacies of the shallow lagunes, 
 and by the malarial heats of autumn, Pipin abandoned the 
 enterprise and withdrew. He died shortly afterwards at 
 Milan (where his tomb may be seen in S. Ambrogio), and Charles 
 290 
 
VENICE AND OTHER CITIES 
 
 deemed it wise to recognize maritime Venetia as a free state 
 under the protectorate of the Eastern, Empire. 
 
 In 811 Agnello Partecipazio (called Particiaco by some 
 writers) was elected Doge, and in 813, or possibly before, he 
 transferred the seat of government to the Rivoalto, or Rialto ; 
 and the town on the banks of this ' Deep Stream ' was hence- 
 forth known by the name Venetia, or Venezia, and recognized 
 as the centre of the Venetian state. Here Partecipazio, the 
 eleventh Doge of the Venetian Confederacy and the first Doge 
 who ruled at Venice, was given a residence that stood on the 
 site now occupied by the Ducal Palace. 
 
 Of other Italian cities, such as Florence, Pisa, Pavia, Milan, 
 Monza, Genoa, etc., we have only rare and scanty notices in 
 early chroniclers. Here and there mention has been made of 
 them in the preceding pages, and in view of the immensity of 
 the subject of this volume I must hope that these passages, 
 to which reference is supplied by the Index, will suffice. 
 
 Naples however claims a few observations. It boasts of 
 course a lineage very much longer than that of Venice — longer 
 even than that of Rome — for it is said to have been founded., 
 under the name Parthenope, by the Greeks of Cyme (Cumae) 
 about 900 B.C. Its early history does not however demand 
 our attention, for the first occasion on which the city played 
 any important part in Italian history was in 535 a.d., when 
 the Goths defended it obstinately against Belisarius, until he 
 took it by a ruse almost as ingenious as that of the wooden 
 horse, namely by sending a body of 600 men creeping through 
 the galleries of aqueducts (precursors of the great Serino 
 aqueduct), by which means they gained entry into the city 
 and opened the gates. Eight years later Naples was recap- 
 tured by the Goths under Baduela. After the battle on Mount 
 Vesuvius and the death of Theia (553) it of course fell again 
 into the hands of the Byzantines ; and it will be remembered 
 that Narses took up his residence there in 567, after he had 
 been deprived of his command. 
 
 Naples was not conquered by the Lombards. It was closely 
 beleaguered by the Duke of Benevento at the time (581) when 
 
 291 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the Lombards devastated Campania and sacked the convent 
 of Monte Cassino ; but it resisted successfully, depending, like 
 other maritime cities of South Italy, on the aid of the Byzantine 
 fleet, and through the seventh century and the first half of 
 the eighth, although neglected by the Emperors, who were 
 much occupied by the Saracens in Sicily, it remained loyal, 
 being governed by Byzantine Judges and Commandants and 
 later by Byzantine Dukes, and taking no part in the rebellion 
 of Ravenna and the Pentapolis against Byzantine supremacy. 
 Finally however, about 760, the Neapolitan Duke Stephen II 
 declared the city independent. The official language was 
 changed from Greek to Latin ; the coins (except in some cases, 
 where the old type was kept) bore the effigy of St. Januarius 
 instead of that of the Emperor ; the son of Duke Stephen 
 was associated with his father in the government, by which 
 act a kind of dynastic system was introduced ; and, lastly, 
 the Duke himself, having become a widower, conceived the 
 brilliant idea of combining in his own person the supreme 
 civil and ecclesiastical offices, and after receiving the tonsure 
 at Rome was consecrated Bishop of Naples. Under successive 
 Dukes the city defended itself gallantly against the Saracens 
 and held out for some time against the Normans ; but in 1134, 
 after a long and heroic resistance, it was captured by Roger, 
 the self-made king of Sicily, and its self-rule came to an end. 
 
 292 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 Pipin the Short 
 crowned 
 
 751 
 
 Charles succeeds 768 
 
 (with Carlmann) 
 Charles sole king 771 
 1st visit to Rome 
 
 April (Easter) 774 
 2nd visit 
 
 April (Easter) 781 
 3rd visit 
 
 Easter 787 
 
 4th visit 
 
 Christmas 800 
 
 Zacharias 
 Stephen II 752 
 (Paul I) 
 Stephen III 768 
 
 Hadrian I 
 
 772 
 
 teo III 
 
 795 
 
 CHARGES visited Rome three times before 800. The 
 first occasion was in 774, nearly twenty-seven years 
 before his coronation. Ever since the early autumn 
 of 773 he had been besieging Desiderius in Pavia, and as the 
 siege seemed likely to last a considerable time longer he de- 
 termined to celebrate the festival of Easter (April 2) in Rome, 
 where he would be able to discuss matters of grave moment 
 with Pope Hadrian. This first visit of the Frank monarch 
 to the city which had been the metropolis of the ancient and was 
 soon to be the capital of the new Roman Empire is of special 
 importance on account of the question of the so-called Dona- 
 tions. For this reason, and because the meeting of the king 
 and the Pope was attended by striking and picturesque cir- 
 cumstances and connects itself with some points of artistic 
 interest, I shall describe the episode somewhat fully x and 
 then add some remarks on the subject of these Donations. 
 
 1 I take the main facts from the Liber PontificcUis (ed. Duchesne), which 
 gives the one authentic account. Gibbon, Gregorovius, Villari, and others 
 copy it closely. 
 
 293 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 It will be remembered that on his accession in 772 Pope 
 Hadrian had vainly endeavoured to come to terms with the 
 I/ombard king, Desiderius, who was deeply incensed at the 
 insulting rejection of his daughter Desiderata by Charles 
 and had tried to persuade the Pope to consecrate Carlmann's 
 fugitive son as the legitimate king of the Franks. This 
 demand Hadrian refused to fulfil, showing himself, says the 
 old chronicler, ' as unbending as adamant.' Thereupon Desi- 
 derius not only refused to give over other Exarchate cities, 
 but seized Faenza and Ferrara, threatened Ravenna, and 
 suddenly marched southwards against Rome. 
 
 Then, 
 
 quando 7 dente longobardo morse 
 La santa Chiesa, sotto alls site all 
 Carlo magno, vincendo, la soccorse, 1 
 
 for like an eagle he came sweeping down from the Alps, and 
 the I,ombard king had scarce time to hurry northwards again 
 and shut himself up in Pavia. The city was soon invested 
 by the Frank army, but Pavia was strongly fortified and well 
 provisioned, and after six months of ineffectual siege Charles 
 determined, as has been said, to visit Rome, and spend Faster 
 there. He crossed the Apennines and traversed Tuscany by 
 the Via Clodia at the head of a large retinue. 
 
 On hearing of his approach Pope Hadrian determined to 
 receive him with the same honours that used to be paid to 
 the Byzantine Exarch whenever he visited the old capital 
 of the Empire. He therefore sent a deputation of nobles and 
 magistrates to welcome him and to hand over to him, as a token 
 of homage, the banner of the city. 2 These met the Frank 
 monarch near I^ake Sabatinus, about thirty Roman miles 
 from the city, in loco qui vocatur Nobas. 3 When the regal 
 
 F" - Dante, Par. vi, 94. The ali (wings) are those of the Imperial Eagle — in 
 whose constellated form in the sixth heaven (that of the planet Jupiter) 
 Constantine the Great's spirit, who is here speaking, is one of the five stars 
 that compose the eye. Both Charles and his paladin Orlando are put by 
 Dante into heaven (in the fiery cross of Mars) as being Warriors of the Cross. 
 
 3 See p. 243 n. 
 
 8 Perhaps the ruins near Trevignano, on the north side of Lago di Bracciano, 
 may be relics of this place, called Ad novas (dom4s ?). Probably it was a 
 294 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 cavalcade with its escort of Frankish warriors and Roman 
 dignitaries had reached the Pons Milvius (that bridge which 
 we know so well in connexion with Constantine and Maxentius) 
 and had passed over the Tiber, they found the Flaminian road 
 for a mile from the city gate lined with a great multitude, and 
 were met by a procession of students from all the military and 
 civil schools of Rome, ' bearing palm and olive branches/and 
 
 Ancient Basiuca of St. Peter at Rome 
 From an old drawing 
 
 singing songs of praise,' while the clergy carried venerandas 
 cruces, id est signa — evidently standards like the labarum. 
 
 On beholding the approach of the sacred standards Charles 
 dismounts and proceeds on foot to the basilica of St. Peter, 
 where standing aloft super grados [sic] juxta fores ecclesiae 
 Pope Hadrian is awaiting him. This great marble staircase 
 leading up to the "basilica Charles now ascends on his knees, 
 kissing each step (omnes grados singillatim deosculatus) , until 
 he reaches Hadrian, who raises and kisses him. Then hand 
 in hand the sanctissimus papa and the excettentissimus Fran- 
 corum rex enter the venerandam aulam, while a vast quire of 
 
 mulatto (posting relay house) whence one struck the diverticulum (cross-road) 
 between the Clodian and Cassian roads and thus reached the Via Flaminia. 
 But I prefer to think that they- kept to the Clodia, which passed south of 
 Sabatinus and joined the Via Piarninia near the Milvian Bridge. 
 
 295 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 clerics chants the words Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. 
 They first traversed the white marble pavement of the great 
 court, amidst which stood the Pilgrims' Fountain, surmounted 
 by the colossal pine-cone, and then passing into the basilica 
 itself they prostrated themselves before the high altar, in front 
 of the ' Confessio ' — the latticed opening of the shaft com- 
 municating with the sepulchre of the saint — and ' glorified 
 the Divine Power for having granted them victory [over 
 the Lombards] per interventionum suffragia ejusdem principis 
 apostolorum.' Then, having descended into the crypt, in the 
 very presence of the body of St. Peter they and all their 
 nobles and prelates exchanged vows of mutual fidelity. 
 
 Charles had begged permission to offer his orisons in other 
 great churches of Rome, so they went on the same afternoon 
 (Holy Saturday of 774) to the basilica of S. Salvatore, later 
 S. Giovanni in Iyaterano, where the Pope baptized adults — a 
 rite still performed on this day in the Lateran Baptistery, 
 but not by the Pope ! On the Easter Sunday, after a grand 
 levee, Mass was celebrated in the ancient mother church, 
 S. Maria Maggiore — in ecclesia sanctae Dei Genetricis ad 
 Praesepe J — and a great banquet was held in the Lateran. On 
 the fourth day of Easter week (quarta feria) the momentous 
 ceremony of the Donation took place in St. Peter's, where 
 Hadrian ' entreated and with paternal affection exhorted ' the 
 king to fulfil in every particular (ut adimpleret in omnibus) the 
 promise made by his father Pipin and also by himself and his 
 brother Carlmann and all the Frank nobles. Then Charles bade 
 this charter of King Pipin to be read to him, and, having heard 
 it, that praeexcellentissimus et revera christianissimus rex Fran- 
 corum, of his own free will, bono et libenti animo, declared his 
 full satisfaction with every item (as did also all his nobles) 
 and bade another promissio to be drawn up, confirming 
 and extending the older Donation. This he signed propria 
 mdnu (with difficulty perhaps, as he is said by his biographer 
 
 1 Anciently called ' S. M. ad Nives,* because a fall of snow determined the 
 exact limits of its site ; or ' ad Praesepe,' because of its supposed possession of 
 five boards of the Manger of Bethlehem. 
 
 296 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 Einhart to have first tried to learn to write when advanced 
 in years), and caused it to be signed by all his nobles, who 
 bound themselves sub terribili sacramento to fulfil all its con- 
 ditions. He also had it copied. Of these copies he seems to 
 have taken one or two with him, and one was hung up in the 
 ' Confessio' of St. Peter — if we may believe the writer of Hadrian's 
 life in the Pontifical Book. 
 
 The Frank monarch remained in Rome about two months. 
 The siege of Pavia, in which city King Desiderius was shut up, 
 was now drawing to an end, and Charles, having hastened 
 northwards, was just in time to be present at the surrender. 
 
 His other visits to Rome and his coronation have been 
 described elsewhere. At the time of his coronation he was 
 an elderly man of fifty-eight, whereas in picturing to ourselves 
 this visit that I have been describing we should remember 
 that Charles was at that time only thirty-two years of age, 
 and a man of imposing presence, his stature having been, 
 according to Einhart, seven times the length of his foot — that 
 is, well over six feet. His long flaxen hair and moustache, 
 described by Einhart as ' beautiful in their fairness/ are not 
 easily perceptible on his coins (see p. 450) or on the Triclinium 
 mosaic (p. 243). 
 
 St. Peter's Basilica 
 
 In connexion with the visits of Charles the Great to Rome 
 it may be interesting to hear a little more about the old basilica 
 of St. Peter. 
 
 The quarter in which St. Peter's stands, known in Raffael's 
 day, 1 and still known, as the Borgo (suburb), was called in 
 classical times the Ager Vaticanus, probably from some ancient 
 Etruscan village that occupied the site. Lying in a marshy 
 bend of the river, it was malarious, and had as yet not been 
 
 1 I refer to the fresco L'incendio del Borgo. The word is of Northern origin 
 (burg, burgh) and possibly in Rome was first used (c. 700) to denote the 
 shingle-roofed inflammable quarters (scandalicia) of English, Saxons, and 
 other Northmen who founded scholae in this part of the city. Hence in 
 Italian it has come to mean a suburb. The Borgo was walled and fortified 
 by Leo IV (c. 852) and was called the Civitas Leonina. 
 
 297 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 included in the city walls — not even in those of Aurelian 
 (c. a.d. 270). Here Caligula made a great race-ground (Circus) 
 and amphitheatre, which under Nero became notorious for the 
 terrible martyrdoms of Christians of which we read in Tacitus. 
 Probably in this amphitheatre — it is said, between the two 
 metae — or, far less probably, on the slope of the Janiculum 
 where now S. Pietro in Montorio stands, the apostle was 
 crucified. His body was removed to a catacomb on the Appian 
 Way, but was afterwards brought back to the Vatican Hill. 
 Over this last grave the fifth Pope, Anacletus — who had been 
 ordained presbyter by St. Peter himself — erected (says the 
 Liber) a memorial chapel. More than two centuries later (306) 
 Constantine and Silvester founded on the spot a basilica, the 
 Emperor himself, it is said, beginning the work by digging out 
 and carrying away some hodfuls of earth. 
 
 This basilica, much altered in parts, existed until about 
 1500-10, when it had to make room for the new St. Peter's 
 designed by Bramante, whose plans, as all know, were carried 
 out with many alterations by Raffael, Michelangelo, and many 
 other architects. But the work of demolition evidently went 
 on slowly and there is every probability that when Raffael 
 first visited Rome in 1508 the facade of the old basilica, which 
 he has depicted in his Incendio del Borgo, and the great columns 
 of the nave, which we see in the background of the Donation 
 of Constantine (Fig. 29), were still standing. Besides these 
 frescos and a picture in the crypt of St. Peter's we have the 
 well-known ground-plan by Alfarano (1591), which is given 
 by Rossi and by the Abbe Duchesne with very full details. The 
 small reconstruction given on p. 295 is founded on this ground- 
 plan. 
 
 The basilica, which was flanked by many chapels, oratories, 
 sanctuaries, and other buildings not given in the sketch, had 
 in front of it to the east (for St. Peter's has unorthodox 
 orientation) a very large cloistered atrium, or quadriportus, the 
 other sides of which consisted of various edifices, including the 
 campanile with three bells erected c. 755 by Pope Stephen II. 
 This atrium, ' il Paradiso,' as it was called, was paved with 
 298 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 white marble, and in its midst was a fountain, erected 
 c. 370 by Pope Damasus for the use of pilgrims, and c. 498 
 furnished by Pope Symmachus with a metal roof, on which 
 he placed the huge bronze pine-cone which once stood, perhaps, 
 on the top of the Pantheon, or Hadrian's Mole, and which 
 now stands in the Giardino della Pigna of the Vatican. This 
 is the pine-cone which Dante mentions when he is describing 
 one of the giants that " turreted ' the marge of the pit of 
 Hell : 
 
 La faccia sua mi parea lung a e grossa 
 Come la pina di San Pietro a Roma. 
 
 The roof of the church was made of gilded tiles, given by Pope 
 Honorius (c. 625) . Its f agade was adorned with mosaics. Over 
 the portal, says the Abbe Duchesne, were originally depicted 
 the Saviour and St. Peter, to whom Constantine was pointing 
 out (or offering a model of ?) the church. In Raffael's Incendio 
 one may observe faint traces of mosaics on the building. These 
 later mosaics are said to have consisted of three zones : in the 
 gable were Christ and the Virgin, between and beside the 
 upper windows the four Evangelists, and between the lower 
 windows figures of the four-and-twenty Elders holding up 
 their golden crowns towards the Saviour. The nave of the 
 basilica was flanked on each side by two aisles. Ninety-six 
 columns, 1 many taken from ancient buildings, such as the 
 amphitheatre of Nero, separated the aisles and supported 
 the clerestory, which, as well as the apse, was adorned with 
 mosaic work. Precious marbles, splendid curtains of brocade, 
 golden and silver and bronzen candelabras and lamps and 
 altars and statues enriched the whole of the interior. 
 
 Towards the west end the nave and the aisles. were crossed 
 by a short transept, beyond which rose an elevated presbytery 
 — such as one knows in the Florentine S. Miniato, S. Giorgio 
 at Rome, and other churches. To reach the presbytery 
 one ascended, to the right or to the left of the high altar, 
 
 1 Some of these details are given by St. Gregory of Tours (the patron of 
 St. Martin) from the accounts brought home by a deacon of his who had 
 visited Rome c. 590". *H 
 
 299 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 seven steps of red porphyry. Immediately below the high 
 altar was the crypt, containing the sepulchres of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, and the fenestella confessionis was below the 
 altar, 1 between the two flights of porphyry steps — as may be 
 seen in Raffael's fresco in which Leo III (or rather Leo X !) 
 is depicted taking his oath before Charles the Great. 
 This 'window of the Confession' was a grating with an 
 aperture by which one could look down a perpendicular 
 
 Presbytery Steps and ' Confessio,' 
 S. Giorgio in Vei,abro 
 
 shaft and see the saint's tomb. St. Gregory of Tours relates 
 what his deacon saw at St. Peter's basilica, and speaks of a 
 ' parvula fenestella, the lattice of which having been opened, 
 one could insert one's head [immisso introrsum capite] and 
 thus give utterance to one's supplications.' The shaft and 
 sepulchre at St. Peter's got choked up and buried in rubbish 
 probably (says Duchesne) after the Saracen invasion of 846. 
 Some seven and a half centuries later (1594), while founda- 
 tions were being excavated, the original tomb seems to have 
 again come to view, and a silver sarcophagus and a golden 
 cross were, it is said, actually seen through an aperture by 
 
 1 See illustrations. In one Confessio is the (supposed) head of our English 
 St. George. The catacomb altar (probably from about 320) has the grating and 
 window in its front side, as the presbytery was not elevated. 
 
 300 
 
CHARLES THE- GREAT IN ROME 
 
 Pope Clement VIII; but he ordered all to be wailed up 
 again. 
 
 As those know who have visited the Grotte nuove in 
 St. Peter's, the ' Confession ' is now some ten feet under the 
 pavement of the present cathedral, overhung by Michelangelo's 
 mighty dome. The question of the genuineness of the relics 
 and the sarcophagi of St. Peter and St. Paul (for also St. Paul's 
 body is stated to have been brought here from the catacombs 
 
 ' Confessio ' in the Oratory of 
 S. Ai,essandro's Catacomb, Rome 
 
 of the Appian Way and the sarcophagus to have been seen in 
 course of the reconstructions in the sixteenth century) need 
 not here be discussed ; but I may add that when the Saracens 
 in 846 plundered S. Pietro and S. Paolo (both still outside 
 the walls) they cast forth, says Anastasius, the writer of this 
 part of the Pontifical Book, the contents of the great bronze 
 (silver ?) sarcophagus of St. Peter and ' devastated the sepulchre 
 of St. Paul, which was in his basilica near the Appian Way.' 
 
 The 'Donations' 
 
 On the fifth day of his first visit to Rome, as we saw, 
 Charles caused to be publicly read to him in St. Peter's basilica 
 the Donation of Pipin ; and this Donation, transcribed anew 
 
 301 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and enlarged in some particulars, was formally confirmed by 
 him and furnished with his signature as well as the signa- 
 tures of his chief nobles and ecclesiastical dignitaries. 
 
 But there existed — though Charles was apparently not in- 
 formed of the fact — what purported to be a much older charter 
 of similar character, namely the so-called Donation of Con- 
 stantine. The pious falsehood was perhaps first devised by 
 Stephen II when he was on his famous visit to King Pipin 
 at Paris in 754. If so, he doubtless urged the existence of the 
 legend and the possible existence of the charter itself when 
 entreating the Frank monarch for aid against the ravening 
 ' Lombard tooth.' But the document itself — probably a fabri- 
 cation imitating an antique manuscript — seems to have been 
 concocted somewhat later, perhaps in Paul's pontificate, by 
 some clever papal notary. Pope Hadrian doubtless knew of 
 its existence, but, knowing also its origin, he did not venture to 
 show it to Charles (who, by the way, probably could not read) 
 when the Pipin Donation was recited to the king at Rome in 
 774. Three years later, however, finding it impossible to 
 assert his authority in the ' donated ' territories north of the 
 Apennines, and being much harassed by the hostility of 
 Ravenna, Spoleto, and Benevento, and by the rebellion of 
 Tarracina and other towns, Hadrian was compelled once more 
 to appeal to Charles for aid — and on this occasion (777) the 
 Constantine Donation, which some centuries later achieved 
 such notoriety, 1 was for the first time openly and officially 
 cited, Hadrian entreating Charles to 'become a new Con- 
 stantine.' Its value as a historical document does not of 
 course consist in the legends that it preserves, but in the fact 
 that, as Bryce says, ' although a portentous falsehood, it is the 
 most unimpeachable evidence of the thoughts and beliefs of 
 the priesthood which framed it.' 
 
 Let us now look a little closer into the question of this 
 fabulous Donation of Constantine before considering the more 
 historical Pipin Donation and its confirmation by Charles. 
 
 1 Pig. 29 shows how long the Popes fostered the lie. In this picture Con- 
 stantine presents a figure symbolical of Rome. 
 302 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 (i) The Constantine Donation 
 
 According to an old tale which first appears in a Vita 
 S. Silvestri of perhaps about the year 490, as well as in Greek 
 and Syriac versions, and is briefly touched upon by the writer 
 (about 510) of Silvester's life in the Liber Pontificalis, Con- 
 stantine was attacked by leprosy and was advised by his 
 physicians to bathe in children's blood. Three thousand little 
 innocents were to be slaughtered for this purpose, but the 
 lamentations and entreaties of the mothers so moved Con- 
 stantine's pity that he renounced the prescribed cure. He was 
 then visited in a vision of night by St. Peter and St. Paul, who 
 praised him and said : ' Seek for Silvester, the Bishop of Rome, 
 who is in hiding in the mountains, and he shall show thee a 
 fount in which when thrice washed thou shalt be cleansed.' 
 And Constantine sent soldiers, who found Silvester hiding 
 near the summit of Syraptim (' within Soracte,' says Dante, 
 as also the Liber), and the saint baptized him and he came 
 forth from the font cleansed of his leprosy. Then he decreed 
 that Christ alone should be adored in all the Empire, and that 
 the Bishop of Rome should be the chief over all the bishops 
 of Christendom (ut in toto orbe sacerdotes pontificem Romanum 
 caput habeant). On the eighth day he visited the ' Confessio ' 
 of St. Peter's tomb and with his own hands dug out some hod- 
 fuls for the foundation of a new basilica and laid its first stone. 
 The next day he founded his palace and a new basilica on the 
 I/ateran. 
 
 Whatever we may think of the rest of the story, the baptism 
 of Constantine in the Lateran Baptistery, though it is depicted 
 by Raffael in a celebrated fresco and described by Chaucer in 
 his Confessio Amantis, and although a full description is given 
 in the Liber of the splendid porphyry font presented by Con- 
 stantine for the ceremony, is certainly legendary — for he was 
 not baptized till shortly before his death ; and although it 
 is possible that he may have given over to Bishop Silvester 
 the Lateran palace and a certain amount of land, and may 
 have granted the Church and the Roman Bishop various 
 
 303 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 privileges and patrimonies, there is every reason to believe 
 that no sovran rights of any kind were conceded by Con- 
 stantine — nor, indeed, as we shall see, by Charles the Great. 
 And yet the forged document asserted — and still asserts, for 
 versions of it still exist — that the regal edict contained the 
 following passages : * ' We, together with our Satraps and the 
 whole Senate and Nobles and People, deem it desirable that 
 even as St. Peter was on earth the Vicar of God, so also the 
 Pontiffs, his vicegerents, should receive from us and from our 
 Empire power and principality greater than belongs to us . . . 
 and we decree that higher than our terrestrial throne the most 
 sacred seat of St. Peter shall be gloriously exalted. . . . We hand 
 over and relinquish to the most blessed Pontiff and universal 
 Pope [a title not used till two centuries later !] Silvester 
 our palace, the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places, and 
 cities of Italy and the western regions, and we ordain that they 
 shall be governed by him and his successors and shall remain 
 under the authority of the holy Roman Church.' 
 
 It is scarcely credible that such a document could have ever 
 been seriously put forward as a title-deed even by the most 
 shameless claimant or advocate of the Temporal Power. One 
 would have thought that its wild and impudent extravagance 
 would have met with nothing but incredulous contempt. But 
 among papal adherents the legend was long accepted. Dante 
 himself did not doubt the genuineness of the Gift, though he 
 bitterly lamented ' the evil fruit of what was done with good 
 intention.' ' Ah, Constantine/ he exclaimed, 
 
 Of how much ill was cause, 
 Not thy conversion, but those rich domains 
 That the first wealthy Pope received of thee ! a 
 
 However, before the age of Ariosto the Donation had become for 
 
 flippant minds a subject of ridicule. In Orlando Furioso the 
 
 Paladin Astolf o finds the papal domains in the Moon : 
 
 Then passed he to a flowery mountain green. 
 Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously ; 
 
 1 See Hodgkin's Italy and her Invaders, vol. vii, and Liber Pontificalis, 
 splendidly edited by the AbbS Duchesne. 
 
 1 Par. xx, 56, and Inf. xix, 115 (transl. by Milton). 
 
 304 
 
Pi 
 m 
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 to 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 tn 
 O 
 
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 Q 
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CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 This was that gift (if you the truth will have) 
 That Constantino to good Sylvestro gave. 1 
 
 And the claims made by the Popes on the strength of Pipin's 
 Donation as confirmed by Charles were, as we shall see, scarcely 
 less impudent. 
 
 (2) The Donation of Pipin and Charles 
 
 We have seen how Pipin, father of Charles the Great, 
 in the year 751 assumed the royal title on the advice of 
 Pope Zacharias, who commissioned St. Boniface, the English 
 Apostle of Germany, to crown him, and how the successor of 
 Zacharias, Pope Stephen II, finding his appeals to Astulf of 
 no avail, crossed the Alps and during the first six months 
 of 754 was the guest of the Frank king at the abbey of 
 St. Denys, near Paris. We have also seen how Pipin made him 
 the explicit promise ' to restore the cities of the Exarchate and 
 the other places and rights ' which had been appropriated by 
 the Lombards ; and this promise he is said to have solemnly 
 renewed and ratified (perhaps in writing) in the presence of an 
 assembly of his nobles held at Quierzy (called Carisiacus in 
 the Liber), near Iyaon. 2 Stephen then crowned Pipin in the 
 church of St. Denys — this second coronation being probably 
 the confirmation of his title as hereditary monarch — and a 
 short time after the ceremony he accompanied the king and 
 his army to Italy, where the recalcitrant Astulf was obliged 
 to surrender, and promised restoration of all his robberies. 
 
 But as soon as Pipin had recrossed the Alps the wily I/om- 
 bard refused to keep his word, and even (as happened later in 
 the case of Desiderius and Hadrian) threatened Rome itself. 
 Many letters are now exchanged between Pipin and Stephen — 
 the appeals of the Pope becoming more and more pitiful, till 
 at last the Frank king returns and exacts from Astulf the 
 cession of all the territories in question. Hereupon the keys 
 of all the ceded cities (some twenty in number) are given over 
 
 1 Orl. Fur. xxxiv, 80 (transl. by Milton). 
 
 2 The Liber says that the princes Charles and Carlmann joined their father 
 in ' making this promise ' at Carisiacus (i, 498). 
 
 u 305 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 to the Pope, together with a formal act of Donation ' to God's 
 Apostle, to his Vicar, the most holy Pope, and to all his suc- 
 cessors.' This Donation, together with the keys, was placed 
 in the ' Confessio ' of St. Peter's at Rome, and was, it is asserted, 
 the same document which was read to and confirmed by 
 Charles in 774. The original manuscript has not survived, nor 
 has any one of the copies that Charles is said to have ordered to 
 be made ; but we need not doubt that it and they actually 
 existed, for we have the testimony of the writer of Hadrian's 
 life in the Liber, who was apparently present at the ceremony 
 and saw the copy of the charter that was hung up in the 
 * Confessio ' of St. Peter's tomb. 1 
 
 It is, however, very difficult to feel any certainty as regards 
 the contents of the newly confirmed Donation ; and still more 
 difficult is it to feel sure of the exact interpretation of what 
 is cited from it by the biographer of Hadrian in the Pontifical 
 Book. The new promise (alia promissio) of Charles was 
 probably on the same lines as Pipin's Quierzy charter (ad instar 
 anterioris, says the Liber) ; but that is not a question of so 
 much importance, for in any case the promise of Charles was 
 valid enough and needed no precedent. The really important 
 matter is to feel sure about three other points. Firstly, is 
 the Pontifical Book trustworthy as regards the cities and 
 territories ceded, or does the writer only intimate what papal 
 avarice and ambition claimed ? Secondly, to whom was the 
 territory ceded ? Thirdly, were these cities and territories 
 merely recognized as patrimonies, i.e. as containing buildings 
 and estates which were admittedly Church property, and from 
 which the ecclesiastical authorities might legally exact Church 
 dues ; or were they handed over with sovran rights, thus 
 being alienated from the dominions of the Frank king (and 
 the new Empire) and forming not so much an imperium in 
 imperio as actually a separate and independent kingdom ? 
 
 To these three questions I think we may answer that if the 
 
 1 I fully accept Abbe 1 Duchesne's conviction that this life of Hadrian is a 
 contemporary document. Por the fictitious Donation of I,ouis the Pious, 
 said to be a copy of Pipin's, see p. 314. 
 
 306 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT IN ROME 
 
 amount of territory ceded by Pipin and Charles was actually 
 what the Liber states, it included Corsica, I^unigiana, Parma, 
 Mantua, Reggio, universum Exarchatum Ravennatium, pro- 
 vincias Venetiarum et Istriae, necnon et cunctum ducatum 
 Spoletinum et Beneventinum — in fact, much the same as ' all 
 the provinces, places, and cities of Italy ' that figure in the 
 forged Constantine Donation. Now if all this was given 
 over to the Church or the Pope with sovran rights, and if 
 the Frank king really intended (as Constantine's ' Donation ' 
 phrases it) that the most sacred seat of St. Peter should be 
 gloriously exalted above all terrestrial thrones, one may 
 well ask what Charles meant to keep for himself south of the 
 Alps ! But that Charles — the rex Longobardorum — meant to 
 keep all — or very nearly all — his new Italian dominions is 
 clear enough, and that he merely undertook to defend the 
 interests of the Church as regards its private property, its 
 revenues and ecclesiastical privileges, in these ' donated ' 
 territories seems very likely indeed. Only a few years after 
 his ' Donation ' we find him acting as if he alone were the liege- 
 lord of all Italy — except possibly Rome and the Roman duchy 
 — and that this was allowed by the Pope himself is graphically 
 illustrated by the fact that at the same time (c. yyy) as Hadrian 
 was quoting Constantine's Donation to prove his claims to 
 vast domains in North Italy he was obliged to beg leave from 
 Charles before he ventured to cut down in the Spoletan hills 
 a few trees which he wanted in order to repair the roof of 
 St. Peter's basilica. And if it be objected that on his later visits 
 to Rome, in 781 and 787, Charles ' renewed his concessions,' 
 it may be answered that on these occasions he did nothing 
 to show that he conceded any sovran rights to the Pope, 
 even allowing that he asked him to crown the young Pipin as 
 King of Italy, a fact that was doubtless interpreted by Hadrian 
 as an acknowledgment of his sovranty in Italy. The fact 
 is that Charles had long ago judged Hadrian to be entirely 
 incapable of asserting any temporal authority north of the 
 Apennines. The ' renewed concessions ' merely amounted to 
 certain extensions of the Roman duchy, which was now allowed 
 
 3°7 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 to include the fractious little town of Tuscania — or Toscanella 
 t— of which we have spoken in another chapter. 
 
 As regards our second question — to whom was the territory 
 ceded ? — it is instructive, and somewhat amusing, to remark 
 how Pope Stephen II in his letters to Pipin and to Astulf first 
 writes as if these cities and territories were to be restored to 
 the Empire ; then we find that they are to be restored to 
 ' Rome,' or the ' Roman Republic ' ; a little later the phrase 
 has become " restoration to St. Peter ' ; and finally We slide into 
 the full acknowledgment that the whole of the Exarchate and 
 Pentapolis and all these other territories and cities are claimed 
 with sovran rights by ' Holy Church ' and by her supreme 
 pontiff and his successors to all eternity. 
 
 NOTE ON THE BYZANTINE EMPERORS 
 
 800-1453 
 
 Since through the usurpation of the diadem by Irene and the 
 coronation of Charles by the Pope Rome has once more become 
 in Italy the generally acknowledged capital of the Empire, 
 there will be less reason than ever to divert our attention from 
 Italy in order to follow closely the fortunes of the so-called 
 Byzantine Emperors. But there will still be occasions when 
 we shall need to cast a glance in this direction, so that a few 
 words on the subject of the later Eastern (Byzantine) Empire 
 may prove useful. 
 
 Six hundred and fifty-three years elapsed between the 
 revival of the Roman Empire in 800 and the capture of 
 Constantinople by the Turks. During this interval some 
 fifty-five so-called Emperors of various dynasties reigned 
 at Constantinople. For about four centuries after the days 
 of Irene the obscure annals of this Byzantine Empire offer 
 little of interest (though more than Gibbon thought), and 
 nothing of much importance for the student of Italian history 
 except that the influences of the Byzantine school on the art of 
 Southern Italy is a subject that opens up some alluring vistas. 
 308 
 
EASTERN EMPIRE 800-1453 
 In 1202-4 Constantinople was taken by the combined forces 
 of the Western Crusaders and the Venetians, and after the 
 city had been barbarously sacked the Count of Flanders, 
 Baldwin, was set on the throne, of the Eastern Emperors. 
 Five other ' Iyatin ' Emperors 1 succeeded him. Meanwhile 
 three little offshoots of the Byzantine Empire had struck root. 
 There was an ' Emperor ' at Thessalonica, another at Nicaea, 
 in Asia Minor, and a third at Trapezus (Trebizond), on the 
 distant eastern shores of the Euxine. One of the Nicaean 
 
 Coin of Michabi, Palaeologus 
 See p. xxvii 
 
 ' Emperors,' Vatatzes by name, conquered the ' Empire ' of 
 Thessalonica and possessed himself of Macedonia and Thrace, 
 and in 1260-1 one of his successors, Michael Palaeologus, 
 captured Constantinople and expelled Baldwin II, the ' Iyatin ' 
 Emperor, and founded a dynasty which survived till the coming 
 of the Turks, when the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine 
 Palaeologus, was slain. The accounts, as retold by Gibbon 
 and others, of these ' Roman Empires ' of Nicaea and Trebizond 
 in the far East are exceedingly picturesque. At Trebizond 
 an Emperor Alexius handed down to his successors the great 
 imperial name of the Comneni. The court of Trebizond was 
 famous for its wealth and semi-Oriental luxury, and for the 
 beauty of the imperial princesses. From time to time this 
 Trebizond Empire was subject to the Sultan of Rum (Iconium), 
 and to the Seljuks and Mongols and Turcomans, and finally 
 
 1 Several of these so-called Latin. Emperors of Constantinople were Cour- 
 tenays, about whose English descendants Gibbon gives a long ' Digression ' 
 (ch. lxi). Peter Courtenay was the only Eastern Emperor crowned by a 
 Pope at Rome. 
 
 309 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 it was vanquished by a general of Mohammed II, the conqueror 
 of Constantinople. 
 
 The state of things at Constantinople itself — how after its 
 devastation by the I,atin Crusaders it again became the richest 
 and most civilized city in Europe and the home of art and 
 learning— is vividly described by Gibbon in some of the later 
 chapters of his Decline and Fall. 
 
 310 
 
PART IV 
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 800-1190 
 
 THE political history of Italy during the four centuries 
 on which we are now entering divides itself into three 
 periods. First we have (800-962) the Carolingian 
 Emperors and the so-called Italian kings, some of whom were 
 crowned as ' Emperors ' ; then we have, in 962, what we may 
 regard as a new construction — that of the so-called Holy Roman 
 Empire — reared on the foundations of the ancient Empire by 
 Saxon and Franconian monarchs ; then (1125-90) a period 
 that covers the reigns of the two Hohenstaufen Fredericks 
 and ends with the rise of the Italian republics and the fusion 
 of the Norman and German monarchies. The first of these 
 periods is, after the death of Charles the Great in 814, a dreary 
 tract. The chronicles of these pious, gross, or imbecile 
 Carolingian Emperors and the scarcely less uninteresting or 
 contemptible ' Italian ' rulers present a most perplexing and 
 wearisome maze of political and dynastic complications, of 
 fightings of son against father, of brother against brother, 
 of miserable wars and tumults and bloodshed and malice 
 and superstition and treachery and vice. Doubtless, if we 
 knew more about the real history of Italy during this period 
 ^-the history of the real Italian people, their thoughts and 
 feelings and ways of life, their language, their literature, and 
 their art ; if we could trace more clearly the early growth of 
 the Italian republics, their trade and their passionate love of 
 liberty and municipal independence ; if we could observe more 
 closely the gradual self-assertion, in the face of arrogant 
 military and ecclesiastical castes, of the nobility of work and 
 
 311 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of manhood, by which feudalism was finally driven out of its 
 strongholds ; if we could learn more of the great and good 
 men and women whose individuality is buried under the 
 mouldy chronicles of Popes and Emperors, those of us who are 
 not merely antiquarians or political historians would find 
 the period interesting enough. But its chroniclers give us 
 little except a record of all that is vilest and most despicable 
 in human nature, as exemplified in the persons of foreign 
 over-lords and of rival claimants of kingly and imperial titles, 
 or as exhibited at the courts of crafty, dissolute, and ambitious 
 pontiffs of the Roman Church. 
 
 Across this desolate and malarious expanse I shall hasten 
 and shall give only a kind of rough chart of the astounding 
 labyrinth of events that compose its political and ecclesiastical 
 history ; but I shall indulge in somewhat fuller detail when we 
 reach the days of the Normans and the momentous epochs 
 of Otto the Great and Frederick Barbarossa. The lists of 
 Emperors, Kings, and Popes, and the genealogical tables, 
 will supply a clue for the disentanglement of dynastic re- 
 lationships and other such complications, so that it will be 
 possible to take much for granted when treating, in later 
 chapters, such subjects as the rise of the Communes and the 
 development of Romanesque architecture. 
 
 (i) The Carolingians (800-888) 
 
 The narrative of historical events given in Part III left off 
 with the coronation of Charles at Rome on Christmas Day of the 
 year 800. As Emperor he reigned for thirteen years and one 
 month, dying on January 28, 814. Some of his characteristics 
 have been already mentioned ; in a later chapter more will 
 be said about his personality, his influence, and his methods 
 of government ; the following facts will therefore suffice for 
 our present purpose. 
 
 The vast extent of the new Empire and the great diversity 
 of the many nations that were included within it, held together 
 without cohesion by external pressure, foredoomed it to speedy 
 dissolution. Charles was a great leader and a great soldier, 
 312 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 but not a great Empire-builder — un grandissimo condottiero, 
 as Villari says, senza un vero genio orgtmizzatore. Moreover, 
 the German hereditary system, under which the monarch 
 was regarded as the personal owner of the realm and generally 
 divided his dominions among several heirs — a system which 
 had proved so fatal to the older Frank kingdom — was 
 adopted by Charles, fondly hoping by this means to pre- 
 vent his sons from quarrelling. His children, legitimate and 
 illegitimate, had been no less than fifteen in number, but he 
 regarded the three sons of his wife Hildegard, namely Charles, 
 Pipin (formerly Carlmann), and Louis, as his heirs, and by a 
 formal testament drawn up in 806 he had apportioned France 
 (i.e. Austrasia and Neustria), Italy, and Aquitaine to these 
 three respectively. But Pipin, as we have seen, died at 
 Milan x after his unsuccessful siege of Venice in 810, and 
 his brother Charles died in the following year. Thus the 
 contemplated division of the Empire, after all, did not 
 take place, and the weak and superstitious Louis, named 
 'the Pious,' or 'the Good-tempered' (le Debonnaire) , was 
 formally crowned as co-Emperor by his father at Aachen 2 
 and in the following year succeeded as sole heir to the 
 imperial throne. 
 
 Louis the Pious soon showed his character by entreating 
 the new Pope, Stephen IV, to come all the way to Reims to 
 re-crown him. Now this Pope, like several other Popes, had 
 not troubled himself about obtaining for his own consecration 
 the imperial sanction on which Charles the Great had so strongly 
 insisted ; but in spite of this the new Emperor not only re- 
 garded himself as still uncrowned without the papal unction, 
 but prostrated himself thrice before the Pontiff on his arrival 
 at Reims — a fact well worth remembering in view of the 
 
 ' His epitaph is to be seen in S. Ambrogio. 
 
 2 This was done solely with consent of the nobles of the realm and without 
 any reference to Pope I<eo III, whose shameless insistence on Constantine's 
 Donation and whose extravagant interpretation of that of Pipin had evidently 
 annoyed Charles. The Emperor himself set the crown on his son's head, or 
 he perhaps bade him take it from the altar and set it on his own head — ' a 
 significant hint,' says Gregorovius, ' for all his successors.' 
 
 313 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 future strife on the subject of Investiture. Moreover, when 
 on Stephen's death Pope Paschal was hurriedly consecrated 
 before the imperial sanction had time to arrive, Louis not 
 only once more ignored the affront, but graciously granted 
 a Donation similar to that granted by Pipin, confirming 
 (if the document be genuine) all former territorial gifts and 
 conferring on the Church sovran authority over vast territories 
 as well as entire freedom from imperial interference in regard 
 to papal elections. Somewhat curiously, these pious con- 
 cessions were ere long followed by what seems an act of impiety 
 towards the Supreme Father in God, for i/ouis, imitating his 
 father according to the flesh, with his own hands placed the 
 imperial crown on his son I/Othair's head in the cathedral at 
 Aachen, and assigned to his two younger sons, Pipin and 
 Louis (the German), Aquitaine and Bavaria — apparently 
 without troubling himself in the least about the question of 
 papal unction. 
 
 Although IyOthair was thus co-Emperor with his father, he 
 had as Emperor (so empty x had the title become) nothing to 
 do as yet with Rome or Italy. His youthful cousin, the 
 illegitimate son of Pipin, Bernard by name, had been made 
 King of Italy, for which title he was obliged to do homage. 
 But, resenting such vassalage, the young prince rebelled. 
 Hereupon he was speedily overmastered, and so cruelly blinded 
 by his pious uncle Louis that he died. 
 
 Lothair was then made King of Italy in his stead, and 
 accepted the invitation of Pope Paschal that he should have 
 his imperial title confirmed at Rome by the imposition of the 
 papal hands. But how little he was inclined to allow the papal 
 claims to sovranty, or even to judiciary power in Rome itself, 
 is proved by the fact that he set up there his imperial tribunal 
 and as supreme judge decided a case against Pope Paschal. 
 This determined step, to which Lothair was guided rather by 
 
 1 The title used by Carolingian and Saxon Emperors was Imp. Aug. with 
 the addition Rex Francorum et Longobardorum (the latter after coronation 
 with the Iron Crown of Lombardy). I,ater it was, before coronation with the 
 golden tiara at Rome, Romanorum Rex semper Aug., and afterwards Romanorum 
 Imp. semper Aug. 
 
 3H 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 the example of his grandfather than by the influence of his 
 weak and bigoted father, was undoubtedly in the right direction, 
 and had it been followed up vigorously by himself and his 
 successors might have prevented the miseries that for centuries 
 were caused by the lust of the Papacy for temporal power. 1 
 As it happened, the co-Emperor was not strong enough to beard 
 the Pope in his own den. As soon as he (Lothair) left Rome 
 some of Paschal's adversaries were arrested and put to death, 
 probably by papal orders — and when envoys arrived from the 
 indignant Emperor to inquire into the matter the crafty 
 pontiff foiled them by a well-known ruse and solemnly asserted 
 before a public assembly in the Lateran his entire innocence, 
 at the same time stating boldly that his enemies had perished 
 as traitors (velut majestatis reos). 
 
 Thus Iyothair's well-meant attempt merely resulted in per- 
 manently dividing the Roman people into the two factions 
 whose hostility was later marshalled under the names of 
 Guelf and Ghibelline. So bitter already was this hostility that 
 when Pope Paschal died it proved impossible to bury him in 
 St. Peter's, and the tumults at the election of his successor 
 were so furious that once more I/othair was sent by his father 
 to restore peace. On this occasion (824) he published a Con- 
 stitutio which ordered the residence in Rome of an imperial 
 envoy (missus) and made the imperial sanction necessary 
 before the consecration of a Pope. 
 
 Ermengard, the wife of lyouis the Pious, had died in 818, 
 and i/ouis had been with difficulty dissuaded from retiring 
 to a monastery ; but ere long he married again and soon 
 stood helpless under the fascinations of his second wife, the 
 Bavarian princess Judith ; and when in course of time her 
 young son, afterwards Charles the Bald, seemed likely to out- 
 rival in princely prospects his elder brothers and to contest 
 
 1 That there were among the Popes some vigorous and wise rulers, and a 
 few really good men, will become evident as we proceed ; but no words 
 can state too forcibly that the ideals of the Roman pontiffs were not those of 
 the Pounder of Christianity. History has to regard the medieval Papacy, 
 not as a Christian influence, but as a purely temporal power, and one that 
 possessed unfair advantages by its hold on the superstitions of humanity. 
 
 315 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 their birthrights, a disastrous family feud was the result. The 
 three elder sons, Lothair, Pipin, and Louis the German, com- 
 bined and succeeded in putting their stepmother into prison ; 
 they also nearly forced their father into a monastery. But 
 the people interfered ; the queen was liberated, and the weak 
 old king was reinstated. He died however shortly after- 
 wards (840) and straightway the three brothers (for Pipin was 
 dead) turned their weapons against each other, until at Verdun 
 they made an agreement by which Charles the Bald retained 
 France, Louis Germany, and Lothair Italy together with a 
 belt of country dividing France from Germany and extending 
 from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Rhone. This 
 curious strip of dominion, with its two capitals of Aachen and 
 Aries, he named Lotharingia, and a part of it still retains the 
 name (Lothringen, Lorraine). 
 
 Let us now leave the dynastic squabbles of these Carolingians 
 and turn our attention more closely to what was going on in 
 Italy itself during Lothair's reign. In the north of the penin- 
 sula, although various cities, of which Venice was the most 
 conspicuous, had gained a large measure of independence, the 
 Frank monarch who called himself ' King of Italy ' was a real 
 ruler. In Rome, too, as we have seen, he succeeded to some 
 extent in upholding against the Papacy his imperial rights. 
 But in the south and centre this same self-styled ' Rex Longo- 
 bardorum ' had only a shadow of authority over the Lombard 
 duchy of Spoleto and not even this over the duchy of Benevento. 1 
 
 1 A few years later (871) the ' Emperor ' Louis II, after capturing Bari 
 from the Saracens, was himself captured, together with his queen and retinue, 
 by the Duke of Benevento, who held him a prisoner for a month and made 
 him swear never again to enter the duchy. This ' unheard-of" profanation * 
 of the sanctity of the imperial dignity, as Gregorovius from his Teutonic 
 standpoint regards it, seems to have excited much ridicule and not a little 
 malicious jubilation among the many Italian enemies of the Frankish-Roman 
 Empire. For a popular ballad composed on this occasion see Part V, ch. iv. 
 It is worthy of remark that just before this ' profanation ' took place Louis 
 had answered a sneering letter from the Eastern ' Emperor ' (who refused to 
 acknowledge his titles) by a slashing attack on the claims of the Byzantine 
 ' Roman Emperors ' and a vehement assertion of his own rights. * Know 
 thou,' he writes, ' that if We were not Imperator Romanorum We could not 
 be Imperator Francorum ; for from the Romans We received this name and 
 this dignity.' 
 
 316 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 Besides, there were not a few of the southern cities, such as 
 Salerno and Capua, which not only refused to recognize the 
 Frankish supremacy, but were asserting their independence 
 against their Iyombard over-lords, or which, like Naples and 
 Amalfi, were shaking off Byzantine domination and acquiring 
 autonomy. 
 
 As had been the case with the Lombards, the incompleteness 
 of the Frank conquest precluded all possibility of the uni- 
 fication of Italy. Her disunion, though immeasurably less of 
 a misfortune than would have been her absorption in the 
 Germanic race, had the disadvantage of exposing her to foreign 
 invaders, as it has ever exposed her until our own days ; and no 
 small part in the present act of our drama is played once more 
 by invaders — invaders very different from the Arian Goths 
 and Vandals, or the Catholic Franks, or even the heathen 
 Huns. The Mohammedans or ' Saracens ' of Arabia and North 
 Africa, of whom we have already heard, had spread their 
 conquests with consternating rapidity over the whole of the 
 southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, had mastered 
 most of Spain, and would have mastered all Western Europe 
 but for the crushing defeat inflicted on them at Tours by 
 Charles Martel in 732. During the next century they con- 
 stantly infested the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, and South Italy, 
 committing the most audacious acts of piracy and devastation, 
 sometimes in alliance with Christian cities that called on them 
 for aid against their Christian adversaries. In 827 a Byzantine 
 general, Euphemius by name, having incited an unsuccessful 
 insurrection in Sicily, fled to Africa and there persuaded the 
 Saracens to send across a fleet of 100 vessels with some 10,000 
 fighters to occupy Sicily. Ill-fortune attended them at first ; 
 defeats and pestilence decimated them ; but large reinforce- 
 ments were sent, and after a long and terrible investment they 
 captured Palermo — whose population, it is said, was reduced 
 in course of the siege from 70,000 to 3000. From Sicily the 
 Saracens then began to make bold descents on the coastlands 
 of Southern Italy, and their audacity was encouraged by the 
 treasonable collusion of various Italian cities, amongst which 
 
 317 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Naples seems to have won special infamy by actually helping 
 the Moslems to capture Messina. 
 
 To protect Rome itself against these Moslems Pope Gregory IV 
 (in the reign of Lothair) thought it necessary to build a new 
 town 1 at Ostia and to fortify it very strongly, placing powerful 
 ballistae on the ramparts. But the Saracens nevertheless 
 forced their way up the Tiber (846) and sacked the country 
 up to the walls of the city, plundering and desecrating the two 
 great extra-mural basilicas of St. Paul and St. Peter. The 
 Anglo-Saxons, Franks, and other strangers who had their 
 ' colonies ' in the Borgo, were overcome, and a desperate fight 
 took place on the Vatican bridge ; but finally the infidels were 
 repulsed by the Romans with the help of Lombard troops 
 from Spoleto. The alarm caused by this audacious exploit 
 determined Lothair and the Pope, the energetic and martial 
 Leo IV, to enclose the Borgo 2 with walls, and this quarter 
 was henceforth known as the Leonine City (CittA Leonina). 
 
 While these new walls were rising (that is to say in 849) 
 there took place a very important naval battle off Ostia — 
 a battle as momentous perhaps as that of Salamis or Chalons 
 or Tours. The Neapolitans, who had found reason to repent 
 of their alliance with the Moslems, wiped off their disgrace 
 by boldly attacking a powerful Saracen fleet that was threaten- 
 ing Ostia, and aided by a storm, which wrecked many of 
 the enemy's vessels, they took an immense number of cap- 
 tives, many of whom were forced to work at building the 
 walls of the Leonine City. A splendidly conceived but rather 
 
 1 Partus, on the north outlet of the Tiber, had for centuries outrivalled the 
 old Ostia on the south arm, but its access to the sea had got choked and 
 Ostia was again used. Gregory's New Ostia lies behind the ruins of the 
 ancient town. The Portus arm was reopened in 1612 and Ostia was again 
 deserted ; but Porto is now a mile and a half from the seashore, where there 
 is the fashionable bathing-place Fiumicino. 
 
 2 A year or so after this Saracen scare the general consternation was increased 
 by an earthquake and then by the great Incendio del Borgo, which annihilated 
 the wooden dwellings of the Saxons and Lombards and destroyed the portico 
 of St. Peter's. It was stayed by Leo — whom in Raff ad's fresco one sees 
 making the sign of the Cross. By the way, Ethelwulf and his little son Alfred 
 (later King Alfred) spent a year in Rome about 853-54, and contributed liberally 
 to the rebuilding of the Saxon quarters. 
 
 318 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 blood-curdling fresco designed by Raffael and executed by 
 Giov. da Udine represents Leo IV (or rather Leo X !) at Ostia, 
 blessing with uplifted hand the massacre of Saracen captives. 
 We must, however, try to remember that the scene is not 
 historically correct, for Leo is said to have held a supplicatory 
 service in S. Aurea, the Ostian basilica, the day before the battle 
 and to have returned at once to Rome. 
 
 [Before leaving the subject of the Saracens it may be well to 
 glance forward and note that for many years they continued 
 to hold Sicily and to harry Southern Italy. They made Bari 
 their chief stronghold and devastated the whole of Apulia, 
 Calabria, and even Campania right up to the gates of Salerno. 
 In 888 they destroyed the great Benedictine abbey of Monte 
 Cassino, as has been related in a former chapter. From time 
 to time they were severely punished. Louis II actually 
 captured Bari and made prisoner the Saracen ' Sultan.' The 
 so-called Emperor Guido (c. 890) cut them to pieces and razed 
 a strong military camp that they had built on the Garigliano 
 (Liris), and when this camp was rebuilt it was again utterly 
 destroyed by the allied states of South Italy in the reign of 
 Berengar (915). But they did not cease to be a constant 
 source of danger and humiliation and caused even the Saxon 
 Emperors much trouble. Indeed Otto III was badly beaten 
 by them and very nearly perished in the battle. The Saracens 
 of Spain, moreover, for many years harried the northern coasts. 
 They mastered Provence and Sardinia and devastated the 
 marina of Liguria, Tuscany, and Latium, on one occasion 
 burning to the ground a part of the city of Pisa. Finally, these 
 Spanish Saracens were vanquished by the Pisan fleets, and 
 those of Sicily and South Italy were conquered and assimilated 
 by the Normans, as we shall hear later.] 
 
 In 855 both Lothair and Pope Leo died — the former in a 
 monastery, to which he had withdrawn, leaving his throne 
 to his son Louis II, who had some five years before been 
 crowned as co-Emperor. Leo was succeeded by Benedict III, 
 who was the candidate of the papal party and was chosen 
 against the votes of the official envoys and the express wish 
 
 319 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of the new Emperor — a very plain proof of the state of things 
 at Rome. 
 
 Although doubtless much of great importance for the future 
 of Italy was going on unobserved by chroniclers, the annals 
 of the twenty years during which I,ouis II reigned (855-75) 
 offer us scarcely anything of interest except the Emperor's 
 campaigns against the Saracens, which we have already noted, 
 and certain facts connected with the vigorous conduct of Pope 
 Nicholas I, of which the following are worth recounting. 
 Nicholas had been elected by imperial influence, but it was 
 not long before he was in vehement strife with I/Ouis, and the 
 total disregard of all ordinary, rules of honesty which seems to 
 have been almost always combined in the papal conscience 
 with other, not seldom admirably courageous, qualities, 
 induced him to use as a weapon of offence the notorious 
 ' Isidore Decretals,' a collection (compiled in France) of forged 
 decrees of fictitious Councils, by which the Roman pontiff was 
 given supremacy over all other bishops, and the ecclesiastical 
 authority (as in the famous Donations of Constantine and 
 Pipin) was made entirely independent of the civil power. After 
 this passage of arms with the Emperor Pope Nicholas turned 
 fiercely against the Archbishop of Ravenna, who, like many 
 of his predecessors, had assumed a somewhat defiant attitude 
 against Rome, and after a brief duel completely vanquished 
 him. Then he attacked the Patriarch of Constantinople and 
 widened the breach which finally ended in the rupture be- 
 tween the West and the East on the fiercely disputed Filioque 
 question — the question whether the Holy Ghost proceeds 
 from the Son as well as from the Father. Then he showed 
 his courage on a point of a less abstruse nature. The brother 
 of I,ouis II, I/Othair, king of Ivotharingia, had become deeply 
 enamoured of a lady called Waldrada, who exercised a daemonic 
 fascination over him, and whom he had actually caused to 
 be crowned in the place of his queen, Luitberga. It was a 
 case not unlike that of Anne Bullen, and in both cases the 
 Pope was doubtless on the right side. A Church Council at 
 Metz had sanctioned the divorce and blessed the new marriage, 
 320 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 and the Archbishops of Trier and of Coin came to Rome to urge 
 their views ; but Pope Nicholas for three weeks refused them 
 audience and then deposed and excommunicated both of them. 
 
 Thereupon Emperor Louis, who was at Benevento on a 
 campaign against the Saracens, in great indignation marched 
 upon Rome and occupied the Civitas Leonina. Pope Nicholas 
 adopted a policy of passive resistance. He entered St. Peter's 
 basilica and for two whole days knelt fasting before the high 
 altar ; and in the end he triumphed, for Louis fell ill of Roman 
 fever and returned to the north without having effected any- 
 thing ; and Lothair died a few years later, after making vain 
 and humiliating efforts to procure from the successor of Pope 
 Nicholas the recognition of Waldrada as queen. 
 
 When Louis II died at Brescia in 875 his two uncles, Louis 
 the German king and Charles the Bald of France, who had 
 already seized on Lothair's dominions, were rival claimants 
 for the kingship of Italy and the imperial title, and it is 
 interesting to note that on this occasion, instead of a self- 
 crowned Emperor, we have the matter decided by the Pope — 
 the energetic and ambitious John VIII — and by the Italian 
 magnates. Certain it is that Charles was invited — almost 
 summoned — to Rome by John in order to receive papal corona- 
 tion as Emperor, and that he obeyed and immediately after- 
 wards proceeded to Pavia, where in the presence of a great 
 council of Italian nobles and prelates he was crowned by the. 
 Archbishop of Milan with the Lombard Iron Crown as King 
 of Italy. The two years of the reign of Charles the Bald are 
 marked by nothing but his perpetual fightings against his 
 nephews, the sons of Louis the German (one of whom, Charles 
 the Fat, succeeded him) and by renewed troubles with the 
 Saracens, who, although defeated off the Circeian Cape by 
 an Italian fleet commanded by Pope John in person, ravaged 
 the Roman territory and, aided once more by the treacherous 
 Neapolitans, threatened Rome itself. 1 
 
 1 Pope John VIII tried to rival I,eo IV by building walls to include S. Paolo 
 fuori le mura and by calling the new quarter Johannipolis — but walls and 
 name soon disappeared. 
 
 x 321 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 On the death of Charles the Bald in 877 there followed a 
 dismal period of four years of petty wars, during which there 
 was no Emperor. The claimants were the son of Charles, 
 l/ouis the Stammerer (le Begue), and his three cousins, the 
 sons of i/ouis the German. One of these, Carlmann, was 
 made King of Italy, and on his death in 879 his brother Charles 
 the Fat succeeded him and was finally crowned Emperor in 
 881. As all his rivals x had died, Charles the Fat not much 
 later became also king of Germany and of France (that is, of 
 the East and the West Frank kingdoms) and was thus monarch 
 of almost the whole of the former Empire of Charles the Great. 
 But his stupid incompetence proved no less remarkable than 
 his bodily grossness, and an assembly of nobles held at Tribur, 
 near Mainz, deposed him in 887, and in the next year he 
 died. Thus after eighty-eight years the hereditary dynasty of 
 Carolingian princes who called themselves Kings of Italy 
 and Emperors of the Romans came practically to an end, 
 although, as we shall see, some of the kings and so-called 
 Emperors of the following obscure and tempestuous period 
 were illegitimately (as Arnulf) or through the female line 
 (as Berengar and I/Ouis) connected with the stock of Charles 
 the Great. 
 
 (2) So-called Italian Kings and Emperors (888-962) 
 
 The degradation of the imperial and kingly dignity was due 
 to numerous causes. One was the degeneracy of the Caro- 
 lingian princes ; another the fatal family feuds that multiplied 
 like hydra-heads ; another the usurpation of civil authority 
 by the Pope and the bishops ; another the exhausting and 
 often vain struggles against external foes, such as the Saracens, 
 to whom were soon to be added the Hungarians and the 
 Normans ; and, lastly, a very important cause was the rapidly 
 growing independence not only of various city communes, such 
 
 1 A rival still existed in the person of Boson, Duke of Vienne, who, favoured 
 by Pope John VIII, had founded a new kingship in Provence and South Bur- 
 gundy, with the city of Aries as capital. He married a granddaughter of 
 Lothair I, and his son, Louis III, afterwards became ' Emperor ' for a brief 
 space. 
 
 322 
 
LJNEAGE OF THE CAROUNGlANS 
 
 (AS FAR AS ITAI.Y IS CONCERNED) 
 
 N.B. For the ancestors of Charles see p. 250. 
 
 The Emperors are numbered. 
 
 i. Charles the Great 
 b. 742, d. 814; 
 m. Hildegard 1 
 
 Charles Carlmann 
 
 d. 811 Rebaptized as Pipin 2 and 
 crowned K. of Italy 781 ; 
 d. 810 at Milan 
 
 2. Louis I, the Pious 
 (or le D6bonnaire) 
 
 m. Ermengard 
 
 Bernard 
 
 ft. of Italy 
 
 d. 818 
 
 m. Judith 
 I 
 
 3- Lothair 
 6. 796; d. 855 
 
 Pipin Louis the German 5. Charles the Bald 
 
 K. of Aquitaine K. of Bavaria; b. 823; d. 877 
 817-38 d. 876 j 
 
 4. Louis II, the Young Pipin 
 
 d. 875 K. of Aquitaine 
 
 839-53 
 
 Louis the 
 
 Stammerer 
 
 d. 879 
 
 Ermengard 
 m. Boson of Provence 
 
 8. I^uisIII 
 Emp. 901-4 
 
 Carlmann 
 d. 879 
 
 I 
 
 7. Amulf 
 
 (illegitimate) 
 
 d. 899 
 
 6. Charles the Fat 3 
 K. of Italy 879; 
 K. of Germany 
 and France 882 ; 
 
 Emp. 881 ; 
 dep. 887; d. 888 
 
 1 Charles m. later Fastrada. He had altogether about fifteen children. 
 
 2 A hunchback half-brother, also called Pipin, rebelled and was put into 
 a monastery (p. 242). 
 
 3 Legitimate Carolingians in Italy become extinct with the death of Charles 
 the Fat. In Germany the dynasty ends with the son of Arnulf, Louis the 
 Child, d. 911 ; in France with Louis V, le Faineant, poisoned in 987. 
 
 323 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 as Venice and Naples (to say nothing of Rome), but also of 
 the powerful feudatories of the crown, who in many cases had 
 founded hereditary duchies or marquisates and were naturally 
 inclined to aim still higher and to fight among themselves for 
 the crown of Italy, or even to grasp at the elusive phantom 
 of the imperial diadem. 
 
 The break-up of the Carolingian Empire was followed by 
 the gradual rise of two great and distinct nations, the French 
 and the German ; and for a time it seemed as if also Italy 
 might at length coalesce into a nation under native kings. 
 For this reason Italian writers are apt to linger somewhat 
 fondly over these so-called ' Italian ' dukes and marquesses, 
 and over what they call the regno d' Italia indipendente, whereas 
 by the German historian this period, during which Italy was 
 to a great extent free from Germanic domination, is often 
 regarded as almost too trivial or too degraded to deserve 
 description. 1 
 
 As I am making some observations in a later chapter on 
 the state of learning, religion, and art in Italy during the ninth 
 and tenth centuries, and as the fightings of rival claimants 
 to the crown of Italy are intrinsically of minimal importance, 
 T>shall give a very brief account of what is generally called 
 the history of this period. 
 
 In the case of Charles the Fat we noted that the election 
 to the imperial dignity seems to have become, for the time at 
 least, dependent on the Pope, and that the magnates, lay and 
 ecclesiastical, of Northern Italy had assumed the right to choose 
 or sanction their own king ; for they caused Charles to be 
 crowned at Pavia with the I^ombard crown by the Archbishop 
 of Milan. On his deposition it was therefore but natural that 
 these magnates should again choose their own king. Ignoring 
 the fact that Arnulf of Carinthia, a bastard Carolingian, had 
 
 1 Miiller, for instance, says not a word about this period except to mention 
 with praise the Germanic Arnulf and then to state the incidents that led 
 to the interference of Otto the Saxon. He labels the whole period of seventy- 
 three years as a Parteikampf zwischen grossen Familien, die zum Teil ihre 
 Verwandtschaft auf die Karolinger zuruckfiihrten . Gregorovius gives many 
 details about Rome at this epoch, but little else. 
 
 3H 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 been elected in the place of Charles as German king and re- 
 garded himself also as ipso facto King of Italy, they chose 
 Berengar, the Marquess of Friuli, 1 son of Gisela, a daughter of 
 Iyouis the Pious. 
 
 During the next thirty-seven years (888-925) Berengar, 
 recognized by a certain number of Italians as their king, had 
 to contend successively against five rival claimants, four of 
 whom succeeded in obtaining papal coronation as ' Emperors ' 
 before he himself attained that dignity in 915. The first of 
 these rivals was the Duke of Spoleto. How audaciously 
 independent these Lombard dukes of Southern Italy had 
 become we have already seen. While Iyouis II was still 
 Emperor and Hadrian II was Pope (in 867) the Spoletan duke, 
 Lambert, had suddenly invaded and plundered Rome. This 
 feat he repeated in 878, when he kept Pope John VIII a 
 prisoner for a month, endeavouring vainly to force him to 
 bestow the imperial title on Carlmann and using such threats 
 that the Pontiff, whom we have already admired for his martial 
 courage and his brilliant defeat of the Saracens, fled away 
 on a ship, betaking himself to Count (afterwards King) Boson 
 of Provence. 
 
 Now this Duke Lambert of Spoleto had a son Guido, whom 
 Charles the Fat deposed on a charge of treason, giving his 
 dukedom to Berengar of Friuli. But Guido had reinstated 
 himself by help of the Saracens, 2 and after defeating Berengar 
 on the river Trebia, near Pavia, had the Iron Crown set on his 
 own head as King of Italy, and two years later (891) was 
 crowned with the imperial diadem at St. Peter's in Rome, 
 although the Pope, Stephen V, was in secret collusion with a 
 third competitor, namely Arnulf of Carinthia, who, as the 
 successor of Charles the Fat north of the Alps, had all this time 
 
 1 Friuli (i.e. Forum Julii), in the north-east corner of Italy, was made by 
 Alboin into a Lombard duchy with Cividale as its capital. It was made into 
 a mark (marquisate) by Charles the Great, and extended to the Adige. 
 What claims Berengar had to be regarded as ' Italian ' it is difficult to say. 
 According to Villari (but not Gregorovius and others), Berengar was not 
 elected king till Arnulf' s death in 899. 
 
 ' ' It was an ill return that he made by annihilating their camp on the 
 Garigliano a few years later (see p. 319). 
 
 325 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 been asserting his claims to the kingship of Italy and also to 
 the title of Emperor. 1 
 
 Guido was not content with possessing the imperial title. 
 He wished to found an imperial dynasty by making also 
 his son, Lambert, an Emperor, and the notorious Eormosus, 
 who had succeeded to the papal throne, at first showed favour 
 to these ambitious projects and crowned I/ambert at Ravenna 
 as co-Emperor, but when after Guido's death Arnulf descended 
 (896) with a strong army into Italy and entered Rome the 
 weak-minded or crafty pontiff transferred his support from the 
 Spoletan to the German claimant, and, although he had already 
 set the imperial crown on Lambert's head, he now repeated 
 the ceremony in favour of his rival. 
 
 Arnulf, however, did not gain much from having attained 
 the object of his ambition, for while preparing to attack 
 I/ambert at Spoleto he was suddenly struck down by paralysis, 
 and though he lingered on for three years his political influence 
 in Italy was at an end. The revulsion of feeling at Rome 
 against the coronation of this ' barbarian ' and against the 
 Pope who had perpetrated this execrable unctio barbarica 
 was so strong that the corpse of Formosus was actually dis- 
 interred in order to be arraigned before a Synod — a scene 
 that will be described in a later chapter. I/ambert, on 
 the contrary, strongly supported by his ambitious mother 
 Agiltrud (the daughter of that Beneventan duke who took 
 Emperor i/ouis prisoner), rose greatly in popular favour, 
 and would probably have succeeded in outvying Berengar, 
 his one remaining rival, but in 898 he was killed by a fall 
 from his horse while hunting — or was, if another account is 
 the true one, assassinated. Thus Berengar was left without 
 competitors. 
 
 But his peaceful enjoyment of the title of King of Italy 
 was short-lived. A new and terrible enemy, the Magyars, as 
 they called themselves, or the Hun-ugri, as the Slavs called 
 them, of the same Oriental stock as the Huns and not unlike 
 
 1 It is noticeable that at first Berengar himself did homage to Arnulf for 
 the Italian crown. 
 
 326 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 them in their savagery and pitiless inhumanity, had advanced 
 in vast numbers from the Ural regions and now, finding 
 but little resistance in the Slav peoples, had already under 
 their chieftain Arpad seized on the country which from them 
 still bears the name of Hungary ; and they soon penetrated 
 into Germany, France, and Italy, making themselves for 
 half a century the terror of Europe, until in 955 they were 
 totally routed by the Emperor Otto I at the great battle of 
 Lechfeld. 1 
 
 It was in 899 that these Magyars came streaming down into 
 Italy. They inflicted such a defeat on Berengar near the river 
 Brenta that once more his adversaries took courage, and, 
 following the policy that brought such woes unnumber'd on 
 Italy, encouraged as claimant of the imperial crown an alien 
 prince, Louis, the son of 'King' Boson of Provence and of 
 Ermengard, the daughter of the Carolingian Louis II. The 
 young pretender, now King of Provence, responded to the 
 invitation ; he came to Rome and was actually crowned 
 Emperor by Pope John IX ; but Berengar boldly assailed 
 him and made him promise to go home and never again to 
 come to Italy, This promise, however, Louis broke, and in 
 904 he was captured by Berengar, who blinded him and sent 
 him back to Provence. 
 
 Once more Berengar had a period of uncontested kingship, 
 and in 915, having succeeded, together with Pope John X, 
 in forming a league of the Lombard duchies with Naples and 
 other cities for the object of annihilating the Saracen camp 
 on the Garigliano — an object that was attained — he was 
 acclaimed and crowned Emperor at Rome. Things now began 
 again to look as if Italy might ultimately attain peace and 
 unity under her own rulers ; but these native-born Kings and 
 Emperors were little to the mind of the Popes, who found 
 themselves confronted with ever-present control, and the 
 ambitious and unprincipled John X, shortly after he had set 
 the imperial diadem on the head of Berengar, began, like many 
 
 1 For these Magyars or Hungarians see Index. The modern Hungarians 
 are descended from them and not, as some assert, from the Huns, 
 
 327 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 of his predecessors and successors, to ' play the harlot/ 
 as Dante calls it, with foreign princes. He invited Rudolf, 
 king of trans- Juran Burgundy, to assume the kingship of 
 Italy, and actually set the Iron Crown on his head at Pavia 
 in 922. Thereupon Berengar, reduced to great straits, had 
 recourse to the still less praiseworthy expedient of inviting 
 his old enemies, the Magyars, to re-invade Italy. This they 
 did — but, instead of helping Berengar, they betook them- 
 selves to plundering the country. They set fire to Pavia, 
 and then in large marauding bands they spread southwards 
 as far as Rome. Meanwhile" Berengar had succeeded with- 
 out their aid in beating Rudolf and driving him back to 
 Burgundy ; but shortly afterwards (924) he was murdered 
 at Verona, it is said by an intimate friend, Flambert, 
 who had already conspired against him and had been par- 
 doned. 1 
 
 During the next thirty-seven years there was no Emperor. 
 That which had once signified world-wide Empire had become 
 an empty title affected by Byzantine rulers, or conferred by 
 Popes on Germanic monarchs, or Provencal princes, or Lombard 
 dukes. The non-existence of an Imperator Romanorum in 
 Italy for more than the third of a century was a matter of 
 small moment, for it is the reality behind such names that lends 
 them their only importance, and whatever importance attaches 
 itself to the later ' Holy Roman Empire ' is due not to unbroken 
 succession, but entirely to the political and personal importance 
 of the Germanic monarchs who, more or less with the sanction 
 of the Roman people, assumed the imperial title. The original 
 Imperium Romanum had come to an end before the sixth 
 century, and the only right that medieval and modern Im- 
 peratores Romanorum had to their title was the right of might, 
 or the right possessed by the Romans (and in some cases 
 perhaps by the Popes as representatives of the Roman people) 
 to revive and confer that title as they liked. But while it 
 
 1 He had risen early to attend Mass at a church near to his palace — doubt- 
 less the little church of SS. Siro e libera, still existing near the remains of 
 Theoderic's palace. 
 
 328 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 must be allowed that the imperial dignity as revived in the 
 person of Otto was still more of a fiction than the title which 
 with their piissimus Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus 
 Imperator the Romans conferred on Charles the Great, or 
 even more of a fiction than the honour conferred by the unctio 
 barbarica of papal hands on Arnulf of Carinthia, it should not 
 be forgotten that any such thing as imperial succession has 
 sometimes what one may call a subjective reality ; for, however 
 fictitious may be the uninterrupted transmission of some 
 mystic prerogative, the emotions excited in minds that accept 
 such pretensions often prove a real and potent force in historical 
 evolution, and they cannot be ignored. 1 
 
 Never-ending feuds and civic discords, the entire submer- 
 gence of all patriotism in the meanest personal ambitions, the 
 most shameful collusion with alien princes and barbarian foes — 
 such are the main traits of this so-called regno d'ltalia in- 
 dipendente, during which the Italians of that age proved them- 
 selves utterly unworthy of independence. 
 
 A bare statement of the political events of these thirty-seven 
 years, from the murder of Berengar in 924 to the assumption 
 of the imperial title by the Saxon Otto in 962, is given in the 
 List of Emperors and Kings (pp. 378-79) and will serve as a clue 
 while we explore a little further in order to discover some of 
 the forces that were at work behind the scenes of this perplex- 
 ingly crowded puppet-show. The chief of these influences 
 were exercised by women, and more than one of these women 
 attained for a time a political power comparable with that 
 of Placidia or Pulcheria ; but they gained and retained that 
 power by the exercise of a daemonic, or perhaps we may call 
 it a diabolic, fascination that recalls the younger Agrippina 
 
 1 The Papacy, regarded as a temporal power possessing often an enor- 
 mous advantage in the recognition of its spiritual pretensions, cannot, 
 of course, be ignored even by those who find it impossible to accept trans- 
 mission of spiritual prerogatives in the face of such facts as the most atrocious 
 crimes and the most shameful vice — the throne of Christ's vicar seized on by 
 murderers — the pazza bestiality (as Villari calls it) of many of the Popes, 
 who made the Lateran a den of assassins and fornicators — a state of things 
 that lasted intermittently for centuries and was such that no wonder all 
 heaven blushed fiery red at St. Peter's passionate invective, reported by Dante. 
 
 329 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 or I/Ucrezia Borgia rather than the daughter or the grand- 
 daughter of the great Theodosius. 
 
 One of these women was Bertha, daughter of that Waldrada 
 whose fascinations had caused such trouble in the case of 
 Ivothair (p. 320). Bertha had first married Count Theobald 
 of Provence, by whom she had a son, Hugo. She then married 
 Adalbert, Marquess of Tuscany, and had several children, to 
 one of which, Ermengard, she transmitted the fatal dower of 
 fascinating beauty. Bertha and, after her death, Ermengard 
 — now Marchioness of Ivrea — seem to have gained such influence 
 over the Italian nobles that soon after the murder of Berengar 
 these nobles decided to ignore Rudolf of Burgundy (though 
 already crowned by the Pope) and to invite the young Count 
 of Provence to assume the crown of Italy. 1 Hugo landed 
 at Pisa (926) and was crowned at Pavia, Pope John X for the 
 third time giving his unholy unction to a claimant during the 
 life of his rival and thus causing to fester the great open sore 
 of Italy instead of aiding, as Head of the Christian Church, 
 to bind up and heal her wounds. 
 
 A Glance backward at Rome from 896 to 926 
 
 But it was in Rome that female domination at this epoch 
 had become most notable ; and we must retrace our steps 
 to observe how this began. Ever since the days when (896) 
 Pope Formosus had crowned Amulf as Emperor and when, 
 to avenge this indignity, his corpse had been disinterred and 
 arraigned before a Synod by Pope Stephen VI a most scandalous 
 state of things had prevailed in Rome^ where within eight 
 years (896-904) there were no less than ten Popes, most of 
 whom gained or lost their office by criminal intrigue or murder. 2 
 
 1 Ermengard is said to have fascinated and befooled Rudolf himself, who, 
 according to Gregorovius, was ' transformed into a whining adorer, while the 
 new Circe with a contemptuous laugh took the Lombard crown from his 
 head and gave it over to her stepbrother.' 
 
 2 Stephen VI and John X are known to have been strangled. Leo V 
 and Christopher were deposed and probably murdered. The fates of Anas- 
 tasius III and Lando were, says Gregorovius, 'probably tragic and terrible'; 
 
 33° 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 During this state of things, at a time when all Italy is supposed 
 by some to have been blessed by independence under the rule 
 of her own king Berengar, a formidable despotism had begun 
 to arise in Rome — one before which during half a century both 
 the Papacy and the Kingship of Italy were to succumb. A 
 certain Theophylact, a leader of the lay aristocracy (judices 
 de militia), had risen to the rank of Dux et M agister militum 
 and had assumed the titles of Senator and Consul, while his 
 wife, who bore the ill-omened name of Theodora, 1 and her 
 two daughters Marozia and Theodora succeeded in attracting 
 by their beauty and dissolute habits a large number of adorers 
 and satellites. In 904 the ambitious Cardinal Sergius, who 
 had for years endeavoured to grasp the papal tiara, and who 
 had at last succeeded in becoming the paramour of Marozia, 
 was made Pope, and henceforth for many years the pontifical 
 office was dependent on these women. For seven years this 
 man, who is described by Baronius and other ecclesiastical 
 writers as a ' monster ' and by Gregorovius as a ' terrorizing 
 criminal,' occupied the chair of St. Peter, while his concubine 
 and her Semiramis-like mother held court with a pomp and 
 voluptuousness that recalled the worst days of the ancient 
 Empire. 
 
 Sergius III died in 911. Two Popes followed about whom 
 we know next to nothing, but whose election and sudden dis- 
 appearance were probably due to court intrigues. Then a 
 certain Presbyter John, who had long made love to the no 
 longer youthful Theodora and had been made Archbishop of 
 Ravenna, was by the influence of his paramour transferred t6 
 the papal throne (914). This is that lecherous and treacherous 
 Pope John X of whom we have already heard more than 
 
 nor can we feel certain that it was not so with Theodoras II, Boniface VI, 
 Benedict IV, I<eo VI, Stephen VII, and with the bastard of Pope Sergius 
 and Marozia, John XI, who — a mere youth — reigned only about four years. 
 Of the other half-dozen nonentities who were made Popes by Alberich, certainly 
 Stephen VIII came to a tragic and shameful end, and not much later Alberich's 
 son, Pope John XII, was found under disgraceful circumstances in company 
 with a married woman, and was so cudgelled that he soon after died (p. 338), 
 1 Of unknown parentage. Some have believed that, like Ermengard, she 
 was related to the wild strain of Waldrada. 
 
 331 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 enough. Meantime Marozia, having lost her pontifical lover, 
 had married (c. 913) a soldier of fortune, a certain Alberich, 
 who after serving in turn under Guido and Berengar had 
 succeeded in making himself Duke of Spoleto. 
 
 It was shortly after this that Berengar, favoured by Theo- 
 phylact and Alberich and their two all-powerful consorts, 
 came to Rome and was crowned Emperor (915) by Pope John X, 
 after having routed the Saracens on the Garigliano, as has 
 been already narrated. 
 
 Theophylact, Theodora, and Alberich now suddenly and 
 somewhat mysteriously disappear from the scene, and Marozia, 
 establishing herself in the huge fortress of S. Angelo (the Mole 
 of Hadrian), dominates Rome. Pope John, as we have already 
 seen, abandons the cause of Berengar and invites and crowns 
 Rudolf of Burgundy, and not long afterwards repeats the pro- 
 cess with Hugo of Provence. These traitorous intrigues bring 
 Marozia into collision with the former lover of her mother, 
 and finally she succeeds in seizing and imprisoning him in the 
 fortress, and ere long the unhappy pontiff is put to death by 
 her orders — strangled, it is said, or stifled with a pillow. 
 
 After the death of her husband, Alberich of Spoleto, Marozia 
 had married Guido of Tuscany, the brother of Ermengard 
 and the stepbrother of Hugo of Provence. Now when Hugo 
 was elected and crowned King of Italy (926) it was natural 
 that Marozia should feel deeply aggrieved, for she had doubtless 
 wedded Guido with the object of making herself Queen of 
 Italy. But, as luck would have it, Guido soon died, and 
 Hugo of Provence about the same time lost his wife. The 
 chance was one not to be lost, and ere long the seductive arts 
 of the mistress of Rome were once more crowned with success. 
 Hugo came to Rome (932) and celebrated his marriage with 
 Marozia in the Castle of S. Angelo — the ceremony being per- 
 formed and the royal pair being blessed by the lately elected 
 Pope John XI, the bastard offspring of the bride by the 
 paramour of her youthful days, Pope Sergius III. 
 
 332 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 But by her first husband, Alberich of Spoleto, Marozia had 
 a legitimate son, now about eighteen years of age, also named 
 Alberich, who seems to have inherited his father's soldier-like 
 qualities and to have been possessed of a masterful character 
 and a genius for leadership. This youth was profoundly 
 disgusted by his mother's conduct and resented the presence 
 of his new stepfather, in whose retinue he had & serve as page, 
 and when Hugo rewarded his impudence x with a box on the 
 ear he rushed forth and with fiery eloquence harangued the 
 assembled multitude, who forthwith made an assault on the 
 castle. Hugo, terrified, was let down by a rope and fled from 
 Rome. Alberich imprisoned his mother, 2 put his base-born 
 half-brother, the young Pope, into strict custody, and assumed 
 the titles of Princeps and Senator. 
 
 Alberich, or Alberico, governed Rome, perhaps with severity, 
 but with evident justice, for twenty-two years (932-54). It 
 is an episode in Italian history full of most interesting possi- 
 bilities, frustrated, alas, by Alberich's son and successor, 
 who had inherited the character of his grandmother, Marozia. 
 Alberich's military reforms were important. He reconstituted 
 the army in twelve scholae, corresponding to the twelve regions 
 of the city, each commanded by a banderese, or flag-captain, 
 like the Florentine Gonfalonier e della compagnia (not of course 
 the Gonfaloniere of Justice, who was a political magnate). 
 Under his titles of Princeps and Senator he evidently combined 
 in his own person the chief legislative and executive powers ; 
 for the Senate had ceased to exist and the nobles seem to have 
 acted merely as his subordinate officials. As President of the 
 Tribunal, 3 like the Venetian Doges of early days, he held an 
 almost absolute power in his hands, and although on his coins 
 we find his name associated with that of the reigning Pope, it 
 is very evident that none of the seven pontiffs of this period 
 had any political authority. Most of them were doubtless 
 
 1 He purposely spilt a cup of wine, or water, over the king. 
 8 We hear no more of her, nor of any demand by Hugo for her release. 
 s The Tribunal often held its sittings in the Aula ad Ivrpam in the Lateran, 
 so called from the Capitoline She-wolf, which in this age was preserved there. 
 
 333 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 selected by Alberich himself, and under his regime a Pope was, 
 as he should be, nothing but the Head of the Church, exercis- 
 ing spiritual influence. And it cannotbe doubted that Alberich 
 highly appreciated the value of spiritual influence — at least as 
 an accessory of civil power. This is apparent from two facts. 
 Firstly, he encouraged vigorously the reform of monasteries x 
 which had been initiated at Cluny, in France, by Friar Berno, 
 and when Berno's disciple, Odo, visited Rome he gave him 
 a palace on the Aventine for the purpose of founding a reformed 
 convent (now S. Maria Aventina and the priory of the Knights 
 of Malta). Secondly, he was so impressed with the necessity 
 of recognizing and using religious influences that he determined 
 to combine in one person the chief civil and the chief eccle- 
 siastical authority — an audacious experiment, which seems to 
 have succeeded in the case of the early Roman Emperors and 
 in that of certain Moslem Caliphs, but which in many cases 
 has proved the source of great trouble. Before his death he 
 assembled the nobles of Rome before the Confessio of St. Peter's 
 and made them swear that when the next vacancy occurred 
 they would elect his son and successor, Octavian, to the 
 papal throne. We shall see how this interesting experiment 
 succeeded. 
 
 Before Alberich died, in 954, King Hugo had thrice (933, 
 936, and 941) attacked Rome in order to avenge himself and to 
 expel his rebellious stepson ; but Alberich had repulsed him 
 with brilliant success, and in spite of a temporary truce (during 
 which he married Hugo's daughter) he defied all his efforts 
 to enter the city and receive the imperial crown from the 
 hands of the Pope. 
 
 About 940 a rival claimant to the crown of Italy had ap- 
 peared in the person of another Berengar, Marquess of Ivrea 
 (stepson of Frmengard above mentioned). Hugo, it is said, 
 
 1 Most of the Benedictine monasteries had now become ' dens of vice,' 
 and to copy out the old Rule was mere ' waste of paper,' as St. Benedict said 
 to Dante when they met in Paradise. The Cluny reformers did something, 
 but no general reform took place till the founding of the Cainaldoli Order 
 of White Benedictines by Romuald about 1010. It was the immense wealth 
 and the territorial authority of these princely abbots that Alberich wished 
 to reform, quite as much as their morals. 
 
 334 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 pretended to listen in a friendly way to his claims and invited 
 him to his court, intending to kill or blind him. But Hugo's 
 son, I^othair, through friendship or compassion, revealed the 
 design to Berengar, who fled to Germany and in 946, with the 
 help of Otto, the Saxon king, returned and expelled Hugo, 
 who retired to his native realm of Provence and died shortly 
 afterwards at Aries. Berengar was now nominally the regent 
 of the young king I^othair, but it was not long before I^othair 
 died (950) — very probably poisoned by the man whose life 
 he had saved. Now Hugo had wedded a Burgundian dowager 
 and had married her daughter, Adelheid, to his son Lothair. 
 On Lothair's death Berengar tried to force Adelheid to marry 
 his son Adalbert, whom he had nominated as his partner in 
 the Kingship of Italy. Adelheid very naturally declined the 
 honour. She was forthwith imprisoned in a tower on the 
 I*ago di Garda ; but she escaped and appealed to Otto of 
 Saxony. 1 Impelled by this and by other appeals from the 
 enemies of the tyrannous Berengar, Otto descended with an 
 army — the first German army that had crossed the Alps for 
 half a century — and, having seized Pavia, married the fair 
 Adelheid and had himself crowned King of Italy, though 
 Berengar still held that title. He also sent word to Pope 
 Agapetus that he intended to come to Rome and be crowned 
 as Emperor. This design however he prudently abandoned, 
 for Alberich gave him to understand that without his leave 
 no king should enter Rome, and this leave he refused to 
 give. But after Alberich's death in 954 the state of things 
 at Rome became intolerable. Octavian, his dissolute son, 
 succeeded him as Princeps and Senator, and, on the decease 
 of Agapetus in 955, was also elected Pope, taking the name 
 John XII. 
 
 The accounts given of the pazza bestialitd of this papal 
 libertine by impartial writers such as Villari and Gregorovius, 
 and even by partial writers such as the Abbe Duchesne (in his 
 splendid edition of the Liber Pontificalis) , are almost incredible. 
 
 1 A noble named Attus (Azzo) seems to have helped her to escape. He 
 was owner of Canossa Castle, of later fame. 
 
 335 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 He is said to have kept a large harem of concubines. In 
 company with dissolute boon companions he abandoned him- 
 self to every kind of voluptuous excess. He used to drink 
 health to the devil and to invoke the pagan ' demon ' gods. 
 We hear of a deacon ordained in a stable, a bishop consecrated 
 at the age of ten, a father confessor blinded and dying of his 
 wounds, a cardinal shamefully mutilated and killed by order 
 of this Vicar of Christ. No honest woman, we are told, dared 
 to set her foot in the Iyateran. 1 And things were scarcely 
 better at the court and camp of King Berengar the Second, 
 who had humbly received back from the Saxon king at 
 Augsburg the I^ombard crown, promising to wear it as Otto's 
 vassal. His insane excesses and insolent cruelty, combined 
 with the bacchanal orgies of the papal-senatorial court at 
 Rome, forced the Italians to appeal once more to the German 
 monarch, who responded and with a large army crossed 
 the Brenner. Finding no resistance in North Italy — for 
 Berengar's soldiers refused to fight — and receiving an invi- 
 tation from the young profligate at Rome, who had now 
 determined to play off the German against the Italian King 
 of Italy, Otto entered the city and was crowned Emperor on 
 February z, 962. 
 
 Thus by the grace of heaven transmitted through the blood- 
 stained hands of this young ruffian was instituted what was 
 later known as the Holy Roman Empire. How Pope John 
 could be a medium of such grace is a question for theologians ; 
 but how little he represented the will of the Romans may be 
 gathered from what an old chronicler, Thietmar, relates. The 
 nobles, we are told, concealed their feelings in a gloomy silence. 
 On the faces of these Romans, whose liberties and power he 
 was come to destroy, Otto read murderous resentment, and 
 
 1 See especially in Count Balzani's Cronache italiane the account given 
 by Liudprand, Bishop of Cremona, who was present and acted as Otto's 
 interpreter at the Council at which Pope John was deposed. I,iudprand 
 (c. 920-70) is the great authority for this epoch. He wrote a Hisloria 
 Ottonis besides other works on the period 888-962. For the dark and 
 perplexing period of the Carolingians and the ' Italian ' monarchs we 
 have very little but the Liber Pontificalis and untrustworthy monastic 
 chroniclers. 
 
 336 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 ere he betook himself to the ceremony of coronation he said to 
 Ansfried of Louvain : ' When I kneel at St. Peter's tomb, do thou 
 hold thy sword continually above my head, for I know that my 
 forefathers oft had experience of the treachery of the Romans' It 
 should therefore scarcely surprise us that ere the next two years 
 had passed the new Emperor had deposed the Pope to whose 
 apostolic unction he owed his divine rights and had deprived 
 the Romans of their right to elect their own pontiffs. 
 
 (3) The Saxon Emperors (962-1024) 
 
 A document called the Privilegium Ottonis is still extant 
 which (except for some later additions) seems to have been 
 drawn up between Otto and Pope John XII. It officially 
 sanctions the revival of the Empire and the transmission of 
 the dignity from the Frank to the Saxon monarchs ; it also 
 renews all the concessions made by the Donations of Pipin 
 and Charles the Great, giving to the Church even Venice and 
 Istria and Naples and Benevento, and Sicily itself — which was 
 still in the hands of the Saracens ! 
 
 But whatever we may think of renewed Donations and the 
 rehabilitated Empire, the revival of German domination in 
 Italy was a fact the reality of which was substantiated very 
 soon ; for when Pope John, incited by the discontented nobility, 
 began to intrigue with Berengar and received Berengar's son, 
 Adalbert, as his guest at Rome, Otto came sweeping back 
 from North Italy. At his approach the Pope and Adalbert 
 took to flight. Otto entered Rome and, having convoked a 
 Council (known as the Council of November), he formally 
 deposed John and gave the Romans his imperial sanction to 
 elect another pontiff, Pope I^eo VIII — a precedent of much 
 importance, seeing that during the next hundred years the 
 Popes were selected by the Emperors or nominated with the 
 sanction of their envoys, and did much to restore the good 
 name of the Papacy. But the deposed and exiled Pope John 
 was not easily suppressed. He incited a tumult at Rome, and 
 an assault made on Otto, in the Vatican, was repelled with 
 difficulty and considerable slaughter. Indeed, there is no 
 
 y 337 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 saying how things might have ended, for the Romans were 
 fiercely resentful at Otto's insolent interference with their 
 privileges. But Pope John's hour had sounded *. he was 
 caught by an indignant husband and so severely cudgelled 
 that he died. The Romans forthwith elected a Pope, Bene- 
 dict V, in his stead, ignoring Otto's Pope ; but the imperial 
 party finally prevailed and Benedict was deposed. 
 
 Meanwhile Otto had captured Berengar in North Italy 
 and had sent him off to Germany, where soon after he 
 died. 
 
 In 966, disorders having occurred at Rome, Otto again 
 marched south and suppressed the rebels with great severity. 
 The Prefect of the city, who had resisted the Pope (John XIII, 
 Otto's proUgg), was hung up by the hair to the equestrian 
 statue of Marcus Aurelius, 1 then paraded, riding back foremost 
 on a donkey, through the streets, and finally taken off to prison 
 in Germany. After this Otto spent the greater part of his 
 life in Italy — a fact that shows how anxious he was, in spite of 
 his vast northern dominions, to establish his title as hereditary 
 Roman Emperor of the West. This anxiety induced him to 
 have his son, a child of twelve, crowned by the Pope with the 
 imperial diadem — a function that took place in St. Peter's on 
 Christmas Day 967. And, not content with this, he tried to 
 secure recognition as Western Emperor from the Emperor 
 of the East, and requested as a bride for the young Otto a 
 Byzantine princess ; but the proposal, which included the 
 conquest of Sicily from the Saracens and the cession of the 
 Byzantine possessions in South Italy as dowry, was scornfully 
 rejected by Nicephorus Phocas, the conqueror of Crete, who 
 regarded himself as the only legitimate Roman Emperor and 
 poured contempt on Otto's pretensions. Moreover, although 
 Otto sent his faithful Iyiudprand 2 as envoy to Constantinople, 
 
 1 Then near the Lateran, now on the Capitol. Called in the Middle Ages 
 the ' horse of Constantine ' (see p. 341). 
 
 2 He remained there 120 days and was very disdainfully treated, if we 
 may believe all that he says in his Account of the Embassy to Constaniinoplt. 
 Phocas was especially indignant because the Pope had addressed him as 
 Impirator Graecorum. 
 
 338 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 the Byzantine Emperor gathered a fleet to aid Adalbert, 
 Berengar's son, and to recover, if possible, for the Eastern 
 Empire the cities of Capua, Benevento, Ravenna — and Rome ! 
 Thus Otto was forced to fight, and with the co-operation of a 
 powerful Lombard duke, Pandulf Iron-head (Testa diferro), 
 who had combined under his rule the provinces of Spoleto, 
 Benevento, and Capua, he besieged Bari ; but Bari had open 
 access to the sea, which was dominated by the Byzantine fleet, 
 and, as ill-luck would have it, Pandulf fell into an ambush 
 and was captured. 
 
 At this juncture Phocas was assassinated by his wife, who had 
 already poisoned her father and her first husband, the Emperor 
 Romanus. Her fellow-conspirator, the puny John Zimisces, 
 who ascended the Byzantine throne, released Pandulf and 
 propitiated Otto by sending over to Italy the desired prin- 
 cess Theophano, daughter of the triple murderess. She was 
 wedded to the young co-Emperor and received the title of 
 Empress. A year later, in May 973, Otto the Great, as he is 
 called, died. 
 
 His successor, Otto II, was now a youth of seventeen. With- 
 out possessing the first Otto's masterful character, he certainly 
 showed courage and vigour, and owed to his mother Adelheid 
 a culture and refinement that was evidently lacking in his 
 father. His reign of ten years was mainly occupied in fighting. 
 First he was assailed by Henry of Bavaria, whom he defeated 
 and deposed. Then he was attacked, and very nearly captured 
 at Aachen, by Lothair of France ; whereupon he led an army 
 against Paris, and although he did not succeed in capturing 
 it, he secured his undisturbed possession of Lorraine. Then he 
 marched down into Italy, and after restoring a fugitive Pope 
 and settling affairs at Rome, where violent discords between 
 the imperial and papal parties had become chronic, 1 he opened 
 (982) the campaign against the Saracens, who were still in 
 possession of Sicily and had lately once more crossed over 
 in great numbers into South Italy. Emboldened by success, 
 
 1 Some of these interminable disorders are briefly noted in the I,ist of 
 Popes, p. 379. To recount them here at all fully is impossible. 
 
 339 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Otto acted rashly and was surprised and totally defeated not 
 far from Cotrone, the ancient Crotona, and would have been 
 captured had he not swum out to a Byzantine vessel, whose 
 crew luckily did not recognize him, 1 so that he was able to 
 reach a friendly shore in safety. The news of this disaster 
 caused great disturbances and dangerous rebellions in Otto's 
 northern dominions, but he determined first to regain prestige 
 in Italy. At Verona he convoked a great assembly of his 
 nobles of both nations and caused his son, a child of three, 
 to be elected King of Germany and Italy. He then made 
 preparations to renew the war against the Saracens, and after 
 vainly trying to persuade the Venetians to lend him a fleet, 
 he marched once more down to Rome. Here he was attacked 
 by fever and died. He was buried in an ancient sarcophagus 
 which had a porphyry lid stolen from Hadrian's tomb. This 
 sarcophagus stood for five centuries in the Paradiso, the great 
 atrium of the old basilica, but when Paul V reconstructed the 
 cathedral vaults, about 1610, the porphyry lid was taken to 
 serve (as it still does) for a font, the old sarcophagus was given 
 over to the kitchen of the Quirinal for a water-trough, and the 
 body of the youthful Emperor was put into the marble and 
 stucco coffin which now stands in the crypt (Grotte Vecchie) 
 of St. Peter's, not far from the urns of ' King James III,' of 
 England and his sons Charles Edward and Henry. A mosaic, 
 probably first erected by the Empress Theophano, is still to be 
 seen near Otto's tomb, and is a very interesting specimen of 
 the degraded art of this period. 
 
 The child Otto III, born in 980, had been lately crowned 
 at Aachen by the German nobles as King of Germany and of 
 the Romans when the news of his father's death at Rome 
 arrived. His mother, the ' Empress ' Theophano, was made 
 regent, and she proved herself worthy of the post, having 
 evidently inherited more of the nature of her father, the 
 Eastern Emperor Romanus, than of her mother's infamous 
 character. 
 
 During the first six years of her regency we hear of little 
 1 Except, it is said, a Slavonian, who did not betray him. 
 
 34° 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 except that at Rome, as usual, fierce discords prevailed. One 
 Pope (Benedict VI) had been imprisoned and strangled by the 
 leaders of the populace ; the next, Boniface VII, had fled from 
 the imperialists to Constantinople ; another (Benedict VII), 
 driven out by the people and restored by Otto II, had 
 been succeeded by John XIV, Bishop of Pavia and imperial 
 chancellor. But Boniface returned from the East (985), 
 deposed and poisoned, or starved to death, Pope John, and 
 behaved with such intolerable cruelty that the populace rose, 
 killed him, dragged his body through the streets, and cast it 
 beneath the ' horse of Constantine,' namely the equestrian statue 
 of Marcus Aurelius (see p . 338 n) , the great imperial pagan philo- 
 sopher, whose meditations would have been disturbed could 
 he have foreseen the strange uses to which his monument would 
 be put. 
 
 The leader of these tumults was Crescentius, whose father 
 had held a similar position as head of the anti-German party. 
 Crescentius assumed the ancient and princely title of Patrician 
 of the Romans, and for some years was evidently as much the 
 master of Rome as Alberich had been, and not only elected 
 the next Pope (John XV, who reigned eleven years) but also 
 expelled him when he proved recalcitrant. It is therefore 
 somewhat surprising to find Theophano still at Rome in 989, 
 and evidently recognized as 'Empress ' both by Crescentius 
 and this Pope ; and even when, after her death and after the 
 short regency of the dowager-Queen Adelheid, the young Otto, 
 now sixteen years of age, came to Rome (996) to assume the 
 imperial crown, Crescentius seems to have made no objection 
 and to have received no castigation. But his fate was not 
 to be deferred for long, as we shall see. 
 
 Before proceeding with the narrative, however, it will be 
 well to say something about the personality of the young 
 ' Saxon ' monarch who reigned nineteen and lived twenty-two 
 years. ' The Germans,' we are told by a recent writer on this 
 period of Italian history, ' were big blond men, beer-drinkers, 
 huge eaters, rough, ill-mannered, arrogant, phlegmatic, and 
 brave.' Perhaps this is the picture that one is rather apt to 
 
 34 1 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 form when one hears of the ' Saxon ' Ottos and their ilk. 
 Perhaps too the description is fairly correct in the case of 
 Otto the Great, who possessed, it is said, very little in the way 
 of education, although, like Charles the Great, he was a zealous 
 patron of learning x and a friend of scholars, such as the polyglot 
 kiudprand. But it certainly is not correct in the case of the 
 second Otto, who was an enthusiast for Southern culture and 
 was in person probably dark and certainly small, as was proved 
 when, as stated above, his body was removed from its sarco- 
 phagus. Still less does the description apply to the third 
 Otto, though Gregorovius claims him as ' German from head 
 to foot.' His mother, the Byzantine princess Theophano, de- 
 scended from the Emperors Basil and ]>o (the last notable 
 as a philosopher) , had imparted to him a temperament almost 
 Oriental in its fantastic proclivities and had fostered his en- 
 thusiasm for Byzantine civilization as well as for the ideals 
 of Eastern Christianity. 
 
 When Otto III, as a youth of sixteen, first came to Rome 
 in 996, the Pope (John XV) had just died. He forthwith 
 caused to be consecrated his own second-cousin, Bruno — a 
 young man of twenty-three — who took the name Gregory V 
 and three weeks later placed the imperial diadem on the head 
 of his royal patron. He, the first German Pope, was not only 
 a favourer of the reforms begun at Cluny (p. 334) but, like 
 Otto himself, was strongly influenced by the enthusiasm for 
 the monastic life which, as was natural at an epoch of such 
 civic and religious disturbance, once more swept through 
 Christendom, as it had done in earlier days. Several notable 
 examples had of late excited imitation. St. Nilus, an illiterate 
 Calabrian, who lived as hermit in a cave near Gaeta, was 
 regarded by Otto, as by numberless other devotees, with un- 
 bounded veneration. St. Romuald of Ravenna, who some- 
 
 1 Otto the Great is regarded, still more than his father Henry, as the 
 establisher of the German Empire and of all that is essentially deutsch, includ- 
 ing literature. The Germans were first in his reign officially called Deutsche, 
 i.e. 'the [elect] people.' See p. 159 n. Southern culture was at this time being 
 rapidly introduced into Germany. Even school-girls, we are told, were taught 
 to read Virgil and Terence. 
 
 342 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 what later founded the Reformed (or White) Benedictine Order 
 of Camaldoli, was another who aroused immense enthusiasm, 
 and was believed to have influenced Doge Pietro Orseolo to 
 leave Venice by stealth, in the disguise of a pilgrim, and bury 
 himself in a French monastery. A still deeper impression 
 was made by Adalbert, the saintly and learned Bishop of Prag, 
 who, after having devoted himself to the life of a recluse at 
 Rome, was forced reluctantly to return to his Bohemian diocese, 
 and at last sought and found a martyr's death among the 
 savage heathen of Northern Poland. 1 
 
 Under the ban of such influences the excitable and fantastic 
 temperament of Otto led him into strange extravagances. 
 At one time we find him as pilgrim visiting Monte Gargano 
 and the relics of St. Bartholomew at Benevento, 8 and the tomb 
 of St. Adalbert in the wilds of Poland, or devising a crusade 
 to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the power of the Saracens — 
 a design first realized a century later — and at another time 
 we find him, in an access of fury and fanaticism, committing 
 the most bloodthirsty atrocities. Specimens of such atrocities 
 — the inhuman mutilation and murder of the Antipope John 
 XVI, who had been set up by Crescentius in the place of Otto's 
 cousin Gregory, and the execution of Crescentius himself and all 
 the chief magistrates of Rome — I have reserved as evidence of 
 the barbarity of the tenth century (see Part IV, ch. i) . Another 
 act that betokens a fantastic impulse is the opening of the 
 tomb in Aachen Cathedral in which, tradition says, the body 
 of Charles the Great sat enthroned in state. What Otto 
 found, and what he did with what he found, it is impossible 
 to know ; we know however that he ordered that his own 
 
 1 He was killed at Gnesen, which is now in Prussia. His tomb is in the 
 cathedral, founded about iooo. 
 
 s St. Bartholomew is said to have voyaged in his marble sarcophagus from 
 India to the I<ipari Islands, where Saracens cast forth his body ; but it found 
 its way safely to Benevento, whence Otto tried to bring it to Rome. The 
 Beneventans however deceived him and gave him the relics of St. Faulinus 
 instead. Nevertheless the Romans insist on calling the church on the Isola 
 Tiberina after St. Bartholomew and assert that his relics are there. This 
 church was built, on the site of the ancient temple of Aesculapius, by Otto III, 
 and at first was dedicated to St. Adalbert. 
 
 343 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 body should be entombed beside that of Charles at Aachen, 
 and when, in 1003, he died near Rome they carried him thither, 
 fighting their way through Italy, which was now in a state 
 of open rebellion ; for the last years of his reign had been spent 
 in ever vainer efforts to realize his dream of a re-established 
 Roman-Byzantine Empire in what he called the Eternal City 
 and the one true capital of the world. Indeed so con- 
 temptuously had the Romans regarded his political designs 
 and his religious enthusiasms that on his last visit to Rome 
 they had treated him with insulting ridicule and had besieged 
 him in his palace on the Aventine, so that it was with difficulty 
 that he had persuaded them to let him depart unscathed. 
 After retiring for a time to St. Romuald's monastery at Ravenna 
 he determined, against the saint's urgent advice, to renounce 
 the religious life and once more to attempt the establishment of 
 his Roman Empire. But Rome itself had first to be regained, 
 and while he hesitated to attack it he himself was attacked by 
 fever and died in the castle of Paterno, near Mount Soracte. 
 At this moment a Byzantine princess was voyaging to Italy 
 in order to become his wife and the Empress of his dreamland 
 realm. If we imagine her bending over his lifeless body we 
 have a picture that strikingly symbolizes the non-fulfilment 
 of his many ambitions. 
 
 Henry II, a Bavarian duke of the Saxon house, who succeeded 
 Otto, had personally not much to do with Italy, but, as is the 
 case with others of these German Kings of Italy and Imperatives 
 Romanorum, his reign serves as a useful frame for events 
 of importance. Otto's attempts to reconstruct in Italy an 
 Empire of the Southern type had not only failed, but had 
 excited a very strong anti-German feeling through the whole 
 of the country. He had looked for support to the Church, 
 and had favoured the power of the ecclesiastics by recognizing 
 them as hereditary and immediate beneficiaries of the crown 
 and as independent of other liege-lords. The nobles were by 
 this deeply aggrieved and became ever more and more deter- 
 mined to shake off the foreign supremacy. In Rome, in spite 
 of the imperial policy of the wise Pope Silvester II, formerly 
 
 34+ 
 
30. S. MlNIATO 
 
 Florence 
 
 344 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Otto's tutor, who had succeeded Otto's cousin Gregory, the 
 son of that Crescentius whom Otto had executed held power 
 as head of the lay aristocracy for ten years, till he was 
 succeeded by the Counts of Tusculum, who dominated the 
 city for a still longer period. 1 In North Italy, not only 
 among the lay magnates but also in the numerous cities, 2 
 which were rapidly acquiring wealth and independence, the 
 hostility to the Northern barbarian was so intense that a 
 month after the death of Otto III Marquess Arduin of Ivrea 
 (in Piemont) was crowned at Pavia with the iron crown of 
 I/ombardy. 
 
 Henry, who had already assumed the title of King of the 
 Romans, answered the challenge by sending a small force, 
 which was routed by Arduin. He then came himself with 
 an army and was likewise crowned at Pavia with the iron 
 crown as King of Italy ; but how little his rights were founded 
 on the will of the Italian people is proved by the fact that 
 on the same evening a very serious tumult broke out, during 
 which the Germans (more Teutonico) set fire to Pavia and 
 destroyed a large part of the city. 3 
 
 In Rome, as elsewhere, the republican movement was 
 gathering force, and, in combination with the patriotism of 
 Arduin's supporters, caused the Counts of Tusculum to ally 
 themselves for a time with the Pope and the imperialists. The 
 result was that Henry was invited to assume the diadem of 
 the Empire, and together with his queen, Kunigund, he was 
 crowned at Rome in 1014. Once more there were violent 
 anti-German demonstrations and serious tumults ; but they 
 were suppressed by force, and the presence of the new Emperor 
 
 1 This family had the disgrace of producing that most iniquitous, perhaps, 
 of all the Popes, Benedict IX. 
 
 8 Such as Venice, Florence, Pisa, Genoa, etc. The last two were powerful 
 at sea and had successfully combated the Saracens of Sardinia and Spain. 
 Milan and Pavia were much dominated by the Germans and had a long 
 struggle for independence. In the south the republican spirit was extin- 
 guished by the Byzantines, Saracens, and Normans. 
 
 » Serious tumults, proving the same feeling and punished in the same 
 barbarous fashion, took place at almost every future coronation of a German 
 Roman Emperor. 
 
 345 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and^his powerful army so cowed King Arduin that he withdrew 
 to a Benedictine monastery in Piemont, where he soon after- 
 wards died. 
 
 During the next ten years events very little connected with 
 Henry and his Germans, but most momentous for the future 
 of Italy, took place in the south. Norman pilgrims, 1 returning 
 from Jerusalem (c. 1016), had helped Salerno against the 
 Saracens and had been enlisted by Melo of Bari against his 
 fellow-subjects, the Byzantines. The Byzantines had defeated 
 the rebel Melo and his Norman mercenaries at Canne (on 
 the ancient battlefield of Cannae) and had recaptured their 
 supremacy over most of Apulia and Calabria, and even over 
 the cities of Naples, Capua, and Salerno. 
 
 This turn of events caused both Melo and also Pope Bene- 
 dict VIII to undertake the journey to Germany in order to per- 
 suade Henry to come to the rescue ; and he responded to their 
 entreaties. With a large army he marched southwards and 
 obtained some successes ; but he was forced ere long to return 
 to his northern dominions, where he died in 1024. 
 
 (4) The Franconian Emperors (1024-1125) 
 
 Both Otto III and Henry II died childless. The Germans 
 elected as their king Conrad II of Franconia — the country of 
 the Main, Wiirzburg, and Niirnberg. The reigns of the four 
 Franconian Emperors, which extended over just a century 
 (1024-1 125), belong mainly to German history and need only 
 be related here in so far as the history of Italy was affected 
 by the attitude of the Italian people and of the Papacy towards 
 these foreign monarchs, who regarded themselves, and were 
 regarded, not only by their northern subjects but also by a 
 certain number of their Italian vassals, lay and cleric, as 
 possessing, by virtue of their coronation as German kings, a 
 right to the iron crown of I^ombardy and, as Emperors- 
 designate, to the diadem of the Caesars. These rights how- 
 ever were fiercely denied by the great majority of the Italian 
 people — a fact that is rendered luridly evident by the serious 
 
 1 Mote about the Normans will be found in ch. ii of this Fart. 
 346 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 tumults that almost invariably occurred at these corona- 
 tions in Pavia, Milan, and Rome, and by the open hostility 
 that not seldom opposed the descent into Italy of a German 
 king. 
 
 But in order to thread the labyrinthine political complexities 
 of this period, and to discover the real relations between the 
 Germans and the Italians, it is necessary to secure certain clues, 
 and this may perhaps be facilitated by the following remarks. 
 Firstly, the hold that the German monarchs had on a part of 
 the Italian people was greatly due to the fact that they favoured 
 the lesser landholders (especially the clerical holders of beneficia) 
 against the powerful nobles who claimed them as their private 
 vassals. By declaring such beneficiaries to be direct feudatories 
 of the crown and not sub-vassals of the great nobles they won 
 them over to the imperialistic cause, and at the same time 
 they thus increased very much the independence and power 
 of the clerics and of a large class of the lay population. 
 Secondly, Rome was constantly being visited by German 
 monarchs and their warriors. The imperialist cause thus 
 acquired a very considerable following. This caused constant 
 broils and bloodshed, amidst which the aristocratic, the 
 popular, and the papal partisans in turn appealed to the 
 foreigner in order to get the better of their adversaries. More- 
 over, the Romans as well as other South Italians were frequently 
 obliged to look to the German princes for aid against the 
 Byzantines, the Saracens, or oppressive Lombard dukes. 
 I/astly, in North Italy numerous cities were rapidly gaining 
 independence as Communes, and attaining very considerable 
 wealth and influence, 1 some of them as sea-powers, and these 
 Communes naturally stood on the patriotic, anti-German side ; 
 but their rivalries often allowed or invited the interference 
 of the foreigner, who was ever ready to intervene in such 
 quarrels and draw profit therefrom. 
 
 In this connexion it will be remembered that it was the 
 
 1 The appearance of a splendid architecture during this period in the 
 northern cities, and a little later in the Norman dominions, is, as we shall see, 
 a very remarkable evidence of the progress of civilization and art where party 
 strife did not ruin all such development— as it did at Rome. 
 
 347 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 favour of the Frankish and German Emperors (especially that 
 of the three Ottos) which had lifted the Papacy to a position 
 so formidable that it was finally able, by means of its temporal 
 and its spiritual weapons, to defy and humiliate its patron. 
 Now this defiance of the imperial power by the Church — first in 
 the person of Aribert of Milan and then in that of Pope Hilde- 
 brand — is doubtless the fact that makes the reigns of these 
 Franconian monarchs of most importance to us. I shall 
 therefore dwell for a time on this fact, and then pass over the 
 rest of these reigns with very few remarks, reserving such 
 subjects as the coming of the Normans, the rise of the Com- 
 munes, and the development of Romanesque architecture for 
 fuller treatment in subsequent chapters. 
 
 Aribert had made himself master of the civil power in 
 Milan, of which city he was the archbishop. His ambition 
 seems to have aimed at making the Ambrosian Church 
 independent of Rome. In order to forward his designs he 
 invited Conrad II, and crowned him with the iron crown in the 
 cathedral of S. Ambrogio at Milan. After a year's sojourn 
 in North Italy, urged by his ambitious wife Gisela, Conrad 
 proceeded (1027) to Rome, where they both were crowned with 
 the imperial diadem in the presence of many princes, among 
 whom was Canute (Knut), King of Denmark, Norway, and 
 England. 1 For some time the Emperor remained in South 
 Italy endeavouring to re-establish his authority. The state of 
 disorder in these regions was almost incurable, constant war 
 prevailing between Byzantines, Saracens, I/Ombards, and 
 numerous cities, such as Naples and Capua, which under 
 various rulers or under republican forms of government 
 had made themselves independent ; and the state of things 
 was perhaps made worse by the fact that Norman adventurers, 
 ever more and more in number, sold their services now to 
 
 1 For details of this coronation, including the usual tumults, see explana- 
 tion of the picture of the imperial diadem, Pig. 19. Knut had come as pilgrim. 
 He wrote an enthusiastic description of Rome to his English subjects. I 
 may notice here that some years later (1050) another famous person from the 
 British Isles visited Rome as penitent, according to the chroniclers — namely, 
 Macbeth ! (He reigned eight years after murdering Duncan.) 
 
 348 
 
A 
 
 M 
 H 
 
 P 
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 o 
 
 o 
 
 s « 
 a -a 
 
 o n, 
 
 g 
 s 
 
 « 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 one combatant and now to another. Conrad seems to have 
 succeeded in reducing parts of the country temporarily to 
 submission, for we find that he gave formal leave to the 
 Normans to settle near Capua, and thus afforded them their 
 first real pied-d-terre in Italy. North of the Alps his exploits 
 in war were remarkable, one of them being the conquest and 
 annexation of Burgundy. This he effected by the aid of a 
 large force of Italian auxiliaries, and these Lombards and Tus- 
 cans, who reached Burgundy via the Great St. Bernard, Lake 
 Leman, and Geneva, were led by the warlike and ambitious 
 Archbishop Aribert of Milan and by Boniface, Marquess of 
 Tuscany, father of that famous Countess Matilda whose 
 celebrity rests about equally on her momentous 'Legacy' 
 and the part that she perhaps takes in Dante's picture of the 
 Earthly Paradise. 1 
 
 Aribert now becomes almost an independent sovereign at 
 Milan. Conrad, suspecting his loyalty, comes to Milan and 
 arrests him. Great indignation is excited by this, and Aribert, 
 having managed to escape, fortifies himself in the castle of 
 Milan, and a battle is fought with indecisive result. Conrad, 
 leaving his troops to besiege the rebel, goes to Rome and, 
 after restoring the iniquitous Benedict IX to the papal throne, 2 
 persuades him to excommunicate Aribert. But the arch- 
 bishop held out bravely at Milan — which city, by the way, he 
 continued to rule for the next seven years — and the German 
 troop was finally withdrawn to Parma, where it distinguished 
 itself by sanguinary fights with the Italian populace and by 
 setting fire, more suo, to the city. After another visit to the 
 south, where he and his friend Pope Benedict undertook 
 a somewhat fruitless campaign against the Byzantines and 
 a certain Pandulf of Capua, who was proving troublesome, 
 
 1 Purg. xxviii-xxxiii. Dante's ' Matelda ' is a mystery. I cannot believe 
 that she is Countess Matilda. For lineage see Azzo, Ugo, Boniface, Beatrice. 
 
 2 The chief facts connected with this ' demon of hell,' as Gregorovius calls 
 him, are given in the Iyist of Popes (p. 379) and need not be repeated. When 
 he fled from Rome to Cremona on this occasion (1037) he owed his life to a 
 solar eclipse, which deterred the nobles who had vowed to kill him at the 
 altar. At this time he was only sixteen, having ascended the papal throne 
 when twelve years of age. 
 
 349 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Conrad marched again northwards, with an army decimated 
 by the plague and by fever. Then, leaving the siege of 
 Milan to his Italian feudatories, he returned to Germany, 
 where in 1039 he died, probably of the plague. 
 
 Henry III, Conrad's son and successor, reigned about seven- 
 teen years as King and ten as Emperor. At first he was 
 much occupied by troubles in Hungary and Carinthia, and 
 when at last, in 1046, he determined to visit Italy it was ap- 
 parently not so much with the object of receiving the imperial 
 diadem as for the purpose of putting an end to the scandalous 
 state of things then prevailing at the papal court. He was of 
 a religious temperament, ascetically inclined, 1 and earnestly 
 in favour of Church reform such as was advocated by the 
 monks of Cluny — even in favour of the bold proposal to 
 introduce a ' truce of God ' (treuga Dei) whereby all civil strife 
 should be forbidden during four days of every week. What 
 the state of things at Rome was like may be to some extent 
 inferred from the facts given on p. 380. Probably never was 
 it worse, not even in the days of the Borgias. Henry on his 
 arrival in Italy held three Councils, at Pavia, at the old Etruscan 
 town of Sutri, and at Rome. By these Councils the sale of 
 the papal dignity by Benedict to Gregory was condemned as 
 most heinous simony and all the three rival Popes were deposed. 
 Silvester retired into a convent, Gregory was taken to Germany 
 (and was accompanied by the monk Hildebrand, of whom we 
 shall hear much later), and Benedict took refuge with his 
 relatives at Tusculum. Henry then caused the German Bishop 
 of Bamberg to be elected Pope, and by him was crowned 
 Emperor on Christmas Day 1046. 
 
 But before a year had passed the German Pope, Clement II, 
 was poisoned by agents of Benedict, who with the help of 
 the Tuscan marquess, Boniface, for the third time ascended the 
 papal throne. Henry deposed him again and nominated the 
 German Bishop of Brixen ; but after a reign of twenty-three 
 days also this Pope (Damasus II) died suddenly, probably 
 
 ' He is said never to have put on the diadem without having made con- 
 fession and done penance — frequently under the lash. 
 
 350 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 poisoned by Benedict's agents. Again Henry caused a German 
 to be elected, the Bishop of Lothringian Toul. Benedict now 
 seems to have at last renounced his claims. His end is un- 
 known. A charitable chronicler hints that he turned recluse 
 and died in the odour of sanctity. Others state that he ' con- 
 tinued to live as a beast.' It was popularly believed that he 
 held secret conferences with Satan in the depths of a dark 
 wood. 
 
 The Lothringian bishop, who had entered Rome with bare 
 feet (accompanied by monk Hildebrand as his counsellor), 
 proved as Pope I^eo IX an earnest reformer, and undertook 
 zealously the labour of cleansing the Augean mews of Rome. 
 He also visited some of the chief European cities in order to 
 forward reform and denounce abuses, such as simony and the 
 marriage of the clergy. 1 
 
 Here it will be well to turn our attention to the fact that to 
 the north of Rome, and also to the south, influences had arisen 
 which, still more than the isolated city Communes, seemed 
 likely to endanger the German supremacy. In the north the 
 powerful Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany, who has been already 
 mentioned as the father of Countess Matilda, was showing 
 an evident desire to dispute the claims of the foreign overlord. 
 His grandfather, Azzo, had owned Canossa Castle — soon to 
 become so famous — and here had hospitably received the 
 fugitive princess Adelheid, whom Otto the Great married. 2 
 Azzo and his son Ugo were consequently much favoured, 
 and soon received very extensive beneficia, including the cities 
 of Mantua, Brescia, Modena, and Reggio. From Conrad II 
 Boniface received the Marquisate of Tuscany and, as we have 
 seen, aided him in his conquest of Burgundy ; but latterly 
 he had developed ambitious schemes and had allied himself 
 
 1 Doubtless, being under a ban, the marriage of the clergy, even when 
 legalized, led to abuses which would not have existed if it had been recognized 
 as a. Christian institution. But celibacy was, of course, insisted upon by 
 Popes such as Hildebrand, not for moral, but for political reasons : to secure 
 a clergy devoted solely to papal interests. 
 
 » See p. 335 n. The ruins of Canossa still exist, on a height some fifteen 
 miles south-west of Reggio, and rather farther from Parma. 
 
 351 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 with opponents of the Empire, even with that iniquitous 
 wretch Benedict IX. 
 
 The other hostile power was that of the Normans. Their 
 story is told in another place. Here a few facts will suffice. 
 
 After they had been allowed by Conrad II to settle in the 
 province of Capua, the town of Aversa became their chief 
 stronghold. About ten years later (c. 1040) arrived, among 
 many other Norman adventurers, some of the numerous sons of 
 Tancred d'Hauteville, and the power of the Norman warriors, 
 who constantly seized new territory and frequently changed 
 sides among the various combatants (Byzantines, I/Ombards, 
 Dukes of Naples, etc.), became so formidable that the people of 
 Benevento applied to Pope I^eo IX and gave over their city 
 to him 1 on condition that he should procure aid for them 
 against these troublesome foes, l^eo accepted. He at once 
 started for Germany, and was able to procure a few soldiers 
 of fortune from Henry. With these and his own troops he 
 was marching southwards down the Adriatic coast when near 
 the promontory of Gargano he was met by the Normans, 
 among whose leaders was now the famous Robert Guiscard, 
 and was totally defeated and taken prisoner. But the victors, 
 says Villari, vanquished by reverence, cast themselves on their 
 knees before him, supplicating his forgiveness ; then they took 
 him to Benevento, where for six months they retained him as 
 hostage ! He probably bought his release by promising to 
 invest them with the sovranty of Apulia, Calabria, and even 
 Sicily — which still belonged to the Moslems. 
 
 I<eo IX died shortly after this disaster. Henry straight- 
 way nominated once more a German — the Bishop of Eichstadt 
 (Victor II). It will be noted that this was the fourth Pope 
 nominated by the Emperor and elected without any open 
 opposition by the people and clerics of Rome. No wonder 
 if these German monarchs began to regard the investiture of 
 Popes and bishops as a right inherent in the imperial, or even 
 the kingly, dignity. 
 
 Henry accompanied his Pope-designate to Italy. He had 
 
 1 Benevento remained under the overlordship of the Popes until i860, 
 
 352 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 begun to be very anxious about the machinations of Marquess 
 Boniface, and the death of Boniface (1052) had not relieved 
 his anxiety, for the widow married another of his adversaries, 
 namely Godfrey of IyOthringen. After the wedding Godfrey 
 had returned to his northern domains, and in order to nip 
 rebellion in the bud the Emperor seized the persons of Beatrice 
 and her daughter Matilda and carried them both off to Ger- 
 many. Shortly afterwards, in October 1056, he died. 
 
 His son, Henry IV, a child of six years, was proclaimed king 
 under the regency of his mother Agnes. In order to use his 
 long reign of fifty years as a kind of framework wherein to 
 insert sketches of some of the very numerous and varied scenes 
 that make up the history of Italy of these days it will be well 
 to divide it into four periods. 
 
 (1) For six years (from 1056 to 1062) the dowager-Empress 
 Agnes holds the regency with ever-increasing difficulty against 
 many rebellions. Then Anno, Archbishop of Coin, kidnaps 
 the youthful king and makes himself regent. (Agnes retires 
 to a convent and dies later at Rome.) Then the Bremen arch- 
 bishop obtains the regency. In 1066 Henry, being now of age, 
 assumes the government and rules vigorously and despotically, 
 making many enemies. In 1073 there is a great revolt of the 
 Saxons, and Henry is abandoned by nearly all the German 
 nobles. The cities however (especially the Rhine cities, such 
 as Worms) support him, and after much bloodshed he at last 
 gains some footing, and might have consolidated his power 
 had he not, perhaps unwisely, taken up the challenge of the 
 Papacy. 
 
 (2) From 1073 to 1084 rages the long and dramatic ' War 
 of the Investitures' between Henry and Hildebrand. The 
 chief events of this period are the humiliation of the excom- 
 municated king — now a young man of twenty-seven — at 
 Canossa in 1077, his victory over his rival, Rudolf of Suabia, 
 and his final triumph and coronation at Rome (1084), followed 
 by the rescue of the Pope and the sack of Rome by Robert 
 Guiscard and his Normans and Saracens. 
 
 (3) From 1085 to 1095 Henry rules his northern dominions 
 
 z 353 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 with some success and, except for a short campaign against 
 Matilda of Tuscany in 1090, when he captures Mantua and 
 other cities, has scarcely anything to do with Italy. 
 
 (4) From 1095 to his death in 1106 Henry's existence is 
 embittered by the rebellion of his sons. First the elder, 
 Conrad, is won over by the papal party and the Tuscan court 
 and is crowned at Monza and afterwards in S. Ambrogio at 
 Milan as King of Italy. Then his younger and well-loved son, 
 Henry — a cold-blooded, calculating wretch — is also seduced 
 by the priests and Countess Matilda, and after deposing his 
 brother Conrad (who dies in 1101) is joined by most of the 
 South German nobles. Once more the Rhineland cities prove 
 loyal to the king and the young rebel is induced to crave 
 forgiveness. His father meets him at Coblenz, embraces him 
 with tears, and trustfully follows him to one of his castles 
 (Bockelheim, in the Nahe valley), where he is caught, as in a 
 trap, and is forced to promise abdication. He, however, manages 
 s to escape, and again collects forces to oppose his unnatural 
 son ; but ere long he dies. The body of the still excom- 
 municated king was buried at Liittich (I,iege),butwas ejected 
 thence by the priests and, after resting for a time on an island 
 of the river Maas, was brought to Speyer, the immense Ro- 
 manesque cathedral at which place he had lately finished 
 building. For five years (till 1111) the corpse remained 
 ' above the earth,' probably in an upright position, in the 
 side-chapel of St. Afra, but finally the ban was removed and 
 it was entombed. 1 
 
 Now during the first two of these four periods some very 
 important occurrences took place in various parts of Italy. 
 But these will be related when we turn our attention to the 
 rise of the Communes and to the story of the coming of the 
 Normans. Here I shall limit myself to some of the causes 
 and events of the great ' War of the Investitures.' 
 
 The German Pope, Victor II, whom Henry III had nominated 
 
 - Here are buried (since 1900 mostly in new sarcophagi in the restored vault) 
 Conrad II, Henry III, Henry IV, Henry V, Philip, Rudolf von Habsburg, 
 Adolf, and Albrecht ; also Gisela (see p. 348). 
 
 354 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 (1054) had been charitable or politic enough to attempt a 
 reconciliation between the German and the Tuscan courts. 
 The dowager-Empress Agnes was persuaded to release Countess 
 Beatrice and her daughter Matilda, whom Henry had taken 
 as hostages to Germany, and to allow Duke Godfrey of Lorraine 
 to return to his wife and stepdaughter at Florence. On Vic- 
 tor's death Godfrey's brother, abbot of Monte Cassino, was 
 made Pope (Stephen IX), and all seemed to promise well. 
 But the Pope suddenly died at Florence, probably poisoned 
 by agents of the Roman nobility, and these nobles at once 
 elected one of the Counts of Tusculum (Benedict X). There- 
 upon Godfrey and Beatrice, with the consent of the Empress and 
 the counsel of monk Hildebrand and of another zealous reformer 
 and ascetic, Pietro Damiano of Ravenna, 1 chose the Bishop of 
 Florence, who as Pope Nicholas II established himself success- 
 fully at Rome, causing his rival Benedict to take to flight. 
 
 Thus the new party of reform, led by the untiring energy 
 and zeal of Hildebrand, was now in the ascendant. Nominally 
 the motive of this party was — as had been the case with the 
 first Cluny reformers, and as it was thirty years later with 
 St. Romuald and his reformed Benedictines of Camaldoli, and 
 also with the Vallombrosans and Carthusians 2 — indignation 
 against the gross immorality and simony of the clerics ; but 
 in the case of men such as Hildebrand the primary motive 
 was without any doubt chiefly political. By insisting on 
 celibacy (the worst of all methods for combating immorality) 
 such supporters of the Papacy hoped to secure the loyalty 
 of a large class that had no other ties and had given no 
 hostages to fortune — staccato,, as Balzani says, da ogni cura 
 d'affetti mondani ; and they revolted against lay investiture 
 not merely for such reasons as have led men to found Free 
 
 1 Met by Dante in Paradise (xxi, 121), where he utters fierce Miltonic 
 invectives against the moderni pastori. His copious writings in prose and in 
 verse are a strange medley of mysticism, asceticism, and polemics. 
 
 2 I<ess with the Cistercians and St. Bernard ; and I do not add either 
 Domenic or St. Francis, for Domenic's fiery fanaticism was directed against 
 intellectual heresy and St. Francis, ' all seraphical in ardour,' influenced 
 hearts rather than systems. 
 
 355 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Churches, but because the act of investiture was accompanied 
 by the bestowal of benefices (fiefs) which bound the cleric as 
 feudatory to his imperial overlord. Henry, for instance, in 
 his contest with the Papacy and the higher nobility was able 
 to look for support to a large number of his bishops and abbots 
 whom he claimed as his direct vassals. 
 
 Both Nicholas II and his successor, Alexander II (Bishop 
 Anselm of I/Ucca), had been elected by the Cardinals without 
 the sanction of Agnes or Henry. They were nominees of 
 Hildebrand, and by his instigation they passed decrees for- 
 bidding the marriage of clergy and giving the Cardinals, in 
 concert with the clergy and the people of Rome, the sole 
 right to elect Popes. And when in 1073 Hildebrand himself 
 ascended the papal throne as Gregory VII he did not long 
 hesitate before issuing what was practically a declaration of 
 war against Henry ; for by his Council of 1075 he caused 
 to be passed a decree vehemently condemning as simony 
 investiture, by laymen, declaring null the bestowal by King or 
 Emperor of ring and staff, deposing those bishops whom Henry 
 had instituted and excommunicating several of them, as well 
 as certain of Henry's officials to whom these prelates had, he 
 alleged, paid money for favouring their appointment. 
 
 In great indignation Henry assembled a council of his 
 ecclesiastics at Worms, and, doubtless keenly mindful of the 
 prerogative claimed and exercised by his own father, sent 
 word to inform Gregory that he was deposed. ' Henry, King, 
 not by usurpation, but by the holy will of God, to Hildebrand, 
 no longer Pope, but a false monk.' So the letter was addressed ; 
 and it ended thus : 'I, Henry, King by God's grace, and all 
 my bishops say to thee : Down, down, thou damned for all 
 eternity I ' 
 
 Hildebrand's answer was excommunication. In his writings 
 he has asserted 1 that the Pope has authority over all princes 
 of the earth and that he has the power of deposing even 
 
 1 The eight books of his Registers are praised by Balzani as worthy of 
 comparison with the writings of Gregory the Great. Words fail the Count 
 in his enthusiastic admiration for Hildebrand's character. 
 
 356 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Emperors : UU licet imperatores deponere. But to display the 
 courage of his opinion in this hitherto unheard-of fashion 
 was an audacious act. Nevertheless it was astoundingly 
 successful, for the German nobles, glad of the excuse, held an 
 assembly at Tribur, near Mainz, and informed Henry that unless 
 he obtained remission of the ban within the year (viz. by 
 February 2, 1077) they would renounce their fealty. There re- 
 mained but one course open to him. Accompanied by his wife 
 and by the excommunicated bishops and officials, he crossed the 
 Alps in the depth of winter in order to make his peace with the 
 pontiff. In I,ombardy, it is said, many offered their services, 
 inciting him to resistance ; but he was determined to carry 
 out his resolution, and as a barefoot suppliant clad in sack- 
 cloth he arrived at Matilda's ancestral castle of Canossa (p. 351) , 
 whither Gregory had withdrawn when he had heard of the 
 proffer of help made to the king by the Lombard cities. For 
 three days Henry and his companions, it is said, were kept 
 waiting amidst the snow outside the portal of the inner court. 
 When at last he was admitted he threw himself on his knees, 
 and finally received forgiveness and was allowed once more 
 to taste the sacramental wafer, promising to regard himself 
 as dethroned until re-elected by the nobles and people of the 
 realm. The contempt of the German nobles at this self- 
 abasement excited again a widespread rebellion, and Rudolf 
 of Suabia, Henry's brother-in-law, was proclaimed king. But 
 Henry acted with vigour and courage, and was aided by 
 Frederick of Staufen, the first notability of that illustrious 
 house, afterwards son-in-law of Henry and Duke of Suabia. 
 A battle was fought (October 1080) at Merseburg, the town 
 near I^eipzig already famous for the struggle of Henry I against 
 the Hungarians. Here Rudolf was killed, it is said, by Godfrey 
 of Bouillon, who was made Duke of Suabia in Rudolf's stead, 
 and in later days won world-wide renown as the Crusader che 
 7 gran sepolcro Ubero di Cristo and refused to wear a kingly 
 crown in the city where the King of Kings had worn a crown of 
 thorns. 
 
 These acts had revived Henry's feud with the Pope, who 
 
 357 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 again deposed and excommunicated him, recognizing Rudolf 
 as king. Henry at once responded by holding another coun- 
 cil of his bishops, this time at Mainz, and again deposing 
 Gregory, in whose stead he caused Wibert, Archbishop of 
 Ravenna, to be elected. After the victory at Merseburg he 
 descended into Italy, assumed the iron crown at Pavia, be- 
 sieged Rome thrice (his army suffering much from malaria), 
 and towards the end of 1082 forced his way into the leonine 
 quarter. Gregory took refuge in the mighty stronghold of 
 the Castle of S. Angelo. In 1083 Henry crossed the Tiber, 
 seized the Lateran, and summoned all the nobles and clerics 
 of Rome (including Gregory, who did not appear) to a council, 
 which confirmed the election of Wibert as Pope ; and at 
 Easter of the year 1084 in St. Peter's basilica this new Pope, 
 known generally as the Antipope Clement, crowned Henry and 
 his queen Bertha as Emperor and Empress. 
 
 All this time Pope Gregory was safely ensconced in the 
 huge fortress of S. Angelo and was waiting for succour. This 
 succour he expected, and not vainly, from the Normans, who 
 had by this time under various leaders, and especially under 
 Robert Guiscard, established themselves permanently in South 
 Italy and had become a formidable power. They had, as 
 will be remembered, totally defeated I,eo IX and had made 
 him prisoner. But a few years later (1060) Pope Nicholas II 
 seems to have sanctioned the usurpations and conquests of 
 the Northmen and to have made promises of investing them 
 with the sovranty of Calabria and even of Sicily — as soon as 
 they could conquer it from the Saracens — and in 1080 Robert 
 Guiscard, invested as Duke of Apulia and Calabria by Hilde- 
 brand, had sworn fealty to him as his feudatory and had 
 confirmed the claims of the Papacy to Benevento. 
 
 This clever stroke of papal policy had made the Normans 
 a mainstay of the Papacy. It might well be asked by what 
 right the Popes claimed to be overlords of the Apulian and 
 Calabrian duchies — to say nothing of Sicily, which was still 
 in the power of the Saracens. But, even if their right was 
 founded on nothing more solid than the fictitious Donation 
 358 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 of Constantine, the result of their diplomacy was real enough ; 
 for in response to Gregory's despairing appeal Robert Guiscard 
 marched on Rome with about 40,000 men, among whom were 
 many Saracen mercenaries. Three days before his arrival 
 Henry had prudently withdrawn northwards, promising to 
 return with a large army. The Normans forced their way 
 into the city and it was given over to pillage (May 1084). On 
 no former occasion, it is said, did Rome suffer so terribly from 
 its captors. The destruction of innumerable monuments and 
 of many fine churches (S. Clemente among them) is attributed 
 to Robert Guiscard's Saracens. As for Pope Gregory, he was 
 released from his long confinement in the Mole of Hadrian, 
 but found it advisable to leave Rome with his rescuers, and 
 died during the next year at Salerno. His last words are often 
 quoted by his admirers : Dilexi justiUam, odi iniquitatem ; 
 propterea morior in exilio. The assertion does not seem 
 remarkably original or remarkably true. 
 
 During the third period of Henry's reign (1085-95) only a 
 few events took place that need here be chronicled. At Rome 
 there were, as so often, constantly recurring disorders caused 
 by the never-ending broils between the various clerical and 
 lay factions. The facts given in the I^ist of Popes will perhaps 
 suffice as an index to these disturbances. The election of 
 Urban II, a French monk of Cluny and Bishop of Ostia, who 
 vigorously forwarded the policy of Hildebrand, is noticeable 
 both on account of his impious instigation of Conrad against his 
 father and because of the fame that he has acquired by his 
 advocacy of the first Crusade. Three years after his election he 
 was for a time forced to flee from Rome because, when Henry 
 undertook a successful raid on Tuscany, the Romans, fearing 
 his vengeance, made themselves masters of S. Angelo and invited 
 the Antipope Clement to return. But Clement's triumph was 
 brief, and in 1093 Urban resumed his seat on the throne of 
 the I^ateran. Other and perhaps more important occurrences, 
 which will be related in a subsequent chapter, were the 
 brilliant exploits of Robert Guiscard and his Normans in 
 Dalmatia, his death in 1085, and the final overthrow of the 
 
 359 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Saracens and the conquest of Sicily by his brother, Count 
 Roger, in 1091. 
 
 Of the fourth period (1095-1106) the most momentous event 
 — one of almost world-wide influence — was doubtless the first 
 Crusade. It affected Italy more than Germany, where, says 
 Miiller, ' one gazed astounded at the savage hordes of hermits 
 streaming past,' and where the deplorable feud between Henry 
 and his sons prevented any large participation in the wild 
 enthusiasm aroused by the preaching of Peter of Amiens ; 
 but Italy itself was not swept by the tornado that half- 
 depopulated France. 1 Although several Popes, among them 
 the German I,eo IX, had expressed the longing to liberate 
 Christ's sepulchre, the proposal to realize the design, being 
 evidently due to the French reformers of Cluny, had perhaps 
 failed to inspire the Italians when at Piacenza and afterwards 
 at Clermont Urban the Frenchman proclaimed the Crusade. 
 Possibly too in the Communes, such as Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, 
 the anxiety for their vastly extended trade chilled the ardour 
 of fanaticism. Perhaps also the near presence of the Moslems 
 in Sicily and the hostility of the Normans against the Eastern 
 Fmperor (who sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to beg 
 help against the Turks) checked the movement in South Italy. 
 But not a few Italian Normans did join in the Crusade, among 
 whom Bohemund, Guiscard's eldest son, was conspicuous, and 
 Italy gave valuable aid in transporting immense numbers of 
 Crusaders, who passed through Rome and took ship at Bari, 
 and were consternated at the state of heathen savagery that 
 they found in the metropolis of Christianity. 
 
 We now pass to the reign of Henry V. His relations with 
 the Papacy were at first apparently friendly, but ere long he 
 too found that the right of investiture, which secured him the 
 fealty of his bishops, was indispensable, and as Pope Paschal 
 obstinately refused to concede this right, the king crossed 
 the Alps (mo) with his army. The Lombard towns, except 
 
 1 Six millions are said to have taken the red cross. A vast multitude 
 followed Peter and almost wholly perished before the real host of the Crusaders 
 left Europe. 
 
 360 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Milan and Pavia, acknowledged him, and even at Florence 
 he was received by the Countess Matilda, who some twenty 
 years before, at the age of forty-three, had taken as second 
 husband a young man of eighteen — the heir of the Bavarian 
 ducal family of the Welfs, or Guelfs, who were resolute allies 
 of the Popes and adversaries of the Franconian Emperors. 1 
 
 Pope Paschal was in difficulties. He could look for help 
 neither to Matilda and her Tuscans nor to the Normans of 
 South Italy, who were just then under the rule of the weak 
 and sickly William, grandson of Robert Guiscard. He there- 
 fore agreed to sign a compact by which the Church should 
 renounce the temporal while retaining the ecclesiastical 
 rights of investiture, and consented to crown Henry as Em- 
 peror. But when the document was read to the clerics and 
 nobles assembled to view the coronation in St. Peter's a 
 violent tumult arose, and Henry found it advisable to make 
 prisoners of the Pope and sixteen cardinals and take them 
 off to Tivoli. Finally Pope Paschal yielded. He signed a 
 Privilegium by which he conceded to the king the right of 
 investiture ' with ring and staff,' and in April mi the corona- 
 tion that had been so roughly interrupted was consummated. 
 
 Henry V was now at the acme of his good fortune, and he 
 strengthened his influence by marrying (1113) an English 
 princess — Maud, or Matilda, daughter of Henry I, who after- 
 wards became the wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet and the mother 
 of Henry II of England. 
 
 In 1115 Countess Matilda died, at the age of sixty-nine. 
 Her juvenile husband had left her long ago, and she had no 
 legal heir. She left almost all her possessions to the Roman 
 Church. But, whatever right she may have had to bequeath 
 her freehold (allodial) property, she certainly had none to 
 
 1 The Guelfs and Ghibellines derived their names from these Bavarian 
 ' Welfen ' and from the ' Waiblinger,' i.e. the anti-papal and afterwards 
 imperial family of the Hohenstaufer, whose founder had been made Duke 
 of Suabia by Henry IV (p. 357), and who took their name from their castle 
 on the ' High Staufen ' (2000 feet), some twelve miles east of Stuttgart. They 
 were also called ' Waiblinger ' from the village of Waiblingen in the same 
 district. 
 
 361 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 bequeath to any but a legal heir the hereditary fiefs that she 
 held (illegally, it was affirmed, being a woman and a rebel) 
 as a feudatory of the crown. And even if we assume that her 
 title as independent ruler was confirmed by the Tuscan people, 
 she assuredly had not the power to hand over the country 
 with or without sovran rights, to the Popes, or to anybody 
 else. The legacy however brought good as well as evil in 
 its train, for, although Tuscany was hereafter much worried 
 and mauled by Popes and Emperors, several of the Tuscan 
 cities used the opportunity to throw off their vassalage and to 
 declare themselves independent. The history of the Florentine 
 republic begins with the death of Countess Matilda. 
 
 In 1117, as these Tuscan cities refused to receive Henry's 
 Vicars and as Pope Paschal had recanted his Privilegium, the 
 king again crossed the Alps with an army. He seems to have 
 feared to attack the allied Communes, and made straight for 
 Rome, determined to exact not only a confirmation of his 
 privileges but also a repetition of the ceremony of coronation-. 
 Pope Paschal however had taken flight. Henry therefore 
 induced a cardinal to crown him, and departed. But on the 
 death of Paschal he came hurrying back and caused this 
 cardinal (Burdino) to be elected Pope — or rather Antipope, for 
 the Roman people had already elected Gelasius II. Great 
 tumults ensued. Finally, Gelasius having died in exile at 
 Cluny, an able and resolute anti-imperialist was consecrated 
 by the cardinals assembled at Vienne, in France. This Pope, 
 who was Archbishop of Vienne and related to the French 
 king and to Henry, took the name of Calixtus II. He forth- 
 with excommunicated Henry's Antipope and also Henry 
 himself, and this bold move was successful, for the Antipope 
 came to a pitiable end x and Henry, wearied out by opposition 
 at home and abroad, at last accepted the agreement (Concordat) 
 drawn up by a Council held at Worms in 1122. 
 
 By the terms of the Concordat Henry V renounced the right 
 
 1 Betrayed and captured, this ex-cardinal was exhibited in the streets of 
 Rome seated backwards on a camel and clothed in a shaggy goatskin. He 
 was then expelled, and died in misery in some convent. 
 362 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 of electing prelates and investing them ' with ring and staff.' 
 His envoy was allowed to be present at the investiture ; but 
 this was an empty form. He was also allowed to bestow, by 
 a touch of his sceptre, the temporalities — that is, to give over 
 the lands and revenues of the office to the newly elected dignitary 
 — often no very valuable kingly privilege. Altogether kingship 
 was a considerable loser by this Concordat. The demesnes 
 of the great nobles were originally conquered or confiscated 
 lands for which, as being a loan (Lehen), they owed fealty 
 to the crown ; but by letting out estates to tenants 
 (subinfeudation) or promising protection in return for vassal- 
 age (a process called recommandation) these great nobles had 
 secured a very large class of private vassals, who professed 
 to owe no fealty to the king. This state of things was ener- 
 getically opposed by the German kings (as also by our Norman 
 kings) , but with small success. They therefore relied to a great 
 extent on the bishops and other Church dignitaries whom 
 they elected, and who were their feudatories in virtue of the 
 vast ecclesiastical benefices which composed a great deal of 
 the landed property in the realm. But by the Worms Con- 
 cordat the king lost the power of electing men devoted to 
 his interests, and the kingly power suffered greatly from this 
 extension of papal prerogative. 1 
 
 (5) The Hohenstaufen Emperors 
 
 Both Calixtus and Henry V died not long after the Con- 
 cordat of Worms. Henry was childless, and once more the 
 nobles (most of whom were glad enough to exercise their 
 powers as electors and thus protest against a hereditary king- 
 ship) assembled at Tribur. Frederick of Staufen, son of that 
 Frederick who had been made Duke of Suabia by Henry IV 
 
 1 In this connexion the following passage is full of interest : ' William 
 [the Conqueror] enforced his supremacy over the Church. Homage was 
 exacted from bishop as from baron. No synod could legislate without his 
 assent. . . . He was the one ruler of his time who dared firmly to repudiate 
 the claims ... of the court of Rome. When Gregory VII called on him 
 to do fealty for his realm, the king sternly refused to admit the claim. Fealty, 
 he said, / have never willed to do, nor will I do it now.' (Green's Short History, 
 «. 5) 
 
 363 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and had married his daughter, was the foremost claimant; 
 but the Concordat was already bearing its fruit, and the 
 archbishops together with the anti-imperial nobles succeeded 
 in rejecting both Frederick and his brother Conrad as being 
 ' too full of the Waibling spirit.' A devoted son of the Church, 
 the former leader of the Saxon and Welf rebels, was chosen, 
 kothair (I,othar) by name. Frederick at first refused to give 
 up certain royal demesnes which he claimed through his 
 mother, but finally the Staufen family agreed to recognize 
 the new king — not however until Conrad had been recognized 
 as King of Italy and Emperor-designate by the people of 
 Milan (1130) and had been crowned with the iron crown at 
 Monza. In 1133 1/Othair went to Rome. Here there had been, 
 as so often, serious disturbances caused by the election of 
 rival Popes. One was Innocent II, the nominee of the powerful 
 family of the Frangipani ; the other was Anacletus, of the old 
 Jewish-Roman family of the Pierleoni, monk of Cluny and 
 disciple of the famous Abelard of Paris. Anacletus had gained 
 the mastery at Rome and Innocent had fled to France, where 
 he was strongly supported by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who 
 was a vehement opponent of Abelard and his teachings. 
 St. Bernard was commissioned by I,ouis of France to decide 
 between the rival Popes, and naturally enough decided against 
 Anacletus. But force was needed in order to restore Innocent, 
 and the orthodox Lothair undertook the task, and incidentally 
 had himself crowned Emperor at Rome by Pope Innocent 
 (1133). His pious gratitude for this favour induced him to 
 accept investiture from the Pope for his sovran rights over 
 the quondam territories of Matilda — thus acknowledging the 
 validity of Matilda's I/egacy and degrading himself to a vassal 
 of the Papacy. 
 
 Roger the Norman of Sicily, who had proclaimed himself 
 king in 1130, had been recognized by Anacletus, but not by 
 Innocent. He now began to make himself master of the south 
 of Italy, and Innocent appealed to I/Othair, who came with his 
 army and with Genoese and Pisan ships, and, being aided 
 by the revolted cities of Naples and Capua, was able to chase 
 364 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Roger back to Sicily. But ere long I^othair and his army 
 disappeared northwards, and when news came of his death 
 (he died in December 1137, soon after crossing the Alps) Roger 
 returned and not only reconquered all that he had lost, but 
 defeated and captured Innocent and by generous treatment 
 gained at last the confirmation of his kingly title. 
 
 The Welf Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, Henry the Proud, to 
 whom Dothair had given over in mesne-tenure the territories 
 of Matilda, and who was thus master of a vast realm, expected 
 to be elected king and had already possessed himself of the 
 royal insignia. But once more the German people shrank 
 from choosing a too powerful candidate and from perpetuating 
 the claims of either rival house. Even before the diet met 
 at Tribur the Waiblinger, Conrad of Staufen, was proclaimed 
 and crowned, and Duke Henry found it advisable to surrender 
 the insignia ; and ere long he had to surrender also his Saxon 
 duchy, for the fierce outbursts of the Welf and Waibling feud 
 that distracted the nation during these years ended at last in 
 favour of Conrad. 
 
 Amid such disturbances it was not likely that Conrad III 
 should have much to do with Italy; but it will be re- 
 membered that while competing with I^othair for the German 
 crown he had succeeded, although he was excommunicated, 
 in persuading the Archbishop of Milan to crown him with the 
 iron crown, as King of Italy and Emperor-designate. It was 
 therefore naturally his ambition to realize his claims to these 
 titles, and later we shall find him attempting to do so. Mean- 
 while however Rome again claims our attention. 
 
 The republican movement, which was already effecting 
 great results in the north of Italy, had been seriously counter- 
 acted in the south by the conquests of the Normans. In 
 Rome itself, although fiercely suppressed by powerful families, 
 such as those of the Tusculan counts, the Crescenzi and 
 the Frangipani, and by such Popes as were the tools of the 
 aristocratic and the imperialistic factions, the spirit of liberty 
 had asserted itself so far that the civil government of the 
 city was already to a great extent that of a Commune, 
 
 36S 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the army, divided into twelve scholae corresponding to the 
 twelve divisions of Rome, being together with its twelve 
 commanders (banderesi) under popular control. But a sudden 
 and violent outburst of feeling was now to develop Rome for 
 a time into a full-blown republic. The little town of Tibur 
 (Tivoli) , whose love of freedom had deeply annoyed the freedom- 
 lovers in Rome, had been mastered, but obstinately refused 
 to submit to the Roman people, on the ground that the Pope 
 was the one supreme Roman authority; and when Pope 
 Innocent publicly supported this theory a revolution took 
 place : the Republic was proclaimed, the Prefecture abolished, 
 and the Senate, reconstructed mainly of burghers instead of 
 patricians, was installed on the Capitol. 1 In the same year 
 (1143) Innocent died, and also his successor, Celestin II. The 
 next Pope, IyUcius II, received a fatal blow from a stone while 
 attempting to storm the Capitol at the head of a band of 
 nobles ; his successor, Eugenius III, elected during the very 
 same day, had to flee from Rome. 2 As Consul or chief 
 senator of the new republic was chosen Giordano, apparently 
 a renegade member of the aristocratic family of the Pierleoni, 
 for he was, it is said, a brother of the Antipope Anacletus. 
 Under his presidency the resuscitated Roman Republic seems 
 to have established itself on a fairly firm basis, from which 
 even the combined efforts of Barbarossa and Breakspear 
 failed to dislodge it. To judge from its coinage, in its earlier 
 days it recognized the Emperor as its overlord, but allowed 
 
 1 It was a few years later that Arnold of Brescia persuaded the Romans to 
 rebuild the Capitol. Amidst the desolation of its mighty ruins the ' Novum 
 Palatium ' (Palazzo del Senatore) arose on the mass of the ancient Tabularium. 
 In documents of 1150 this New Palace is mentioned as the assembly-place of 
 the republican Senate. It was here that Petrarch was crowned (1341). The 
 fine flight of steps from the Piazza del Campidoglio was designed by Michel- 
 angelo, who rebuilt much of this part of the Capitol and removed hither the 
 famous equestrian statue of M. Aurelius (see p. 338). 
 
 * He was consecrated in the Abbey of Farfa. This powerful monastic 
 centre in the Sabine country, rivalling Monte Cassino, had been destroyed by 
 the Saracens, but was rebuilt and became so notorious for immorality that 
 Alberich had tried to reform it forcibly. Eugenius, after various attempts 
 to establish himself in Rome, withdrew to France, preached the Crusade, 
 and vented his wrath by excommunicating Arnold. 
 
 366 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 the Pope no part in the government, insisting that he should 
 renounce all temporal power and content himself with tithes 
 and oblations. 
 
 This revolution was formerly believed to have been incited 
 and led by Arnold of Brescia ; but it seems certain that, 
 although his doctrines had already spread through the whole 
 of Italy * and doubtless exercised very great influence on the 
 Roman republicans, he himself was not present in 1143, since 
 he first came to Rome in 1145. 
 
 Arnold, a native of Brescia, had studied under Abelard 
 at Paris and had imbibed intense enthusiasm for ancient 
 Rome and for republican liberty.. On his return to Italy he 
 became friar and preached fervidly against all forms of tyranny, 
 and especially against the temporal power of the Popes, his 
 favourite text being apostolic poverty, such as St. Benedict 
 praised when Dante met him in heaven ; 
 
 Pier comincio senz' oro e senz' argento, 
 Ed io con orazione e con digiuno. 
 
 But Arnold's eloquence was received coldly, even in Brescia, 
 and he returned to France, where his master Abelard was 
 succumbing under the attacks of St. Bernard ; and the angry 
 saint, having crushed the heresiarch, turned on the disciple. 
 Arnold was expelled, and seems to have spent some years, 
 perhaps as a teacher, in Zurich — afterwards the home of a 
 more successful theologian, Zwingli. In 1145 we find him 
 in Rome, where his political theories were being largely put 
 into practice. For ten years his zeal and learning inspired 
 and guided the young republic, and, had his highest ideal been 
 reaEzed — the ideal of a truly apostolic Papacy, enthroned far 
 above all greed of worldly wealth and power — how many 
 centuries of misery would Italy, and humanity, have been 
 spared ! But the cowardly vacillation of Conrad and the blind 
 policy of Barbarossa in his earlier days, exploited by the over- 
 weening ambition of an English Pope, frustrated what might 
 
 1 They had been formally condemned in 1 139 by the same Lateran Council 
 which accepted St. Bernard's condemnation of Anacletus. 
 
 367 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 have proved a more salutary and radical reformation than that 
 of IyUther's age. 
 
 In 1 147 the second Crusade, due greatly to the preach- 
 ing of St. Bernard, attracted a million fighters from Western 
 Europe. It created more enthusiasm in Germany than the 
 first Crusade had done, and Conrad III finally determined to 
 join it. For two years he was in the East, and it is interest- 
 ing to note that in his retinue were two warriors whose 
 names awake in our minds two very vivid but very different 
 trains of reminiscence. One of these was his nephew, the 
 young Frederick of Staufen (Barbarossa), who many years 
 afterwards returned, as a Crusader, to these Eastern lands 
 and died there. The other was an ancestor of Dante — his 
 great-grandfather, Cacciaguida — who when he met the poet 
 in the heaven of Mars (Par. xv) told him that on earth he 
 had ' followed the Emperor Conrad,' who ' begirt him of his 
 chivalry,' i.e. knighted him. 
 
 But this ' imperador Currado ' was never crowned Emperor. 
 When, in 1149, he returned from the East the Roman senators, 
 possibly on the advice of Arnold, sent him several grandilo- 
 quent epistles. The last of these, which is interlarded with 
 barbarous hexameters, addressed him as ' I^ord of the City 
 and the whole World ' and as ' King of the Romans ' and 
 ' Augustus,' and besought him to come and re-establish the 
 glories of the Roman Empire as it was under Constantine and 
 Justinian, before it was ruined by the Popes and the nobles. 
 It intimated also, rightly enough, that the Roman people, 
 and not the Pope, was the true donor of the imperial dignity. 
 
 But Conrad hesitated. He had neither the wisdom nor the 
 courage to accept the offer. At length he wrote that he 
 would come ' to re-establish order, to strengthen the loyalty 
 of his friends and to punish rebels ' — a somewhat ambiguous 
 reply, which filled the republican party with apprehensions. 
 And these apprehensions were greatly increased when it was 
 heard that Conrad had made overtures to Pope Eugenius, 
 who had come back from France and had been for the last 
 three years wandering about from place to place in I^atium. 
 368 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Finally Conrad, having overmastered certain troublesome 
 Welf insurgents in Germany, wrote — not to the Senate, which 
 he ignored, but to the newly reinstituted Prefect and other 
 magistrates — and made known his intention of visiting Rome 
 and being crowned, not by senatorial delegates, but by the 
 Pope. This intention was, however, not carried out, for he 
 died in February of 1152, before the preparations for his 
 journey were complete. 
 
 Conrad left a son only eight years old. He therefore re- 
 commended the electors to choose his nephew and fellow- 
 Crusader, Frederick of Staufen, now thirty-one years of age. 
 Frederick's policy as regards Italy was soon revealed. When 
 the Roman Senate sent him, as they had sent Conrad, a turgid 
 epistle intimating that the S.P.Q.R. would be proud to invest 
 him with the title of Emperor, he answered that his fore- 
 fathers had won that title by arms and ' let him who dares 
 try to wrest the club from Hercules.' He was determined 
 to slay the hydra of republican liberty. He then wrote to 
 Pope Eugenius, who answered inflaming his wrath still more 
 against these insolent senators and undertook to crown him 
 if he came and subjected Rome, as he had promised, to the 
 Empire and to the Holy Church. Nor did Frederick delay 
 his coming long. As soon as he had established his authority 
 firmly in his northern dominions — had bestowed the crowns 
 of Denmark and Bohemia and had annexed Burgundy — he 
 crossed the Alps and in November 1154 held a great diet of 
 all his Italian feudatories, lay and cleric, on the plain of 
 Roncaglia, not far from Piacenza. True to his policy, he took 
 severe measures against the growing independence of the 
 I^ombard cities ; and ' envy, the bane of republics,' stood him 
 in good stead, for grievous jealousies and strife had already 
 arisen between them, and some eagerly seized the opportunity 
 of accusing their rivals. Milan especially was bitterly assailed 
 by less flourishing and more imperialistic cities, such as its 
 neighbour Pavia, and incurred Frederick's fiercest displeasure 
 by refusing him his regalian rights (e.g. custom-dues, coinage, 
 food for his soldiers, and so on) and inciting resistance when 
 
 2 A 369 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 he attempted to abolish the consuls and other republican 
 magistrates and to impose German governors (Podestd) with 
 dictatorial powers. He deemed it inadvisable to attack Milan 
 itself, but vented his wrath by demolishing two of its allies — 
 little Tortona, which stood a siege heroically for two months 
 (and was soon rebuilt by the Milanese), and Asti, famous in a 
 later age for its wine and for Alfieri. 
 
 Meantime Pope Eugenius and also his successor had died, 
 and the Englishman Breakspear (Hadrian IV) had ascended 
 the papal throne. His pride and impetuosity (which ere he 
 died made him confess that the most miserable mortal on earth 
 was a Pope) were soon in evidence. A cardinal had been 
 attacked in the street — perhaps by anti-clerical republicans. 
 Hadrian, who knew that Frederick would soon be there to 
 aid him, forthwith does what no Pope had ever ventured to 
 do — he lays the whole city under interdict. No religious 
 functions are permitted save baptism and last sacrament. So 
 terrified are the Romans that even the senators finally entreat 
 pardon ; and they gain it by the expulsion of Arnold of Brescia, 
 who wanders as a fugitive from place to place, dreading the 
 vengeance of the English pontiff, while Hadrian enthrones 
 himself triumphantly in the Lateran. And now Frederick, 
 ' smoking with the blood of the Lombard Communes,' appears 
 before the gates of Rome. Arnold is betrayed and handed 
 over by the Emperor to the Pope, and by the Pope to the 
 Prefect, who has him hanged and burnt. The Senate, imagining 
 that by this dastardly act the grace of the German monarch 
 has been secured, sends to his camp a message of fulsome flattery 
 and proposes once more to bestow on him the title of Emperor, 
 But the envoys are disdainfully dismissed and Frederick 
 marches his soldiery into the Leonine quarter and occupies 
 St. Peter's basilica ; and here Pope Hadrian, a few days after 
 he has handed over Arnold to the gallows and the pyre, lays 
 the imperial diadem on the head of his benefactor (June 1155). 
 
 But this unnatural alliance — this puttaneggiar co' regi — 
 was bound to prove short-lived. A very serious fight had 
 taken place, on and near the S. Angelo bridge, after the corona- 
 
 37° 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 tion. About a thousand Roman citizens had been killed or 
 drowned. Intense indignation prevailed, and Frederick found 
 it advisable to escape from Rome and hurry northwards, 
 leaving the Pope and his cardinals safely deposited in Tivoli. 
 It was with difficulty that he forced his way through his 
 disaffected Italian dominions, and when once more at home 
 he began to revise his policy. He had already been angered by 
 the papal claims to Tuscany (Matilda's territories), and by the 
 fact that Hadrian, like several of his predecessors, had sought 
 to strengthen himself by alliance with the Norman depredators 
 and usurpers, and had even presumed to act as overlord of 
 South Italy and Sicily and to invest Roger's son, William 
 the Bad, with kingship. But worse was to follow. Ignoring 
 the Concordat of Worms, Frederick had begun to appoint his 
 own German bishops. Hadrian protested, and in his letter 
 alluded to the late coronation as the bestowal by himself of 
 the beneficium (fief) of the Empire, implying that Frederick 
 was his feudatory. Hereupon took place a great outburst 
 of indignation. The papal friendship was flung to the winds, 
 and with a powerful army and a number of lay and clerical 
 jurists Frederick again (July 1158) crossed the Alps, in order 
 to chastise the insubordinate Communes 1 and to decide once 
 for all his rights as Emperor in regard to Popes and republics. 
 Milan was forced to surrender, and its citizens, together with 
 their archbishop and their consuls, had to present themselves 
 as barefoot and ash-strewn suppliants with cords round their 
 necks, and when the ensigns on their Carroccio were lowered 
 in obeisance the whole multitude sank on their knees and 
 begged for mercy. 
 
 The conclusions arrived at by Frederick's lawyers assembled 
 at Roncaglia were drawn mainly from antiquated Justinian 
 definitions and gave the Emperor an authority incompatible 
 with constitutional government. Moreover, very unjust dis- 
 tinctions were made, some cities receiving much liberty and 
 
 1 The original champions of liberty were Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, Parma, 
 and Modena. On the other side were Pavia, Como, Ivodi, and Cremona (for 
 a time). Genoa and Pisa were favoured by Frederick, who hoped to use 
 their fleets. 
 
 37* 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 others being enslaved. But the humiliation of Milan had 
 cowed resistance. One brave little town, Crema, alone defied 
 the German despot, and after a siege x of six months was taken 
 and demolished. 
 
 The break with Frederick now induced the Papacy to form 
 another unnatural alliance. Though in Rome it was a deadly 
 foe to republican freedom, it was keen-witted enough to sue the 
 friendship of the northern Communes and to support them 
 against the common enemy. On Hadrian's decease in 1159 
 a Pope not less strong-willed and ambitious had been elected 
 by the clerical party. But great tumults had ensued, and 
 Alexander III was so successfully opposed by the Antipope 
 Victor, elected by Roman imperialists, that he had to flee to 
 France, and to console himself by futile excommunication of 
 both the Antipope and the Emperor. Thus for the present 
 the cause of the Communes was not aided by the papal alliance, 
 and when Frederick in 1161, irritated by the reviving impudence 
 of Milan, laid siege to that city no succour, arrived. After a 
 long and heroic resistance it was taken (1162), and, as was to 
 be expected, it was almost totally destroyed and depopulated * 
 — a fate that it had suffered more than once in days long past. 
 
 But freedom's banner streams like the thunder-storm against 
 the wind. Driven to despair, the North Italian cities, led by 
 the now powerful and independent Venice, began to combine, 
 and when towards the end of 1163 Frederick for the third time 
 made a descent upon Italy he found it advisable to beat a 
 retreat. Three years later he returned with a larger army ; 
 but meanwhile the league, 3 newly constituted by Venice, 
 Verona, Padua, and Vicenza, had extended itself through 
 
 1 It is asserted that the Germans bound a number of captive children to 
 a movable siege-tower ; but the besieged repelled it, slaving their own children 
 rather than surrender. 
 
 * Both in the siege and in the barbarous destruction of Milan several 
 Lombard cities, among them Como, took a large and shameful part. Few 
 of the churches were spared. 8. Ambrogio was one of these. 
 
 ' The League as constituted in December 1167 included sixteen large 
 cities. In 1 168 even Como joined. I refer here, once for all, to the very full 
 account of the League and of the rise and nature of the North Italian Com- 
 munes given by Sismondi in his huge Histoire des ripubliques italiennes. 
 I touch slightly on these subjects in my chapter on the Communes. 
 372 
 
32. Baptistery Portai,, Voi,terra 
 
 3/2 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 I/mibardy and was being joined even by cities, such as Cre- 
 mona, that hitherto had been imperialistic. Moreover, at Rome 
 the imperial cause was waning. Victor, Frederick's Antipope, 
 had died, and although the imperial faction had forthwith 
 elected another (Paschal), the fugitive Pope Alexander III had 
 returned from France and had expelled the rival pontiff. 
 
 Frederick thought it best to strike first at Rome. He there- 
 fore left the northern cities unmolested, and having reduced 
 Ancona (a strategical position necessary to cover his advance) 
 he pushed southwards, and in the height of an exceedingly 
 hot and pestilential summer (1167) he entered the Leonine 
 quarter. But the Romans showed fight, and the Germans 
 were unable to force their way across the Tiber into the city 
 or even to capture S. Angelo. It was as much as they could 
 do to occupy St. Peter's with troops while Antipope Paschal 
 went through the ceremony of crowning Frederick's consort 
 as Empress. And they had been hardly a fortnight in Rome 
 when a virulent malarial epidemic, or perhaps the plague, 
 broke out, and Frederick hastily led his army northwards. 
 Many of his retinue, nobles and generals and prelates, fell 
 victims to the pestilence, and about 2000 of his fighting men ; 
 nor did the mortality cease for some time after Germany was 
 reached. 1 
 
 Pavia was almost the only large Lombard town that had not 
 joined the League. It proved a constant annoyance to Milan, 
 which had been rebuilt and refortified in an incredibly short 
 time by the enthusiasm of the allies. 2 In order to check Pavia 
 also from the south the town of Alessandria was now built, 
 and in a short time could furnish 15,000 fighters* Its name 
 signalized the friendship of Pope Alexander, but it received 
 from its enemies the contemptuous sobriquet of the ' city 
 of straw ' — in allusion to its supposed frailty or to its hastily 
 
 1 Thomas a Becket wrote congratulating Pope Alexander on the * fate of 
 Sennacherib.' 
 
 * The great circular moat (the inner Naviglio of to-day), made in 1157 
 and destroyed in 1162, was now restored. This would take less time than 
 building walls, and Milan, since the removal of the old Roman walls of the 
 inner city, relied mainly on its moat. 
 
 373 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 erected straw-roofed houses. Frail it certainly proved itself 
 not to be, for when, after a pause of six years, Frederick made 
 his fifth descent on Italy and . attempted to capture this city 
 of straw he was compelled to withdraw his troops after five 
 months of ineffectual siege, and shortly afterwards he was totally 
 defeated by the allies at I^egnano, some twelve miles north-east 
 of Milan. So overwhelming was the catastrophe that Frederick 
 himself disappeared in the general rout, and is said to have 
 reached Pavia with great difficulty three days after the battle. 
 
 This disaster made Frederick realize the impotence of fury 
 and inhumanity in a contest with those who were ready to die 
 for liberty. His nature, too, was not so wholly cruel and 
 ignoble that he could not feel some admiration for heroism. He 
 agreed on the proposal of Doge Ziani to meet at Venice not 
 only Pope Alexander and envoys from William the Good of 
 Sicily, but even delegates from the allied cities. This was the 
 first time that republican envoys had ever met a Pope or an 
 Emperor on equal terms. It was therefore an event that 
 promised great things Perhaps it was the most momentous 
 crisis that ever occurred in Italian history. Alas that so fair 
 a promise should have been frustrated by those intestine feuds 
 which caused Italy to ' cast away the pearl of great price, 
 and sacrifice even the recollection of that liberty which had 
 stalked as a majestic spirit among the ruins of Milan.' * 
 
 The meeting of Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander 
 at Venice in the summer of 1177 has been described so often 
 (sometimes without any reference to I^egnano and the delegates 
 of the Lombard republics !) that it may here be passed over 
 lightly. In the Atrio of St. Mark's three porphyry slabs in 
 the pavement are believed to commemorate the splendid and 
 dramatic function; but it doubtless took place as described 
 by an eye-witness, 2 outside or under the great portal. The 
 results of the Venetian conference were the deposition of 
 Calixtus (the third of Frederick's Antipopes), a peace of fifteen 
 
 1 Hallam's Middle Ages, I, iii. 
 
 * The Archbishop of Salerno. The bronze horses over the portal were 
 brought from Constantinople twenty-seven years later. Most of the present 
 external mosaics are modern productions of no artistic value. 
 
 374 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 years with William of Sicily, and a truce of six years with the 
 Lombard republics. Moreover an agreement, of no very 
 satisfactory and permanent nature, was patched up in regard 
 to the vexed question of the Matilda Legacy. Pope Alexander 
 re-entered Rome in triumph, greeted by the homage and 
 enthusiasm of all parties. 1 Frederick returned to Germany 
 and for the next seven years enjoyed peace and the loyal 
 reverence of his northern subjects, while by a generous compact 
 with the Lombard cities, which he signed at Constanz in 
 1183 and by which he granted them many privileges, he so 
 won their affection that Alessandria even offered to change 
 its name to Caesarea ! Striking evidence of his prosperity too 
 is afforded by the descriptions that chroniclers have given 
 of a magnificent festivity held in 1184 at Mainz — a veritable 
 Field of Cloth of Gold. His last visit to Italy was of a character 
 very different from his former expeditions. Without an army 
 he journeyed from city to city, welcomed and honoured every- 
 where. For Milan he showed special affection, and he under- 
 took to rebuild heroic little Crema. Adsit omen ! 
 
 In 1186 there was celebrated at Milan a very momentous 
 wedding. William II, the King of Sicily, was childless, so he 
 agreed that his elderly aunt and heiress Constance (Costanza), 
 daughter of the late King Roger, should marry Frederick's 
 son Henry, a young man of twenty-one. Thus the long 
 enmity of the Normans and Germans was ended, and the 
 Hohenstaufen monarchs added Sicily and South Italy to their 
 Empire. 
 
 In 1187 Jerusalem was recaptured by the Turks, and in 
 1 189 Frederick, now sixty-eight years of age, joined Richard 
 of England a and Philippe Auguste of France in the third 
 Crusade. Before reaching the Holy Land he was drowned 
 in attempting to swim across the river Salef , not far from the 
 Cydnus, in which Alexander the Great nearly lost his life. For 
 
 1 But at bis death in 1181 the old feuds broke out again, and the next 
 three Popes passed most of their time in exile. 
 
 2 It is interesting to note that on his outward voyage Richard touched 
 at Ostia, but refused to visit the papal court because it was ' full of greed 
 and corruption.' 
 
 375 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 centuries the belief prevailed in Germany that the great 
 Kaiser had never really died, but that he was sleeping beneath 
 his castle on the Kyffhauser mount and would some day 
 awake and restore the Empire — a tradition that Riickert has 
 versified in a fine ballad. The character of Frederick, as 
 displayed in what we know of his life, is difficult for us to 
 appraise, and perhaps the verdict of Dante, which was prob- 
 ably the verdict of his age, only increases our difficulty; for, 
 though in his Inferno he assigns the second Frederick the fiery 
 sepulchre of a heretic, he speaks of il buon Barbarossa. But 
 this expression, it should be added, some commentators regard 
 as ironical. 
 
 As a framework, reigns and dynasties are often useful, and 
 the history of medieval Italy has so little inner consistency 
 that it needs the framework afforded by the reigns and dynasties 
 of its invaders and its alien, especially its German, masters. 
 But in some cases the periods into which German history falls 
 do not correspond with those which are convenient in the case 
 of Italy. The Hohenstaufen dynasty continued to rule in 
 Italy for more than half a century, but such events as the 
 recognition of the republics by the treaty of Constanz and 
 the merging of the Norman kingship in that of the German 
 monarchs by the marriage of Constance with Henry VI initiate 
 a new period in Italian history and render it advisable to 
 make a break here, at the death of Barbarossa in 1190. 
 
 376 
 
EMPERORS, KINGS, AND POPES 
 800-962 
 
 Emperors and Kings 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 1. Carolingian Emperors 
 
 800-88 
 
 Charles the Great, Emp. 800-14 
 [Pipin, son of Charles, King of 
 Italy 781-810] 
 Louis I, the Pious, or le D6bonnaire, 
 Emp. 814-40 
 
 [Crowned Emp. already in 813. 
 Bernard, S071 of Pipin, King of 
 Italy 810-18] 
 Lothair I, Emp. 840-55 
 
 [Crowned already in 817. Re- 
 tired to monastery] 
 Louis II, le Jeune, Emp. 855-75 
 [Crowned Emp. already in 850] 
 
 Charles II, the Bald 
 
 King of France 843 
 Emp. 875-77 
 [Carlmann, King of Italy 877-79] 
 Charles III, the Fat 
 
 King of Italy 879 
 Emp. 881, dep. 887, d. 888 
 [Succeeds as French and German 
 king in 884, thus reuniting the 
 realms of Charles, the Great] 
 
 So-called period ol independent Italian 
 kings— really a turbulent medley of 
 rival dukes and 'kings* of various 
 nationality, the first five of whom 
 succeed in attaining papal coronation 
 as 'Emperors' 
 
 (888-961) 
 
 Guido of Spoleto 
 
 King of Italy 889 
 Emp. 891-94 
 
 Lambert (his son) 
 Emp. 894-98 
 [Crowned already 892] 
 
 Leo III, 795-816 
 
 Stephen IV 
 
 816 
 
 Paschal I 
 
 817 
 
 Eugenius II 
 
 824 
 
 Valentinus 
 
 827 
 
 Gregory IV "" 
 
 827 
 
 Sergius II 
 
 844 
 
 Leo IV 
 
 847 
 
 [Pope Joan 1 See p. 392] 
 
 
 Benedict III 
 
 855 
 
 Nicholas I 
 
 858 
 
 Hadrian II 
 
 867 
 
 John VIII 
 
 872 
 
 Marinus (Martin II ?) 
 
 882 
 
 Hadrian III 
 
 884 
 
 Stephen V 
 
 885 
 
 [Stephen V crowns Guido 
 Emperor in 891 and dies 
 in same year] 
 
 Formosus 
 
 [Crowns Lambert Emperor at 
 Ravenna in 892, and 
 Arnulf in Rome in 896] 
 
 891 
 
 377 
 
EMPERORS, KINGS, AND POPES (8oo-g62)^-continued 
 
 Emperors and Kings 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Arnulf of Carinthia 
 [a bastard Carolingian] 
 German king 887 
 Etnp. 896-99 
 
 Louis III [son of Boson, King of 
 Provence, and of a daughter of 
 Louis II] 
 
 Emp. 901 
 
 Dep. and blinded 904, d. 928 
 
 Berengar of Friuli [son of Gisela, 
 the daughter of Louis the Pious ; 
 since 888 claimant to crown of 
 Italy against Guido, Lambert, 
 Arnulf, and Louis'] 
 
 King of Italy 888 [or 899) 
 
 Emp. 915 
 
 Assassinated at Verona 924 
 
 [For thirty-seven years, 925-62, no 
 Emperor, but the following kings] 
 Rudolf of Burgundy 
 
 King of Italy 925-26 
 
 [Crowned during life of Berengar, 
 922] 
 Hugo of Provence 
 
 King of Italy 926-46 
 [Alberich governs Rome 932-54] 
 
 Berengar of Ivrea 
 
 Helped by Otto of Germany, drives out 
 Hugo, and is made regent-guardian 
 of Hugo's son 
 
 Boniface VI 896 
 
 [Reigned only fifteen days] 
 Stephen VI 896 
 
 [Cites the corpse of For- 
 mosus before a Synod. 
 Is deposed and strangled] 
 Romanus {four months) . 897 
 
 Theodoras II (twenty days) 897 
 John IX 898 
 
 [Crowns Louis III] 
 Benedict IV 900 
 
 Leo V 903 
 
 [Deposed and probably 
 murdered by] 
 Christopher 903 
 
 [Deposed and probably 
 murdered by] 
 Sergius III 904 
 
 [Lover ofMarozia. Elected 
 already in 898, but ex- 
 pelled by the party of 
 John IX] 
 Anastasius III 911 
 
 Lando 913 
 
 John X 914 
 
 [Lover of Theodora ; 
 crowns Berengar Em- 
 peror: then invites and 
 crowns Rudolf King of 
 Italy ; then Hugo of Pro- 
 vence; finally murdered 
 by order of Marozia] 
 
 Leo VI 
 
 928 
 
 [Nominated by Marozia] 
 
 
 Stephen VII 
 
 929 
 
 [Nominated by Marozia] 
 
 
 John XI 
 
 93i 
 
 [Son of Marozia and Pope 
 
 
 Sergius] 
 
 
 Leo VII 
 
 936 
 
 Stephen VIII 
 
 939 
 
 Martin III (or Marinus II) 
 
 941 
 
 378 
 
EMPERORS, KINGS, AND POPES {800-962)— continued 
 
 Emperors and Kings 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Lothair 
 
 King of Italy 946 
 
 Poisoned by Berengar (?) 950 
 
 rBerengar II 
 
 \ Together with his son 
 
 'Adalbert, King of Italy 
 
 950-61 (64?) 
 Otto of Saxony, m. Adelheid, 
 
 widow of Lothair, and takes title of 
 King of Italy 951 
 
 Berengar II does homage to Otto for the 
 Italian crown, but revolts and is conquered 
 and sent to Germany (964), where he dies. 
 Meanwhile (962) Otto has himself crowned 
 as Emperor. 
 
 {The * Holy Roman Empire ' may be 
 supposed to have now begun ; and it should 
 be noted that by the assumption of the title 
 * King of the Romans ' a German king was 
 commonly regarded as Emperor, although he 
 was ready only Emperor-designate until he 
 had been crowned in St. Peter* s. Dante, for 
 instance, calls Conrad III and also Rudolf of 
 Habsburg ' imperador,' though they never 
 received the imperial diadem. See also note 
 under Otto III in next List.) 
 
 Agapetus II 
 
 John XII 
 
 [Son of Alberich; made 
 Pope when sixteen years 
 old; crowns Otto Em- 
 peror. Next year, 963, 
 is deposed by him and 
 his Council, and in 964 
 is killed by an outraged 
 husband] 
 
 946 
 
 955 
 
 EMPERORS (SAXON AND FRANCONIAN) AND POPES 
 
 962-1125 
 
 Saxon Emperors 
 (962-1024) 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Otto I (the Great) 
 
 King of Germany 936 
 King of Italy 951 
 Emperor 962-73 
 
 From 91 1 to 918 Conrad I, Duke of Franconia, 
 had been German king. Him followed his rival, 
 Henry I of Saxony, 919-36, who was the founder 
 of the German Empire. Otto was his son and 
 was elected king at Aachen by the representatives 
 of the whole German people — the precursors of 
 the Seven Kurfiirsten (Electors). 
 
 Otto II, son of Otto I 
 
 King and Emperor 973-83 
 (cr owned already m 967) 
 
 I<eo VIII 
 
 (Elected by Otto) 
 Benedict V 
 
 (Elected by Romans ; carried off by 
 Otto to Hamburg, where he dies) 
 John XIII 
 
 (Protege of Otto) 
 Benedict VI 
 
 (Imprisoned by Romans and 
 strangled) 
 Boniface VII 
 
 (Flees to Constantinople 974, but 
 returns 985) 
 Benedict VII 
 
 (Flees, but restored by Otto II) 
 
 963 
 
 964 
 
 965 
 972 
 
 973 
 974 
 
 379 
 
EMPERORS (SAXON AND FRANCONIAN) AND POPES (962-1125) 
 
 (continued) 
 
 Saxon and Eranconian Emperors 
 (962-1024) 
 
 Otto III, son of Otto II - 
 
 Crowned King of the Romans 983 (three 
 years old) 
 
 Theophano Empress-regent till 991 
 Adelheid regent 991-96 
 Otto Emperor 996-1002 
 
 [According to Machiavelli, 1st. Fior., I, xiii, 
 Gregory V, on his restoration by Otto, deprived the 
 Romans of the right of ' creating the Emperor ' 
 and gave it to six Electors, viz. the Bishops of 
 Mainz, Trier, and Coin, and the Dukes of Saxony, 
 Brandenburg, and the Palatinate. One may well 
 ask whence the Pope, especially a German Pope, 
 acquired the power to do this ; but henceforth the 
 title 4 Emperor ' or * Kaiser ' — and not only ' King 
 of the Romans ' — is assumed by German monarchs 
 even before their coronation at Rome. Later the 
 Electors, or Kurfursten, were seven, as instituted 
 by the ' Golden Bull ' issued by Charles IV in 1356] 
 
 Henry II 
 
 (of Saxony, Duke of Bavaria) 
 King of Germany 1002 
 King of Italy 1004 
 Emperor 1014-24. 
 
 Conrad II 
 
 Franconian Emperors 
 
 (1024-1125) 
 
 Crowned German king at Aachen 1024 
 King of Italy at Milan 1026 
 Emperor at Rome 1027 
 d. 1039 
 
 Henry III 
 
 King of Germany 1039 
 Emperor 1046 56 
 
 380 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 John XIV 983 
 
 (Deposed and probably poisoned by 
 Boniface VII, returned from 
 Constantinople, who is killed 
 shortly afterwards) 
 John XV 985 
 
 {Flees from Crescentius ; restored 
 by Otto, but dies soon after) 
 Gregory V 996 
 
 (Bruno, Otto's cousin. Flees from 
 Crescentius; restored by Otto; 
 probably poisoned 999) 
 John XVI 997 
 
 (Antipope elected by Crescentius; 
 horribly mutilated by Otto's 
 soldiers and dies in prison) 
 
 Silvester II 999 
 
 (Gerbert of France ; Otto's tutor and 
 A rchbishop of Reims and Ravenna) 
 John XVII 1003 
 
 John XVIII 1003 
 
 Sergius IV 1009 
 
 (Gregory, elected by Crescentians, 
 deposed) 
 Benedict VIII ioiz 
 
 (Count of Tusculum; crowns 
 Henry II Emperor) 
 John XIX 1024 
 
 (Brother of Benedict VIII; a 
 military official ; ' uno eodemque 
 die laicus el pontifex ' ; crowns 
 Conrad II and Gisela) 
 
 Benedict IX 1033 
 
 (A Count of Tusculum, elected at 
 the age of twelve; proved a 
 greater profligate and criminal 
 than even John XII; expelled 
 in 1037, but restored by Conrad. 
 Expelled again in 1044) 
 
 Silvester III 1044 
 
 (Elected by Crescentian parly; 
 after forty-nine days expelled by 
 Benedict IX, who, after about 
 two months, sells the Papacy for 
 an annuity to) 
 
 Gregory VI 1045 
 
 (These three rival Popes deposed by 
 Henry III, who causes to be elected 
 the German Bishop of Bamberg) 
 
 Clement II 1046 
 
 (Crowns Henry Emperor. Prob- 
 ably poisoned by Benedict IX, 
 who has taken refuge at Tusculum, 
 and now returns and seats him- 
 self again on the papal throne) 
 
EMPERORS (SAXON AND FRANCONIAN) AND POPES (962-1125) 
 
 (continued) 
 
 FRANCONIAN EMPERORS 
 
 (1024-1125) 
 
 Henry IV 
 
 German king 1056 
 
 (first under regency of his mother Agnes) 
 
 King of Italy 1080 
 
 Emperor 1084-1x06 
 
 (crowned by Antipope Clement III) 
 
 Henry V 
 
 German king 1106 
 Emperor mi 
 (crowned a second time 1117 
 d. 1125 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Dainasus II 
 (German Bishop of Brixen made 
 Pope by Henry III. Benedict 
 flees to Tusculum. His end un- 
 known. Damasus dies suddenly, 
 probably poisoned, twenty-three 
 days after election) 
 I<eoIX 
 
 (German. Nominated by Henry III) 
 Victor II 
 
 (German. Nominated by Henry III) 
 Stephen IX 
 
 (Probably poisoned) 
 Benedict X 
 (Tool of Roman nobles; deposed 
 by Hildebrand and his party) 
 Nicholas II 
 
 (Tool of Hildebrand's) 
 Alexander II 
 (Anselm of Lucca, another nominee 
 of Hildebrand and Matilda) 
 
 Gregory VII (Hildebrand) 
 
 (Dies in exile at Salerno, 1085) 
 Clement 
 (Antipope set up by Henry IV, 
 whom he crowns Emperor) 
 Victor III 
 (Abbot of Monte Cassino, elected by 
 cardinals; Clement flees to 
 Germany, but is restored by 
 Henry ; Victor retires to Monte 
 Cassino and dies) 
 Urban II 
 (Friend of Hildebrand, elected by 
 cardinals ; on return of Clement 
 obliged to flee, but finally restored ; 
 preaches the First Crusade. 
 Clement d. 1100) 
 Paschal II 
 
 (Is forced to crown Henry V) 
 Gelasius II 
 (At once imprisoned by nobles, 
 but released by the people ; 
 finally has to yield to Antipope 
 Gregory and dies at Cluny) 
 Gregory 
 (Antipope, nominated by Henry V ; 
 flies to Sutri and is there tortured 
 and killed) 
 Calixtus II 
 (Elected by cardinals; excom- 
 municates Henry V and his 
 Antipope; brings about the 
 Concordat of Worms) 
 Honorius II 
 
 1048 
 
 1048 
 I054 
 i°57 
 1058 
 
 1059 
 1061 
 
 1073 
 1080 
 
 1086 
 
 1087 
 
 1099 
 1118 
 
 1118 
 1119 
 
 1124 
 I** 
 
EMPERORS AND POPES TO THE DEATH OF 
 
 BARBAROSSA 
 
 1125-1190 
 
 Emperors 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Lothar II (of Saxony) 
 
 
 
 German king 1125-37 
 
 Innocent II 
 
 1130 
 "43 
 
 Emperor 1133-37 
 
 to 
 
 
 Anacletus (Antipope) 
 
 1 130 
 
 HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS 
 
 Disciple of Abelard; recognizes 
 Roger as King of Sicily 
 
 
 
 Victor (Antipope) 
 
 1138 
 
 Conrad in 
 
 [Innocent proclaimed sole Pope by 
 
 
 Crowned at Monza King of Italy 1130 
 German king 1138-52 
 
 Lateran Council X139] 
 Celestin II 
 
 1143 
 
 [never crowned Emperor) 
 
 I/Ucius II 
 (Killed in a riot) 
 
 [Republic at Rome. Arnold 
 of Brescia and followers 
 dominate the Popes] 
 
 1144 
 
 
 Eugenius III 
 
 "45 
 
 
 {Flees to France ; preaches Second 
 
 
 
 Crusade ; restored by Conrad) 
 
 
 Frederick I (Barbarossa) 
 
 
 
 German king 1152 
 
 Anastasius IV 
 
 "53 
 
 Crowned with iron crown at Monza n 53 
 (April) 
 
 Hadrian IV 
 
 "54 
 
 Crowned Emperor at Rome 1155 (June) 
 
 (English ; Breakspear ; puts to 
 death Arnold of Brescia ; crowns 
 Frederick) 
 
 
 
 Alexander III 
 
 "59 
 
 
 (Fugitive in France 1162-65) to 
 
 1181 
 
 
 / Victor 
 
 "59 
 
 
 
 Paschal 
 
 1 164 
 
 
 
 (Crowns Beatrice as 
 
 
 
 Imperial 
 
 Antipopes" 
 
 Empress) 
 Calixtus 
 
 (Frederick gives up 
 Calixtus and re- 
 cognizes Alexan- 
 der as sole Pope 
 
 1 168 
 
 
 1177) 
 
 
 
 Lucius III 
 
 1181 
 
 
 (Flees to Frederick at Verona) 
 
 
 Drowned in the Salef 1190 
 
 Urban III 
 
 1185 
 
 
 Gregory VIII 
 
 1187 
 
 
 Clement III 
 
 1187 
 
 382 
 
THE HOHENSTAUFER 
 
 Frederick of Staufen ' 
 Made Duke of Suabla by Henry IV 
 after defeat of Rudolf of Suabia, 1080, 
 and marries Henry's daughter 
 
 Frederick 
 Second Duke of Suabia 
 
 Frederick I (Barbarossa) 
 m. Beatrice of Burgundy 
 
 German king 1152, Emperor 1155 
 Drowned in the East 1190 
 
 Conrad III 
 
 (Duke of Franconia 
 
 German king 1138-52 
 
 {never crowned Emperor) 
 
 Frederick 
 
 d. in the East 1190 
 
 Henry VI 
 
 (6. 1x65) m. Constance, daughter 
 
 of king Roger of Sicily, 1186, 
 
 and becomes King of the 
 
 Two Sicilies on death of 
 
 William the Good, 1189 
 
 German king n go 
 
 Emperor 1191 
 
 d. 1 197 
 
 Philip 
 Made Duke of Tuscany ; 
 claimant to crown of Ger- 
 many after Henry's death, in 
 rivalry with Otto of Bruns- 
 wick ; murdered 1208 
 
 Frederick n 
 
 (6. 1194). An infant at his father's death ; 
 at his mother's death, 1 198, placed as King of the Sicilies under 
 the guardianship of the Pope ; crowned King of Romans 1212. 
 German king 1215, Emperor 1220. d. 1250 
 
 m. Constance m. Iolanthe 
 of At agon de Brienne 
 
 m. Isabella 
 of England 
 
 Henry 
 Crowned when 
 an infant King of Sicily, 
 1212', viceroy in Ger- 
 many from 1220 ; rebels 
 and imprisoned 1235 
 
 Conrad IV Henry Manfred 
 
 d. 1254 Viceroy in Sicily ; [illegitimate] 
 I 6.1238; d. c. 1252 Viceroy in S. Italy ; 
 
 Conradin assumes kingly title 
 
 6.1252; 1258; 
 
 executed after hilled at Benevento 
 
 Tagliacozzo, 1266 
 
 1268 I 
 
 Constance 
 m. Peter of Aragon 
 
 Enzio 
 {illegitimate) 
 d. 1272, after twenty- 
 three years of 
 imprisonment in 
 Bologna 
 
 383 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE DARK AGE 
 
 WHEN we speak of the Dark Age, or the Dark Ages, 
 of European history we generally use the ex- 
 pression rather vaguely to denote the not easily 
 determinable midnight watch of the Middle Ages — the limits 
 of which are themselves somewhat difficult to determine. It 
 is not easy, perhaps not possible, to discover any one century, 
 or period, when the darkness brooded with equal obscurity 
 over the whole of Western Europe ; and we cannot fail to ob- 
 serve that in various countries the quality of the darkness was 
 very different ; for although ignorance, superstition, vice, and 
 ferocity usually go hand in hand, there have been cases where 
 moral and religious enlightenment has prevailed amidst gross 
 ignorance of arts and letters, and also cases where the most 
 hideous vice, inhumanity, and irreligion have existed in a 
 Golden Age of learning and aesthetic refinement — covered up, 
 so to speak, with Raffaelesque tapestrieSi Indeed, we should 
 not be misusing words very seriously if we called the age of 
 the Borgias, which was also the age of the High Renaissance, 
 the darkest period of the Roman Church — perhaps even darker 
 than the pontificate of John the Twelfth itself. 
 
 But as regards Italy — or perhaps we should say Rome — 
 we may, I think, consider the ninth and tenth centuries and 
 half the eleventh (say 830-1050) as the darkest of its Dark 
 Ages. In earlier times there had been long periods when the 
 whole country, ravaged by sword, fire, famine, and pestilence, 
 was in a state of indescribable misery, but the ulcerous horror 
 of internal corruption during what we may call the darkest 
 age of the history of Christian Rome was far more terrible than 
 all that was suffered from barbarian or Byzantine foes. 
 
 2B 385 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Any fairly full account of this Dark Age of Italian history 
 would occupy more pages than this volume contains. I must 
 therefore be content to make some general remarks and to 
 give a few pictures illustrative of the manners and customs of 
 those days. Sometimes the brief description of a single scene 
 impresses on one's mind the character of an age more per- 
 manently than is done by many words. 
 
 We may consider the original living stock of classical art 
 and literature to have died down gradually during the three 
 centuries that followed the age of the Antonines, and, except 
 for such literary survivals as Boethius, Cassiodorus*, and 
 Amalasuntha, and except a few scholae that may have kept 
 up traditions of classical art, it can scarcely be said to have 
 existed as a national influence in the days of Theoderic and 
 during the I/ombard domination. 
 
 It is true that a certain kind of culture, founded on classical 
 writings but used almost wholly for purposes theological 
 and devotional, was fostered in monasteries. This culture 
 spread, even before the time of Benedict and Monte Cassino, 
 to the wilds of Gaul and Britain, so that by the age of Gregory 
 the Great and Theodelinda there was probably more erudition 
 of this kind in Tours, Bangor-Iscoed and Caerleon, or in 
 Ireland and the Irish St. Gallen, than in Rome ; and nigh a 
 century ere the day of Charles the Great, at an epoch when 
 the darkness was beginning to gather ever denser over the 
 mother-city of Western Christianity the homeland of Bede 
 could claim to be an important centre of European learning, 
 and St. Boniface of England had won the title of the Apostle 
 of Germany. 
 
 Charles the Great was a patron of learning — such learning 
 
 as had been preserved by the monks — a learning, be it noticed, 
 
 that was inspired with but little enthusiasm for what is great 
 
 in ancient literature and art, 1 but which at least kept alive 
 
 the elements of literary civilization. At his court we find 
 
 ' The ancient manuscripts destroyed by the monks fot the purpose of 
 using the parchment for theological or devotional writings were probably 
 more numerous by far than all those destroyed by barbarian invaders or by 
 the Turks. 
 
 386 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 a number of learned men, such as his biographer Einhart 
 (Eginard) and Paul the Deacon, and the Englishman Alcwin, 
 the monarch's favourite counsellor, by whose advice schools 
 were founded in many quarters. It is also said, though not 
 easily proved, that Charles built many churches and patronized 
 art. Anyhow, we know that his rather unscrupulous love for 
 things of beauty caused him to rob Ravenna of many of its 
 splendid marbles in order to decorate his palace and cathedral 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle. During the Carolingian * period Rome, 
 and with it most of Italy except those cities which were 
 under Byzantine supremacy or had connexions with the East, 
 such as Venice, or which, such as Palermo and Messina, came 
 under Saracen civilization, sank ever deeper into darkness, 
 and during the social and political degradation caused by the 
 regno d' Italia indipendente and the rule of Marozia and Alberich 
 and John XII at Rome the gloom was perhaps deepest. There 
 are those who endeavour to show that we are misled by the 
 lack during these centuries of really able authors, and that we 
 should not draw inferences as to the general state of things 
 from the miserable literary productions that have survived. 8 
 We are told that 'in no age perhaps did Germany possess 
 more learned and virtuous bishops than towards the end 
 of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries' 
 (Meiners, quoted by Hallam). That may be perfectly true. 
 As I have already remarked, the Darkest Age did not extend 
 over all Western and Central Europe at the same time. In 
 the tenth century there were centres of learning such as 
 Reims and Cluny. Germany, too, was at this epoch prob- 
 ably blessed with a great deal more light than Rome, and 
 these learned and virtuous bishops were doubtless the wise 
 selections of German kings and not papal satellites. But 
 
 1 In their northern dominions the Carolingians favoured learning, and 
 Lothair is said to have founded schools in many towns of North Italy. 
 
 * Paul the Deacon (725-799), who was long at the court of Charles the Great 
 and spent his last twelve years at Monte Cassino, wrote a very able History 
 of the Lombards, and he speaks of ' illustrious and admirable poets ' at Monte 
 Cassino ; but to judge from what remains of them they wrote only very bad 
 doggerel in dog-I«atin. During two centuries and more the only writer worth 
 mentioning, besides monastic chroniclers, is I^udprand (see Index). 
 
 387 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 how about Italy in these centuries ? And how about Rome 
 itself? 
 
 Of the social and intellectual state of the rest of Italy during 
 the period which we may call the Darkest Age (about 830 
 to 1050) we know little, but it is evident that, in spite of the 
 incessant civil wars that raged until the coming of Otto the 
 Great, in some of the northern cities, which were already 
 acquiring a good deal of self-respect and independence, morals 
 and education were on a considerably higher level than they 
 were in what professed to be the mother-city of the religion 
 of Western Europe. Artistic feeling and skill, anyhow, stood 
 decidedly higher in the northern towns, as can be seen by 
 comparing the first signs of that splendid Romanesque archi- 
 tecture which was soon to unfold all its beauty in those regions 1 
 with the utter deadness of all original art in Rome during the 
 whole of this age. While Pisa was planning and beginning 
 the building of its Duomo and Venice was rebuilding St. Mark's 
 and adorning it with wondrous mosaics, in Rome nothing was 
 attempted but reconstructions, for which ancient monuments 
 were mercilessly pillaged ; and the art of mosaics was extinct. 2 
 
 Under the domination of the Saxon and Franconian Emperors, 
 say during the eleventh century, began the first glimmering 
 of the new day that was to dawn on Italy. We hear of the 
 fame of the Italian universities of Bologna and of Salerno. 
 (The latter, however, probably won from the Saracens its skill 
 in medicine and mathematics.) We hear of learned Italians 
 in distant lands — such as I^anfranc and Anselm, both priors 
 of the celebrated Abbey of Bee and both Archbishops of 
 Canterbury, the one a native of Pavia, the other of Aosta. 
 
 1 In the south the Normans introduced about the same time an archi- 
 tecture scarcely less splendid — whence, it is difficult to say, as we shall see 
 later. 
 
 2 A grotesque mosaic near the tomb of Otto II {d. 983) in the crypt of 
 St. Peter's is one of the earliest specimens of a faint revival of the art after 
 a blank of about 150 years. In 896 the Lateran church, destroyed by earth- 
 quake, was rebuilt, but for the whole of this period little was attempted, 
 and almost all perished when Robert Guiscard sacked Rome in 1084. The 
 fine Roman campanili (with one or two exceptions) did not begin till about 
 1 100. 
 
 388 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 Before long (about 1130-40) we hear of Abelard lecturing 
 to immense audiences in Paris, and of his disciple, Arnold of 
 Brescia, whose fiery enthusiasm lit for a season in Rome a 
 beacon for the lovers of learning and of liberty — soon, alas, 
 to be extinguished. And now the new spirit has already grown 
 so strong in the Communes of I/ombardy that they dare to 
 stake their all in the hope of winning that political freedom 
 under which, in spite of much that was tragic and deplorable, 
 they fought their way valiantly and steadily onwards to the 
 light. _ 
 
 It is sometimes asserted, as already remarked, that the 
 state of learning in Italy, even in Rome, during the so-called 
 Dark Age was not really so bad as has been made out. 1 It is 
 affirmed that there were more schools in Italy than in any 
 Northern country, and that in Rome there was very consider- 
 able erudition, especially among the laity — such laymen as the 
 courtiers of Marozia or the Counts of Tusculum ? — and that if 
 the Popes and the clergy of Rome took but little interest in 
 such matters it was because they were so much engrossed by 
 matters of serious importance — such matters, I suppose, as 
 the extension of the temporal power of the Church and the 
 expulsion or poisoning of political enemies and Antipopes. 
 
 Even if we granted this affirmation and also allow the 
 presence in Rome of learned Greeks, and of libraries, and of 
 many ancient manuscripts that perished later, we should be 
 compelled to add that the existence of schools and of erudition 
 in the central city of Christendom made the immorality, the 
 superstition, and the ferocity that prevailed there all the more 
 shameful. And that such things did prevail there is not 
 difficult to prove. As Gregorovius justly says, Popes, clergy, 
 nobles, and people lived in a state of savagery scarce conceivable, 
 and Rome stood deeply humiliated not only before the Chris-, 
 tianity and the learning of Gaul and Britain and Germany 
 and Byzantium, but also before the art and erudition of 
 those Arab Moslems who indeed ravaged her Campagna and 
 
 1 How far the general demoralization was due to the belief that the world 
 would come to an end in a.d. 1000 is much disputed. 
 
 389 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 desecrated and plundered the sanctuaries of her saints, but who 
 spread the light of science — of mathematics and medicine and 
 astronomy and philosophy — from Bagdad to Alexandria and 
 from Alexandria to Seville. 1 And though Rome herself may 
 not have felt conscious of this humiliation, it was evident 
 enough to the outside world. The contempt with which the 
 Romans were regarded by the Byzantines is summed up in the 
 scornful words of the Emperor Michael, who when writing to 
 Pope Nicholas I (c. 860) calls their language 2 a language of 
 barbarians and Scythians ; and the disdainful invective with 
 which (c. 900) the bishops of the Gallic Church, assembled at 
 Reims, assailed the illiterate clergy of Rome and the Pope 
 himself doubtless expresses the general feeling of Northern 
 Christendom. Nor does it raise Rome and the Papacy in our 
 estimation when we hear that this invective was answered by 
 the papal legate with the assertion that from the beginning 
 God had chosen the simple and unlearned to confound the 
 wisdom of the world and that the Vicars of St. Peter and their 
 disciples ' needed not to be fattened at the trough of Plato or 
 Virgil or Terence or any other such philosophic swine.* But a 
 few sketches of what actually occurred at Rome in this Dark 
 Age will help us to realize the condition in which religion and 
 morality and humanity found themselves. 
 
 The Relic-mania and Body-snatching 
 
 In a former chapter I described the mania that developed 
 itself in early days for acquiring the corpses, or the bones, 
 of saints and martyrs, and the superstitions connected with 
 wonder-working bones and branded ; and on various occasions 
 mention has been made of the supposed discovery and the 
 strange fortunes of some celebrated relics (such as those of 
 St. Mark, St. Peter, St. P aul, St Bartholomew, and St. Augustine) 
 
 1 Avicenna lived from 980 to 1037 ; Averroes, che 7 gran comento feo, 
 from c. 1126 to 1198. 
 
 ' The lingua vulgaris was already corrupting classical Latin very rapidly. 
 See Part V, ch. iv. But Emperor Michael perhaps meant that Latin itself 
 was a barbarian jargon, for the Pope in answer ridiculed the idea of a so-called 
 ' Roman ' Emperor being ignorant of Latin. 
 
 39° 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 and of the pride that was felt by cities and by founders of 
 churches when they could purchase a sacred corpse, or, in 
 case that proved impossible (a whole genuine corpse being an 
 exceedingly expensive article), when they were able to procure 
 even the half or the quarter of some dead body which they 
 had been especially eager to possess. 
 
 As the number of churches increased throughout Christendom 
 the demand for bodies and bones became ever greater, and 
 the institution of pilgrimages * caused an enormous increase in 
 the supply, for every romeo (pilgrim to Rome) was anxious to 
 acquire relics, as the modern tourist is generally anxious to 
 acquire curiosities; and relics, like modern antiquities, had 
 to be forthcoming. Catacombs and graves were plundered 
 by night, and the tombs in churches had to be watched by 
 armed men. Rome, says Gregorovius, was like a mouldering 
 cemetery in which hyenas howled and fought as they dug 
 greedily after corpses. And these corpses and skeletons were 
 labelled with the names of popular saints and sold piecemeal 
 to pilgrims. Or courageous foreigners would sometimes 
 succeed in stealing precious relics from a church. 2 Thus in 
 827 Frankish pilgrims carried off to Soissons the bones of 
 SS. Peter and Marcellinus, and a presbyter of Reims in 849 
 had the audacity and luck to steal what was supposed to be 
 the body of St. Helena, Constantine's mother. Sometimes 
 too a Pope would, as a very special favour, present some 
 foreign church or potentate with a valuable corpse. ' These 
 dead bodies/ says Gregorovius, ' were transported on richly 
 decorated vehicles and escorted for some distance by the 
 Roman populace in solemn procession with lighted torches 
 and pious psalmody ; and from every town, at the approach 
 of the car, streamed forth the citizens, imploring and expecting 
 
 1 These pilgrimages, with their throngs of malefactors and unprotected, 
 often weak-minded, females, were the source of very great evil. It is said 
 that cities were largely supplied with fallen women by means of pilgrimages, 
 and so many of these were Englishwomen that, as Milman says, it became a 
 ' scandal for the Anglican Church.' 
 
 2 A marble slab in S. Prassede (Rome) states that the bodies of 2300 
 martyrs were transferred from the cemeteries to this church by Pope Paschal 
 in 817. 
 
 391 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 miracles of healing. When it arrived at its destination — a city 
 or a monastery of Germany, France, or England — the sacred 
 body was welcomed with hymns of triumph and festivities 
 that lasted many days.' Wars were even waged for the 
 possession of some coveted relic. For instance, Dukes of 
 Benevento after reducing Naples and Amalfi to submission 
 extorted from their consternated victims, as the price of peace, 
 the mummies of St. Januarius and St. Triphomena. It was 
 one of these dukes, Sicard by name, who was lucky enough to 
 secure the corpse of St. Bartholomew, the wondrous journeys 
 of which have already been related (p. 343 «.). This prince, 
 says Gregorovius, ' sent his agents out to search all the coasts 
 and islands of Italy for bones and skulls and other relics, and 
 transformed the cathedral of Benevento into a charnel-house,' 
 This horrid craving for corpses and bones has never been 
 quite cured in Christendom, and that it was still intense 
 towards the end of what I have called the Dark Age may be 
 inferred from the fact — for such it is said to be — that when 
 St. Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolenses, was intend- 
 ing to leave Italy assassins were sent after him in order, if 
 possible, to secure at least his dead body rather than let him 
 be lost entirely to his native country. Unluckily, he escaped. 1 
 
 'Pope Joan ' 
 
 The curious story of ' Pope Joan ' (la Papessa Giovanna) lies 
 outside the realm of certified fact, but does not lie outside the 
 realm of history, for history should not reject possibilities nor 
 ignore beliefs that have influenced the course of events; and 
 this story, although it may have first originated in the thirteenth 
 century and was perhaps invented by some of the many 
 fierce enemies of the Papacy and in particular of Pope Boni- 
 face VIII, was for many centuries, we are told by Gregorovius, 
 believed by chroniclers and by bishops — nay, by Popes them- 
 
 1 Even if not true, the story shows what was believed to be possible. 
 It is asserted that he lived to the age of 120 and that nearly four hundred years 
 after his death (i.e. in 1446) his body was found still undecayed ; but it was 
 stolen, and forthwith crumbled into dust ! 
 
 39? 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 selves and by everybody else. How unquestioning this belief 
 was is proved by the fact that for two centuries (1400-1600) 
 the bust of ' Johannes VIII, femina ex Anglia,' stood among 
 the busts of the Popes in Siena Cathedral. 1 
 
 According to the tale ' Pope Joan ' was the daughter of an 
 Anglo-Saxon ; but she was born in the Rhineland, at Ingel- 
 heim, where Charles the Great had a castle, between Mainz 
 and Bingen. She won great distinction at Mainz for her 
 learning, and, disguised as a man, entered the celebrated 
 monastery of Fulda (between Frankfurt and Bebra) that had 
 been founded some eighty years previously by the English 
 Apostle of Germany, St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz. 
 I/ater, it is said, she studied in England and also at Athens, 
 and then received the post of a teacher in the Schola Graecorum 
 at Rome, an ancient training college for deacons, where she 
 gained so much influence that on the death of I,eo IV she was 
 made Pope (about 855 apparently). After a pontificate which 
 is calculated to a nicety by chroniclers as having lasted two 
 years, one month, and four days, her sex was discovered — = 
 so runs the tale — by her giving birth to an infant and dying 
 while taking part in a procession. The horrified ecclesiastics 
 buried her where she had expired, between the Colosseum 
 and S. Clemente, and on this spot (which was ever afterwards 
 avoided by Popes) her statue was erected, with her child in 
 her arms and the papal mitre on her head. 8 How such a 
 well-connected narrative could have been fabricated it is not 
 easy to divine, but although some of the story of her adven- 
 turous life may be true, the assertion that she was elected 
 Pope seems to be conclusively disproved by a coin of Pope 
 Benedict III which is stamped with the name of the Emperor 
 I/)thair. Now it is pretty certain that I,eo IV died on July 17, 
 855, and I/othair died, in a Benedictine monastery, on Sep- 
 tember 28 of the same year ; so it seems as if Benedict must 
 have succeeded I^eo ; and this is stated by the Liber Pontificalis, 
 
 1 It was transformed by Clement VIII into a portrait of Pope Zacharias. 
 
 2 For writers on the subject see Gregorovius, Book V, ch. iii. It is alleged 
 that until the end of the fifteenth century the Pope-designate had to undergo 
 examination so as to avoid the possibility of another Fapessa 1 
 
 393 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 which tells us that his consecration took place on the day after 
 Leo's death. 
 
 A Corpse summoned before a Synod x 
 
 It may be remembered that during the turbulent period 
 which the Italians call il regno d'ltalia indipendente a Duke of 
 Spoleto named Guido succeeded in persuading, or forcing, 
 Pope Stephen V to crown him in St. Peter's as Emperor, 
 and the next year (892) brought similar pressure to bear on 
 Stephen's successor, Pope Formosus, who at Ravenna (so at 
 least chroniclers say whom Villari follows) crowned Guido's son, 
 Lambert, as the coadjutor of his father on the imperial throne. 
 This Pope Formosus was evidently a weak and untrustworthy 
 individual, for even while he was crowning the young Lambert 
 at Ravenna he was, one may feel sure, thinking — as Stephen 
 had thought — how much rather he would see the imperial 
 diadem on the head of the German Arnulf ; and soon after 
 the Ravenna coronation he began to correspond with the 
 Carinthian duke and to incite him to come and try his luck. 
 After an unsuccessful attempt in 894, Arnulf forced his way 
 at last to Rome and was forthwith crowned by Formosus, 
 who ignored the fact that two other so-called Emperors existed, 
 and that he himself had acknowledged one of them and with 
 his own hands had crowned the other. 
 
 The coronation of the foreign usurper — the unctio barbarica, 
 as it was disdainfully called — inflamed the fury of the patriotic 
 anti-German party in Rome, and when Arnulf was suddenly 
 struck down by paralysis and Lambert with his mother 
 Agiltrud 2 had entered Rome in triumph this resentful woman 
 induced the Pope, Stephen VI, who was nothing loth, to 
 perpetrate an act which for ghoulish hideousness has perhaps 
 never been equalled in the history of humanity. It was 
 resolved that a solemn Synod should be called to judge Pope 
 Formosus, and that he should be summoned to appear in 
 propria persona. His corpse, which had lain for eight months 
 
 1 See pp. 325, 330, and list, p. 378. 
 
 2 See p. 326. 
 
 394 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 in the crypt of St. Peter's, was dragged from its tomb and, 
 clothed in pontifical robes, was set on a throne in the council- 
 hall before the assembled priests and prelates of the Church 
 of Christ. While all gazed shuddering at the ghastly thing, the 
 sight and stench of which seemed to fill the whole assembly- 
 hall with pestilential gloom, the advocate of Pope Stephen 
 arose and addressed the corpse, near which stood the trembling 
 deacon who had to act as counsel for the dead man. When 
 the accusations * had been read Pope Stephen himself chal- 
 lenged the corpse to answer the charges. What the dead 
 Pope's counsel, the trembling deacon, dared to say we do not 
 know, but sentence of deposition was passed, all the acts and 
 ordinances of Formosus were annulled, the three fingers of 
 the right hand with which papal blessing had been dispensed 
 were hacked off, the pontifical robes were torn from the poor 
 dead body, and it was dragged by the feet through the council- 
 hall and through the streets and finally, amid the howls and 
 laughter of the mob, was cast into the Tiber. 2 
 
 Stephen did not long enjoy his triumph. Chance, says 
 Gregorovius, which sometimes undertakes the duties of Provi- 
 dence and does signs and wonders when saints are powerless, 
 determined that soon after the Synod of Horror, while the 
 corpse of Formosus was still weltering in the waves of Tiber, 
 the ancient basilica of the I/ateran, shaken by an earthquake, 
 should suddenly collapse. At the crash of the falling temple 
 Pope Stephen, who lived close by in the Patriarchium, was 
 doubtless startled amidst his gloomy thoughts of the past, 
 and to him the thunder of the downfall of the ancient church 
 of Roman Christianity must have seemed a foreboding of the 
 fate of the Papacy and of the doom that he himself was soon 
 to encounter. In the same year the Roman mob rose against 
 Emperor I,ambert and his papal ally. Stephen was captured, 
 despoiled of his pontifical robes, clothed in a monkish cowl, 
 
 1 The real motive of the act was, of course, political and personal, but 
 ecclesiastical charges had to be invented. The chief of these was the infringe- 
 ment by Formosus (who had been Bishop of Porto) of an old and practically 
 obsolete rule that no bishop should be translated to the papal dignity. 
 
 2 Accounts vary a little. I have drawn from Gregorovius. 
 
 395 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and sent to a monastery, where not long afterwards he was 
 strangled. 1 One of his successors, Theodoras, though he reigned 
 only twenty days, gave honourable burial to the poor insulted 
 body of Formosus, which had been found by Roman fishers, 
 and I/iudprand assures us that he ' often heard it said by 
 the most religious men in Rome ' that when the corpse was 
 carried into St. Peter's * certain images of saints saluted it 
 with reverence' — perhaps the figures of saints in paintings 
 or mosaics with which Formosus himself had decorated the 
 church, or the crypt. 
 
 However repulsive the scene may be, the descriptions that 
 chroniclers give of Pope Stephen's Synod help one to form a 
 just conception of the state of religion, morals, and humanity 
 at Rome in the ninth century. And we must remember that 
 this was nothing exceptional — nothing that excited general 
 denunciation or protest. Occurrences no less horrifying were 
 constantly taking place. During the eight years that followed 
 this horrible Synod seven Popes died, several probably by 
 poison or strangulation, and the brief notes given in the I^ist 
 of Popes (p. 378 sq.) intimate the fate of many others. The 
 scene about to be described is only a specimen of the inde- 
 scribable ferocity of the age, and one of thousands of proofs of 
 the truth of such assertions as that of Gregorovius, to which 
 I have already alluded, that ' the Popes, the clergy, the nobles 
 and people of Rome in this age lived in a state of barbarism 
 than which nothing more horrible can be conceived.' 
 
 The Fate of Antipope John XVI 2 
 
 In the year 996 Otto III, being then only sixteen years 
 old, caused to be elected as Pope the chaplain Bruno, his 
 second-cousin, twenty-three years of age, son of the Marquess 
 
 , 1 The ' monster ' Pope Sergius III, who was of the faction of Stephen VI 
 and had been chosen Pope in 897 by this party, but had been expelled by the 
 faction of Formosus, when he ascended the papal throne later (904) gave 
 Stephen a tomb in St. Peter's and furnished it with an epitaph describing 
 his death by strangulation and abusing Formosus. (Professor Villari, in writ- 
 ing to me, courteously allows that he was wrong in asserting that it was the 
 tomb of Formosus on which the abusive epitaph was placed.) 
 2 See pp. 343, 380, 
 
 39 6 
 
THE DARK AGE 
 
 of Verona. Bruno, who was the first German Pope, took 
 the name Gregory V. About three weeks after his conse- 
 cration he set the imperial diadem on the head of his royal 
 relative in St. Peter's basilica at Rome. But in September 
 of the same year a revolution, headed by the powerful noble 
 Crescentius, caused Pope Gregory to flee to Pavia, whence 
 he launched a futile bolt of excommunication against the 
 Roman rebel. Crescentius answered the challenge by causing 
 an Antipope to be elected. His choice fell on Philagathus, 
 the Bishop of Piacenza, a Greek of Calabria, formerly (as also 
 Silvester II) the tutor of Otto. This prelate had lately returned 
 from Constantinople, whither Otto, his former pupil, had 
 sent him to negotiate for the hand of a Byzantine princess. 
 Doubtless he had cherished hopes of election to the pontifical 
 chair, and probably felt resentment when the young Otto 
 nominated his cousin Bruno. However that may be, he 
 accepted the offer made by Crescentius and was consecrated 
 (May 997), taking the name John XVI. Otto then decided 
 to restore his cousin. He crossed the Alps and spent the Christ- 
 mas of that year (997) at Pavia. Early in the following spring 
 he entered Rome. Crescentius withdrew into the well-pro- 
 visioned and almost impregnable fortress of S. Angelo, while 
 the Antipope fled from the city and took refuge in a tower 
 somewhere in the Campagna, hoping to escape thence by 
 land or by sea to Byzantine territory. For a description 
 of what then occurred I shall take the liberty of borrowing 
 and freely translating a passage from Villari. 
 
 ' While hiding in this tower the Antipope was discovered 
 and captured by some of the Emperor's soldiers, who gouged 
 his eyes out, cut out his tongue, and sliced off his nose and 
 his ears. Thus mutilated, he was brought before a Synod, ex- 
 communicated, and stripped of his episcopal robes. Then he was 
 set facing backwards on a donkey and paraded through the 
 streets of Rome, accompanied by a public herald, who pro- 
 claimed aloud his crimes and the punishments that he had 
 been awarded. Then he was cast into a dungeon ; and there 
 he died. . . . Otto, after presiding at several councils and 
 
 397 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 having commanded the erection of various new churches and 
 convents (a matter in which he never shrank from lavish 
 expense), began once more to besiege the Castle of S. Angelo, 
 and ere long he obtained its surrender. This he managed, 
 it is said, by promising to spare the life of Crescentius ; but 
 he did not keep his promise. Crescentius was beheaded, and 
 his dead body, after being hurled down from the rampart of 
 the fortress, was suspended by the feet to a gallows on Monte 
 Mario. Capital punishment was also inflicted on the chief 
 magistrate of each of the twelve quarters of the city. Thus 
 this fantastic restorer of the Roman Empire, this devout 
 founder of churches and convents, this pious adorer of hermits, 
 showed that, when occasion offered, he knew how to act the 
 part of a cruel German Imperator.' 
 
 398 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE NORMANS 
 
 THE brilliant episode of the Norman supremacy in 
 Sicily and South Italy is so interesting — especially 
 to those who make any claim to Norman descent — 
 and influenced so greatly Italian history, that, although the 
 main facts were necessarily mentioned in my sketch of this 
 period, I shall devote a few pages to the subject. 
 
 The Normans, whose forefathers, like most of the early 
 inhabitants of Northern and Central Europe, probably came 
 from the far East and belonged to the so-called Indo-Germanic 
 stock, seem to have been a race of exceptionally fine, bold, 
 and hardy Norsemen, closely related to the Danes, and like 
 them fond of a sea-lif e. Impelled by a love of adventure and 
 called by that voice of the South which in these Aryan invaders 
 of dreary and barren Northern lands seems often to have 
 awakened some long-slumbering memories of sunnier climes, 
 they began to cross the stormy deep in their swift black ships, 
 ' following the flight of the swan ' ; and ere long these audacious 
 Vikinger ('creek-men,' 'fiord-men') spread terror along the 
 coasts of Germany and France, and with their light vessels they 
 would even penetrate far inland up estuaries and navigable 
 streams, and sometimes transport their ships from one river to 
 another. 
 
 Seeing a fleet of these piratical Vikings sweeping past the 
 coast of France, Charles the Great, it is said, was much disturbed 
 by gloomy forebodings. And ere long his fears began to be 
 realized. In 845 the Normans burnt Hamburg, and a few 
 years later sacked Coin and Trier and Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) 
 and turned Charles the Great's splendid cathedral into a stable 
 
 399 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 for their horses. For nearly half a century they infested 
 these regions, but in 891 Arnulf of Carinthia (before he came 
 to Italy and was made Emperor) attacked their strong camp 
 in the marshes of the Dyle and inflicted such a crushing defeat 
 on them that theywithdrew from North Germany and left it 
 for the future in peace, 1 passing westward to the northern 
 coast of France. Here they ascended the Seine, took Rouen, 
 and occupied the surrounding country* In 911 the French 
 king, Charles the Simple, ceded this country to the Norman 
 duke Rollon, and before very long the heathen ' Pirates,' as 
 they were commonly called, adopted the language (the langue 
 d'oit) and religion and manners, and even the popular legends, 
 of their new home. 2 
 
 When the Normans had adopted Christianity and had 
 become a nation recognized by other Christian nations their 
 warlike and restless spirit and perhaps also political troubles 
 induced not a few of the nobles to lead bands of adventurers 
 to southern countries. Among these — half knights-errant and 
 half pilgrims — were some Normans who got as far as the 
 Holy I/and about fifty years before the Norman conquest 
 of England and the Turkish conquest of Jerusalem. On 
 their homeward journey they landed in Italy. Here they 
 found the Saracens of Sicily, no less hostile than the Fatimite 
 caliphs in Palestine, beleaguering the city of Salerno in order 
 to enforce payment of tribute. Although only forty in 
 number, the Normans, it is said, compelled the infidels to 
 raise the siege ; and so impressed was the prince of Salerno, 
 Guaimar, that he begged the strangers to enter his service, and 
 on their refusal — since they ' fought only for their religion and 
 not for pay ' — he sent messages, or messengers, with them to 
 Normandy in the hope of enlisting soldiers of fortune. It was 
 
 1 It was in 897 that Alfred succeeded in expelling the Danish Northmen 
 from England — for a time. 
 
 2 Their native language, the lingua Danica, as it is called by chroniclers, 
 is said to have been no longer understood at Rouen by about the year 
 970. It lingered longest at Bayeux. William the Conqueror was fond of 
 using it. Relics are found in a few names, such as Bee (= beck, Bach, a brook), 
 Caudebec, etc. 
 
 4OO 
 
33. CAPPEIAA PAI.ATINA, PALERMO 
 
 400 
 
THE NORMANS 
 
 perhaps this same band of pilgrims returning from Palestine 
 which (as related on a former occasion) was encountered 
 near Monte Gargano by a certain soldier of fortune named 
 Melus or Melo. This man is said to have been a fugitive from 
 the (then) Byzantine town of Bari and to have made arrange- 
 ments with the Northmen like those attributed to Guaimar for 
 the purpose of wreaking vengeance on the Byzantines. 1 
 
 Such are the stories that account, perhaps truly, for the 
 appearance, about 1018, of various bands of Norman warriors 
 in South Italy. Melo's attempt at revenge proved a failure, 
 in spite of the valour of his Norman mercenaries, and the 
 Byzantines for a time extended their power very considerably 
 (see p. 346) . But the service of Northmen was eagerly sought 
 by the Duke of Benevento and other princes, as well as by the 
 Byzantines themselves, and the number of these formidable 
 fighters increased so rapidly that ere long they were able to 
 lay claim to territory that they had helped to conquer ; and 
 thus they began to form independent communities. The right 
 to do so was conceded them, about 1028, by Conrad II, who 
 allowed them to settle in the territory of Capua in order to 
 counteract Pandulf, the rebellious despot of that city; and 
 Pandulf's enemy, the Duke of Naples (Sergius), rewarded the 
 Normans for their assistance by giving their leader, Rainulf, 
 the town of Aversa. This town of Aversa, which is twelve 
 miles north of Naples, was the first fixed abode of the Normans 
 in Italy, and formed, as it were, the nucleus of their future 
 kingdom. 
 
 Besides the Normans at Aversa there were many groups 
 that had no settled abode but took service wherever fighting 
 was going on, and their numbers were constantly being 
 increased by new arrivals from the north. Now Guaimar of 
 
 1 Gibbon, who does not mention the siege of Salerno, but gives a picturesque 
 account of this other episode, speaks of Melus as ' a stranger in the Greek 
 habit, who soon revealed himself as a rebel and a mortal foe of the Greek 
 Empire.' Other writers say that he was of Lombard origin, and so probably, 
 to judge from his name, was Guaimar (Weimar) . If so, doubtless the common 
 Northern origin helped towards an understanding. How the pilgrims got 
 to Gargano, and whether it was before or after their exploit at Salerno, is 
 not explained, 
 
 2 C 40I 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 Salerno, whom the Saracens with their powerful fleets were 
 for ever annoying, joined forces (1038) with the Byzantines 
 of South Italy in an invasion of Sicily, which for two centuries 
 (ever since the fall of Palermo in 831) had been in possession 
 of the infidels. This invasion, though a fiasco — for the leaders 
 quarrelled and the Christian forces soon returned to Italy — 
 is memorable because one of the chief warriors in the Norman 
 contingent was an elder brother of the celebrated Robert 
 Guiscard — one of the twelve sons of Tancred of Hauteville. 
 His name was William of the Iron Arm, and he called himself 
 Count of Apulia, and according to his biographer 1 he was ' a 
 lion in war, a lamb in society, and an angel in council.' With 
 his ' iron arm ' he is said to have ' unhorsed and transpierced 
 the emir of Syracuse,' and the small band of his fighters 
 discomfited a host of 60,000 Saracens. But in spite of such 
 exploits all was in vain, and not till fifty years later was the 
 Norman conquest of Sicily complete. 
 
 During these fifty years (c. 1040-90) the Norman power 
 in South Italy increased greatly. William of the Iron Arm 
 died, but other valiant sons of Tancred of Hauteville arrived 
 from their northern home. Drogo took the place of William, 
 and when Drogo fell by the hand of an assassin his brother 
 Humphry succeeded to the title of Count and to the leadership 
 of the combined forces of Northmen in Apulia and Calabria. 
 In 1053 took place the fight (see p. 352) in which Humphry's 
 Normans, aided by their countrymen of Aversa under Count 
 Richard, totally defeated, not far from Gargano on the Adriatic 
 coast, the German and Italian troops of I,eo IX, and took 
 the Pope himself prisoner ; and it may be remembered that 
 the victors prostrated themselves in reverence before their 
 prisoner, begging his pardon — but kept him as a hostage 
 for six months. Finally, when released, or to obtain his 
 release, the pontiff recognized as a fait accompli the conquests 
 of the Normans, and if he did not formally invest Humphry 
 with the title of Count or Duke of Apulia and Calabria, this 
 was certainly done six years later by Pope Nicholas II in the 
 
 1 See Gibbon, ch. Ivi. 
 402 
 
THE NORMANS 
 case of Robert Guiscard, the brother and successor of Humphry. 
 Nicholas had apparently no such cause of gratitude as I,eo had, 
 but there were, as we shall see, political reasons to account 
 for his apparently impulsive generosity ; for he not only 
 liberated Robert from excommunication 1 and granted him 
 investiture as Duke of Apulia and Calabria, but even promised 
 to recognize him as Duke of Sicily as soon as ever he succeeded 
 in wresting the island from the Saracens. 
 
 Robert Guiscard (or Wiscard, ' the Clever '), the sixth son 
 of Tancred of Hauteville, was at this time forty-four years of 
 age. He reigned as duke, after his recognition by Nicholas, 
 for twenty-five years and developed the power of the Normans 
 in Italy very greatly. At first he, as also Richard of Aversa 
 (or rather Capua, of which city he had been made prince), 
 was friendly to the Popes, but when Hildebrand was elected 
 troubles broke out ; for the growing power of Robert did not 
 at all suit the ambitious plans of the new Pope. However, 
 this state of things was finally changed entirely by the clever 
 policy of Hildebrand. It will be remembered that long before 
 he was Pope the monk Hildebrand had guided the counsels 
 of the papal court ; indeed, Nicholas II and Alexander II were 
 merely his tools. It was his acute policy that had caused 
 Nicholas to recognize Robert as duke, and he himself had made 
 such friends with the other Norman chief, Richard of Aversa 
 and Capua, that this prince had helped him to give the coup 
 de grace to Antipope Benedict. Now when he, Hildebrand, 
 became Pope and the Investiture trouble began he was far- 
 sighted enough to foresee that an alliance with the Normans 
 would be a necessity in his conflict with the Emperor ; and 
 when, after the humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa, the 
 conflict seemed likely to be renewed with still greater bitterness 
 he was determined to secure the friendship of Robert Guiscard, 
 
 1 It seems that he was excommunicated for having taken Monte Cassino 
 and turned the monks out. Matthew Paris relates that he effected the 
 capture by introducing himself as a dead man lying on a bier — a device worthy 
 of his cognomen. Dante places Robert Guiscard in the great Red Cross of 
 Mars in Paradise, evidently on account of his later submission to the Church 
 and his wars against the Sicilian Saracens. 
 
 4°3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 who had quite lately increased his power by making himself 
 master of Salerno, and thus extinguishing the last Lombard 
 principality in the south of Italy. Hildebrand's statecraft 
 had in this case a surprising success. Duke Robert, for what 
 reasons it is not easy to see, not only accepted the Pope's 
 overtures, but actually did homage to him for his dukedom 
 (a homage paid by kings of the Sicilies for 600 years) and 
 confirmed the papal claim to Benevento — a claim which re- 
 mained recognized till the year i860. From this time onward 
 the Normans of South Italy were a pillar of strength to the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 For some ten years before this occurrence Robert Guiscard 
 had been helping his youngest brother, Roger, whom he had 
 sent against the Saracens in Sicily. In 1072 he had been 
 present at the capture of Palermo, which, after having been 
 240 years in the power of Arabian and African Moslems, was 
 now to become the capital of Christian monarchs whose near 
 ancestors had been Scandinavian Vikings. Roger proclaimed 
 himself Count of Sicily, but it was nearly twenty years before 
 he had completely subjugated the whole of the island and had 
 enrolled the Saracens as his soldiers and subjects. 
 
 Meanwhile Robert Guiscard, having assimilated the last 
 of the Lombard states and having subjugated Saracens and 
 Byzantines, had formed the design of following up his con- 
 quests on the other side of the Adriatic and possessing himself 
 of Constantinople itself. His campaigns in Sicily had neces- 
 sitated the formation of a fleet, and the blood of the old Vikings 
 stirred in his veins as his new ambition x urged him to collect 
 or build more than a hundred warships and to set forth across 
 the sea with a force, it is said, of 30,000 men — not a few being 
 Saracens who had accepted service in his army. He occupied 
 Corfu and laid siege to Durazzo (Dyrrachium). The Eastern 
 Emperor, Alexius Comnenus, then appealed to Venice, and 
 Venice, jealous of the new sea-power, responded. With a swarm 
 of galleys Doge Selvo attacked and seemed on the point 
 
 1 It really seems as if Robert Guiscard had the ' colossal ambition of uniting 
 in his own person the divided Empire of the Romans ' (Okey). 
 404 
 
THE NORMANS 
 
 of overpowering the besieging fleet, but Robert and his Nor- 
 mans turned the fortune of battle and soon afterwards entered 
 Durazzo (1082). It seemed now almost likely that he might 
 make a dash for Constantinople — whither from Durazzo led 
 the fine Roman military road, the Via Egnatia. But matters 
 at Rome had become very serious. The Emperor Henry IV 
 had, as we know, seized the I,eonine quarter, and Pope Gregory 
 was closely invested in S. Angelo and was sending pitiful 
 appeals to Robert. He thereupon left the charge of the war 
 in Dalmatia to his son Bohemund and hastened back to Italy, 
 put Henry to flight, released Hildebrand, and brought ever- 
 lasting shame on his good fame by allowing his troops to 
 plunder Rome. 
 
 This happened in the early summer of 1084. In the autumn 
 he again reached Dalmatia, in time to repel another violent 
 attack by the Venetians and Byzantines, whose losses this 
 time, it is said, amounted to 13,000 men. Doge Selvo fled 
 back to the lagunes with the remnant of his ships and was 
 deposed. 1 His successor, Vitale Ealieri, made great efforts to 
 avenge the disgrace, and he met with some success ; but what 
 put an end to the Norman attempt on the Eastern Empire 
 was the death of Robert Guiscard. He was struck down, 2 
 perhaps by the plague or by poison, when endeavouring to 
 capture the island of Cephalonia (July 1085). 
 
 The younger of Robert's two sons, Roger Borsa, was the 
 favourite of his father and managed to secure succession to 
 the dukedom. The elder, Bohemund, had to content himself 
 with Taranto. In 1097 he joined in the first Crusade with 
 several thousand Norman fighters. Stories connected with 
 his exploits in the East — the capture of Antioch by the help 
 of the Genoese and Pisans and by a cunning worthy of the son 
 of Guiscard and of the title (given him by Gibbon) of the 
 Latin Odysseus ; the discovery of the ' holy lance ' and the 
 rout of a mighty host of infidels ; the foundation of a Christian 
 
 1 His long reign as Doge is memorable for the many splendid marbles with 
 which he adorned the newly reconstructed St. Mark's. 
 
 * He was buried at Venusia — Horace's birthplace — where his tomb is to 
 be seen in the abbey church of S. Trinita. 
 
 405 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 principality at Antioch — may be found mentioned in Tasso's 
 Gerusalemme Liberata and picturesquely described by the 
 historian of the Decline and Fall. Chroniclers also relate 
 how he languished four years in a Turkish prison and finally 
 escaped by the aid of a Moslem princess — a story reminding 
 one of Young Beichan 1 and Susie Pye of our English ballad. 
 After his escape he seems to have raised forces in Italy for the 
 recovery of Antioch, but to have made a futile attack on 
 Durazzo and to have returned to Taranto, where about 1112 
 he died. Roger Borsa had died shortly before this, and the 
 dukedom of Apulia had passed into the hands of his son 
 William, who, although feeble in body and mind, managed to 
 uphold his authority for the next sixteen years (1111-27). 
 
 Now in the meantime Robert Guiscard's youngest brother, 
 Count Roger, had completely conquered the Saracens in Sicily. 
 I^ike Robert, he attained seventy years. At his death, in 1101, 
 his only sons were two children of eight and of six years. 
 The mother, Count Roger's third wife, Adelai'da of Monte- 
 ferrato, was regent for the elder, Simon, until he died in 
 1105, and for the younger, Roger, until he came of age in 1112. 
 She then went off to Palestine, where she married Baldwin 
 (Godfrey's brother), the King of Jerusalem. 
 
 We hear little of Count Roger the Second of Sicily until the 
 Apulian-Calabrian dukedom becomes vacant by the death of 
 his heirless second-cousin William. He now acts vigorously 
 — lands at Salerno, claims the succession, receives the homage 
 of his adherents, sends envoys to Rome to announce that he 
 would be pleased to receive investiture, and, when Pope 
 Honorius II seems unwilling to move, makes a display of force 
 which soon brings about compliance. Then, after confirming 
 his authority by similar measures throughout the whole of the 
 Norman provinces, he summons a great Council, or Parliament, 
 at Palermo in the year 11 30 and assumes the royal crown and 
 title as King of Sicily, or perhaps the Two Sicilies. 2 
 
 1 Possibly the father of Thomas a Becket, the archbishop. 
 * Siciliae et Ilaliae Rex was sometimes his rather ambitious signature. 
 The expression ' the Two Sicilies ' seems of somewhat later date. 
 
 406 
 
34> Roger of Sicily crowned by the Saviour 406 
 
 Palermo 
 
THE NORMANS 
 
 It will be remembered that at this time Pope Innocent II 
 had fled to France and the Antipope Anacletus was in power. 
 Anacletus sent a legate to Palermo to perform the act of 
 coronation ; but this coronation was regarded as null by the 
 orthodox, and the matter was made still worse when St. 
 Bernard of Clairvaux and the Lateran Council of 1133 declared 
 Innocent sole Pope and annulled the acts of Anacletus (see 
 p. 364) . In Fig. 34 is given a mosaic set up by Roger in S. Maria 
 dell' Ammiraglio (now la Martorana) at Palermo. It repre- 
 sents the king receiving from Christ the crown refused him 
 by the Pope. But not long after the I^ateran Council Pope 
 Innocent had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by Roger, 
 and, just as had happened in the case of I^eo IX and Robert 
 Guiscard, the victor treated his prisoner reverently and was 
 rewarded by recognition as King of Sicily, Duke of Apulia, and 
 Prince of Capua. 1 
 
 The hundred years (1087-1189) during which Sicily was 
 under Norman rule form one of the most attractive periods 
 in the long and wonderfully varied history of the island, 
 which ever since the age of the early Sicels and Sicanians (or 
 maybe the Cyclopes and the I/aestrygonians) down to that of 
 the Bourbons and Garibaldi has been the battlefield and the 
 home of many races. These Northern princes, descendants 
 of the pirate-kings of Scandinavia, who conquered not only 
 Sicily but much of South Italy (the ancient Magna Graecia) 
 and for a time considerable portions of Dalmatia and Greece, 
 and whose fleets swept the Adriatic and the Aegean and the 
 I>vant and even threatened Constantinople, seem to have 
 ruled the polyglot multitude of their Sicilian subjects with 
 wisdom and liberality. They not only allowed the Moslems 
 religious liberty, but employed them as soldiers and also as 
 officials, and were themselves much influenced by Saracen 
 learning and art. Greek and I,atin and Arabic were used 
 indifferently in public documents, a and in religion there was 
 
 1 It will be noticed that the kingship of the continental territories is not 
 mentioned. 
 
 2 Norman-French doubtless remained the home-language, perhaps the 
 court-language, of the princes and the veterans for some time. But the 
 
 407 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 evidently a strange tolerance, considering that it was the 
 age of Crusades and fanaticism. ' The king/ says Villari, ' as 
 apostolic legate was present at Catholic functions clad in a 
 dalmatic embroidered with golden Cufic characters and bear- 
 ing the date of the Hegira. In close vicinity were to be seen 
 feudal castles, Greek cities, Mohammedan villages, I^mbard 
 colonies, streets occupied by Pisans, Genoese, and Amalfitans. 
 The sound of bells and the chanting of monks mingled with 
 the voice of the muezzin from his minaret, and in the crowd 
 were seen side by side the Arab cloak, the Moslem turban, 
 the Norman coat of mail, the long Greek tunic, and the short 
 doublet of the Italian.' As we shall see, their architecture 
 bears witness to this picturesque diversity. Although doubt- 
 less in reality absolute monarchs, they delegated military and 
 civil power to their ' Admirals ' (Commanders or Ministers — the 
 wordAmmiraglio being the Arabic al Emir), and appear to have 
 instituted some sort of Parliament, in which the people were 
 represented by lay and ecclesiastical peers, so that we may 
 perhaps regard these Norman kings of Sicily as the first con- 
 stitutional rulers. At their courts we find many learned and 
 able men, among whom the Englishman Gualtiero Offamilio 
 (Walter Of a Mill) is for us of special interest. 
 
 King Roger's successes in war were brilliant, but not per- 
 manent. He made some conquests in North Africa, and, follow- 
 ing the example of Robert Guiscard, he assailed the Eastern 
 Empire, took Corfu, captured Thebes and Corinth, and even 
 had the satisfaction of learning that Norman arrows had rattled 
 on the windows of the imperial palace at Byzantium. 
 
 The reign (1154-66) of Roger's son and successor, William I, 
 was much disturbed by rebellion. He had many powerful 
 enemies. Against the Eastern Emperor, Manuel Comnenus, 
 he held his own vigorously, scouring the Ionian and Aegean 
 with his fleets, as his Viking ancestors had scoured the Northern 
 seas ; but a more dangerous foe was Barbarossa, who, in collu- 
 
 Normans evidently had the gift of assimilation, as proved by the rapid dis- 
 appearance of the lingua Danica in Normandy. Also by this time doubtless 
 the Sicilian-Italian was largely in use as a lingua volgare. 
 408 
 
35- King Roger's Tomb 
 Palermo 
 
 408 
 
THE NORMANS 
 
 sion with the English Pope Hadrian and depending on the 
 Pisans for a fleet, seriously designed the conquest of the Two 
 Sicilies and incited a widespread insurrection of the nobles 
 of Apulia against their Norman ruler. William succeeded 
 however in conciliating Pope Hadrian, who graciously vouch- 
 safed him investiture. 1 Then he turned furiously on the 
 Apulian barons and inflicted on them condign chastisement 
 — earning by his revengeful cruelty the name of William the 
 Bad. In Sicily too the feudal nobles rebelled, massacred 
 many of the Saracen adherents of the king and succeeded in 
 capturing and imprisoning him ; but the people rose in his 
 favour and set him free, and his last years seem to have been 
 stained by further atrocities perpetrated against the recalci- 
 trant barons. Doubtless he was of a violent, revengeful, and 
 sanguinary nature ; but his biographers belonged to the 
 feudal and ecclesiastical parties, and perhaps from the people's 
 point of view he deserved scarcely more than his son to be 
 handed down to fame as William the Bad. 
 
 However that may be, we need not doubt that his son was 
 deservedly called William the Good, for during his reign of 
 twenty-two years (or seventeen, if we subtract the regency 
 of his mother, Margherita) there was no sign of rebellion or 
 discontent. When his father died in 1166 he was a youth of 
 thirteen. His education had been entrusted to tutors sent from 
 Normandy by his princely relatives — to Stephen of Rouen, 
 Peter of Blois, and the Englishman Walter Of a Mill, who 
 as his special adviser and his chancellor exercised great 
 influence on him, and through him on the weal of the state, 
 and has handed his own name down to later ages by the 
 splendid churches which, as Archbishop of Palermo, he helped 
 to found. It was also doubtless through his influence that 
 William married an English princess, Joan, daughter of 
 Henry II and sister to Richard Coeur-de-Iyion. The wisdom 
 and liberality of William II are evidenced not only by the 
 
 1 It is ever again a matter of surprise that these Norman princes should 
 have been so anxious to profess themselves feudatories of the Papacy ; and 
 how the Popes upheld their fictitious right to confer investiture is also a 
 puzzle. 
 
 409 
 
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THE NORMANS 
 
 peaceful and prosperous state of his own dominions but by 
 his foreign policy. He made an alliance of twenty years 
 with Venice, and probably saved that city from destruction 
 by the resentful Byzantines. He also warmly supported the 
 North Italian republics in their desperate struggle for liberty, 
 and took part through his envoys in the celebrated conference 
 at Venice in 1177, when Barbarossa made peace with the Pope 
 and with the Iyombard cities. 
 
 As a great and good ruler William II of Sicily has been 
 immortalized by Dante, who places his soul, in the form of a 
 bright star, in the constellation of the mighty Eagle in the 
 heaven of Jupiter — the symbol not only of the Roman Empire, 
 but of all just government. 1 
 
 It was however also on account of his wars against the 
 Moslems and anti-papal Byzantines that William won from 
 monkish chroniclers the name of ' Good ' — not that these 
 wars were very glorious or very justifiable. About 1180 a 
 great fleet, carrying, it is said, 80,000 men, was sent across 
 the Adriatic and captured Durazzo. It then sailed round to 
 Thessalonica, which was also taken. But a furious tempest, 
 such as wrecked the fleet of Darius off Athos, is said to have 
 caused the loss of 10,000 lives ; and this disaster was scarcely 
 counterbalanced by a great naval victory won afterwards 
 over the Greek fleet near Cyprus. William also sent ships to 
 the East, though he did not himself join in the third Crusade, 
 when, as we have seen, the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin 
 in 1 187 incited so many princes — among them the young 
 Richard Coeur-de-Iyion and the aged Barbarossa — to undertake 
 in person the recovery of the Holy City. 
 
 Not long before Frederick Barbarossa started for the East — 
 whence he never returned — the marriage of his son Henry 
 with the heiress of the Norman kingdom of the Two Sicilies 
 took place at Milan. William had no children. Some three 
 years before his death, on the urgent advice of his English 
 
 1 Par. xx, 62. The star-like souls of WiHiam the Good, of Ripheus the 
 Trojan, Hezekiah, Trajan, and Constantine the Great form the circle of 
 the Eagle's eye, in the centre of which blazes the soul of King David. 
 
 41I 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 counsellor, Of a Mill, he took the disastrous decision — disastrous 
 for the future of Italian patriotism — to favour this marriage 
 of his aunt Constance with the Hohenstaufen prince. It is 
 asserted by some old writers that the princess Constance, now 
 middle-aged, was taken out of a convent in order to be married. 
 Dante, who' accepts this story and places her soul in the sphere 
 of the inconstant moon, speaks (through the mouth of Beatrice) 
 of her ' affection for the veil ' and gives us a sermon on 
 vows broken voluntarily or through compulsion. Machiavelli 
 asserts that Pope Celestine III (an evident error, for Celestine 
 was not Pope till 1192) trasse di monastero Gostanza, gid 
 vecchia figliuola di Guglielmo, in order to give her as wife to 
 Henry. Anyhow, willingly or unwillingly, she was married 
 to the German — and a hundred and fifty horses bore to Milan 
 their loads of gold and silver and precious stuffs, the dowry 
 of the bride who was destined to become the mother 1 of the 
 ' Wonder of the World.' 
 
 With the death of William the Good the dynasty of the 
 Norman kings of Sicily came to an end. Illegitimate claimants 
 appeared on the scene, but, as we shall see later, the Hohen- 
 staufen cause prevailed. 2 
 
 1 Or, as Dante puts it (Par. iii) : ' to bear to the second wind of Suabia 
 [Henry VI] the third and latest potentate [of that dynasty, viz. Frederick II].' 
 
 2 See table of Norman Dukes and Kings. For the churches and palaces 
 of Palermo during the Norman supremacy see ch. iv of this Part. The very 
 striking gifts and the nobler characteristics of Frederick were certainly not 
 derived from the stupid and brutal Teutonic ferocity of his father, Henry 
 the Cruel, but from his Norman mother. A Norman Conquest might have 
 done for Italy what it has done for England. 
 
 412 
 
— »r: 
 
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 o 
 « 
 
 g 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 <! 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 UNMI, C. I200 
 
 PARTI, Y owing to the incompleteness of their conquests 
 and partly to racial differences none of the invaders 
 and foreign overlords of Italy had succeeded in 
 founding an Italian nation. The forces which under some 
 conditions draw various peoples together into one nation 
 manifested themselves in medieval Italy, as they did in ancient 
 Greece, in local patriotism and the formation of a number 
 of independent cities, which, having no organic cohesion, were 
 doomed, like the cities of Greece, never to coalesce into any 
 true confederation, such as forms the stable body of the 
 modern constitutional republic or limited monarchy, but were 
 in a constant process of disintegration, except when temporarily 
 held together by external pressure. Internally too the Greek 
 and the Italian cities had experiences which, being the effects 
 of similar forces acting under somewhat similar conditions, 
 offer many analogies and some curious contrasts. 1 Their 
 domestic, religious, and political feuds, their revolutions, the 
 phases of democracy, oligarchy, and despotism through which 
 many of them passed, afford interesting material to the student 
 of comparative politics. But here it must suffice to relate 
 briefly the rise of these Italian Communes, following their 
 development up to the end of the twelfth century — the epoch 
 of the Peace of Constanz — and giving a few details in connexion 
 with some of the more important cities. 
 
 1 The Papacy — a political power possessed of enchanted weapons, so to 
 speak — had scarcely its counterpart in Greek history, although Delphic priest- 
 craft was often a powerful agent. In regard to pitiable internal discords and 
 to traitorous collusion with a foreign foe — Persian, Macedonian, Saracen, 
 German — there is little to choose between Greece and Italy. 
 
 413 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Republicanism found of course no opportunity for develop- 
 ment under the military despotisms of Goths, Byzantines, 
 l^ombards, or Saracens, and it was detested by the civil and 
 clerical feudalism of the revived Empire. The instinctive 
 yearning for liberty and self-rule did indeed, as it was bound 
 to do, give evidence of its existence. 1 The resentment against 
 foreign domination ever and again, from the time of Theoderic 
 onward, found vehement expression — as, for instance, in the 
 serious riots which, at Rome and elsewhere, often accompanied 
 the imperial coronations — and when during the weak rule of 
 the Carolingian princes and the anarchy of the succeeding 
 period many cities were left to fight their own battles against 
 various foes — Saracens, Magyars, Byzantines, I/Ombard dukes, 
 or rival municipalities — it was natural that they should learn 
 to depend on their own resources and to assert their inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 We have already seen (Part III, ch. iii) how Venice in 
 early days took advantage of its natural position to form a 
 confederacy of its island towns and to liberate itself both from 
 the Eastern and from the Western Empire. In the south too 
 we find at an early period several maritime cities, such as 
 Naples, Gaeta, Salerno, and Amalfi, 2 asserting independence — 
 not always republican in form — and developing very consider- 
 able wealth through their commerce, and sea-power through 
 their fleets, by means of which they made a gallant stand 
 against the Moslem invaders, against Byzantine oppressors, 
 and against the Normans, until they were finally incorporated 
 
 1 Some have tried to trace the Italian Commune back to the Roman 
 municipium, others to the popular elements in the Lombard system of 
 government ; but the real source is doubtless to be sought in tne human 
 breast. 
 
 * Amalfi, now a fishing village nestling amid steep crags that overhang 
 the Bay of Salerno, was in those days a city of 50,000 inhabitants. Under 
 its Doges and, later, under Norman rule it extended its commerce to 
 Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, and took a conspicuous part in transporting the 
 early Crusaders to the East. An evidence of its sea-power are the Tavole 
 Amalfitane, a maritime code which was used through the whole Mediterranean. 
 From a hospital founded by Amalfi in Jerusalem the Knights Hospitallers 
 took their name. All the lower town of Amalfi has been swept away by 
 inundations. 
 414 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. When the independence 
 of these southern maritime cities was extinguished by the 
 Normans, although the Normans by no means extinguished 
 their commerce, a great part of the Eastern trade passed into 
 the hands of the Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians. At the 
 beginning of the eleventh century the fleets of Pisa and Genoa 
 had succeeded in occupying Sardinia and in driving the 
 Saracens from the Iigurian and Tuscan coasts and seas, 1 
 and from this time onwards these two cities, under the rule 
 of their republican consuls and popular assemblies, increased 
 rapidly both by land and by sea, Pisa becoming mistress of 
 the Tuscan and the Roman Maremma from Spezia to Civita- 
 vecchia, as well as of Sardinia and the Balearic Isles, while 
 Genoa occupied most of the Riviera and disputed with Pisa 
 the possession of Corsica. Both cities also took prominent 
 part in the Crusades and extended their commerce in rivalry 
 to the East, 2 outvying for centuries all other sea-powers except 
 Venice ; for Venice had the double advantage of standing in 
 close relationship to the Byzantine Empire and of being an 
 emporium and transit-station for Oriental merchandise destined 
 for Western and Northern Europe, which were now beginning 
 to import largely the culture and the luxuries of older civiliza- 
 tions. 
 
 In passing it may be noticed how with the rise of these 
 Italian republics the ' bane of republics ' at once began to 
 spread its poison. No sooner did Pisa and Genoa attain sea- 
 power by their victories over the Saracens than they turned 
 their fleets against each other and began those pitiable conflicts 
 
 1 The Saracens had till now dominated Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Isles, 
 a great part of Spain and North Africa. They had even plundered Genoa 
 (936) and burnt a part of the city of the Pisans and extended their ravages 
 down to Ostia. In Sicily they were supreme till conquered by the Normans 
 (1070-90). 
 
 2 The Pisans followed up the conquest of Sardinia and Corsica by defeating 
 the Saracens off Tunis and, in 1063, destroying a great Moslem fleet off Palermo. 
 In 1 1 14 they took the Balearic Isles. The zenith of the Pisan maritime 
 power may perhaps be marked by the date 1203, the year in which they 
 transported the fifty-three shiploads of earth from Jerusalem to form their 
 Campo Santo. Eighty years later their sea-power was crushed at Meloria 
 by the Genoese and Florentines. 
 
 415 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 among the free cities which for centuries drained the life- 
 blood of Italy. And in order, to extinguish some of their 
 rivals they even lent their fleets to foreign oppressors and foes 
 of republican liberty. 1 
 
 Besides the maritime cities (among which Venice held of 
 course a conspicuous place and will claim our attention later) 
 there remain for consideration the I/ombard and Tuscan cities 
 and also Rome. 
 
 The attempts of the Roman people to refound the Republic 
 have been described in the Historical Outline. That these 
 attempts, though for a time crowned with success, should 
 have ended in failure is scarcely surprising when we consider 
 not only the endless conflicts between the Popes and the 
 nobles, but also the fact that, although there was great 
 wealth in the hands of the feudal nobility, both lay and 
 ecclesiastic, the city itself had no such trade as that which 
 formed the foundation of the new Communes. Rome was 
 not a port and a sea-power. It was not the centre of a 
 productive region. It possessed no large and wealthy mer- 
 cantile burgher class. The population consisted almost entirely 
 of mob and aristocracy — two classes far more widely sepa- 
 rated than the plebeians and patricians of earlier days — and 
 between them stood only a small middle class, the members 
 of the military scholae (city-militia), who had certain political 
 rights and were allowed to be freeholders, and whose one 
 great ambition it was to gain admission to the ranks of the 
 nobility. 
 
 In former chapters many points of interest have been touched 
 upon in connexion with the earlier history of the more im- 
 portant cities of Northern and Central Italy. Here we must 
 limit our attention to some of those which took prominent 
 
 1 For instance, they often lent ships to Frederick I and Henry VI. Imperial 
 avour confirmed, it is true, many of the,ir liberties and aided them against 
 rival cities, but these staunchly Ghibelline and cantankerous ' republics ' are 
 a somewhat discreditable phenomenon — one which it is pleasant to view 
 merely as a background to the rusty chains now hung up in the Campo Santo — 
 old war- trophies given back to Pisa by Genoa and Florence in the nineteenth 
 century, when Italy was proving worthy to become a nation. 
 
 416 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 part in the great republican movement of the twelfth century 
 against Frederick I. This movement was at first con- 
 fined to a few Lombard cities, among which the chief were 
 Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, Parma, and Modena (as against the 
 imperialistic Pavia, Como,L,odi, Cremona, and others), but the 
 League was ere long joined by cities lying more to the east, 
 namely Verona, Padua, Bologna, Mantua, and Vicenza. These 
 were headed by Venice. 1 
 
 Such an outburst as that which caused the formation of 
 the Lombard League must have been the result of deep and 
 widespread influences that had been at work for many years. 
 Some of these influences we have already noted in the case 
 of the republican movements in the maritime cities. In the 
 case of most of the inland cities of Lombardy and Tuscany 
 the frequent presence, or passage, of powerful German armies 
 doubtless prevented the early development of republicanism, 
 and it was evidently first during the fierce and long-drawn 
 wars of the Investitures (c. 1073-1122) that these cities began 
 to realize their own importance as allies and as strongholds 
 and to join one side or other of the great feud, as seemed 
 likely to forward their interests. Florence, as we have seen 
 in a former chapter, was, together with much of Tuscany, 
 long under rulers vehemently hostile to German imperial- 
 ism, and when on the death of Countess Matilda in 1115 the 
 city acquired a certain measure of self-rule its sentiments 
 remained for many years strongly Guelf . But neither Florence 
 nor any other Tuscan towns — some of which were its enemies 
 and violently Ghibelline — took any active share in the wars 
 between the republics and Frederick, although by this time 
 many of these Tuscan towns (such as Siena, Volterra, and 
 S. Gimignano) had asserted their right to rule themselves 
 
 1 Ravenna seems to have kept aloof and was imperialistic in sentiment. 
 It was under imperial PodestA, and later under the Polenta. Ferrara was 
 ruled by Margraves of Este from the days of Henry IV down to those of Tasso — 
 more than five hundred years. Bologna was made a free city by Henry V 
 in 1 1 12 (whence its ensign ' Liberty ') and joined the League ; but first in 
 1228 it ejected its nobles and introduced a full republican system, like that of 
 Florence. 
 
 2D 417 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 by means of yearly elected consuls x — an example ere long to 
 be followed by many other cities of Central Italy, such as 
 Spoleto, Assisi, Perugia, and Foligno. 
 
 The story of the conflict between the allied republics and 
 Frederick Barbarossa has been told elsewhere. We may 
 therefore now turn our thoughts for a short time to the internal 
 history of the two most important cities of the League, Venice 
 and Milan, without any further anxiety as to fitting our facts 
 very exactly into the framework of wars and general politics. 
 
 Venice (800-1200) 
 
 A slight sketch of the history of Venice, or rather of Venetia, 
 from its first origins to the days of Charles the Great has 
 already been given (Part III, ch. iii) . I purpose to give here 
 a few more items of interest from its annals down to the 
 thirteenth century. It will be remembered that the ineffectual 
 attempt of Pipin, the son of Charles, to conquer the Venetians 
 resulted in the foundation of the new capital on the banks of 
 the Pvivoalto — a site which had proved impregnable. The 
 commander of the gallant islanders who had defied the might 
 of the Frankish invader was elected Doge (811). He, Agnello 
 Partecipazio, was the first Doge of Venice, though there had 
 already been ten Doges of Maritime Venetia, the first, Anafesto, 
 having been elected as early as 697. In 813 the seat of govern- 
 ment was formally transferred to the Rivoalto. Here, on 
 the western bank of the ' Deep Stream,' or Grand Canal, 
 where it was later (in 1173) spanned by the first wooden 
 Rialto bridge, had for some three or four centuries existed the 
 market-place of these islanders — the Campo di Rialto — and 
 
 1 After the death of Countess Matilda (1115) Siena asserted its independ- 
 ence, and soon afterwards adopted (unless, as tradition asserts, they had 
 long ago been granted by Charles or Otto the Great) as its ensign a white 
 lion on a red field and the motto ' Liberty.' About this time too Siena pro- 
 duced that great and successful adversary of Frederick, Pope Alexander III, 
 Later the nobles gained the upper hand, and it was with the help of 
 Siena that the Florentine Ghibelline exiles won the bloody battle of Monta- 
 perti, on the Arbia (1260). S. Gimignano, first mentioned in the tenth cen- 
 tury and long subject to Volterra, won its independence before 1200 and had 
 its consuls and councils. 
 418 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 their earliest church, S. Giacomo, which was founded, tradition 
 says, in the year 421. x On the eastern bank of the canal stood 
 amidst a grassy campo — the Broglio or Brolo — the ancient 
 church of S. Teodoro, the first patron-saint of Venice, which had 
 been erected (if annals do not lie) nigh three centuries before 
 the days of Partecipazio by Byzantine builders summoned 
 from Constantinople by Narses (see p. 287). Near it was 
 soon built, perhaps by Partecipazio's son and successor, 
 the original Palace of the Doges. 2 Also the original church 
 of S. Zaccaria now arose in 
 order to receive the supposed 
 body of John the Baptist's 
 father 3 and to serve as the 
 burying - place of the early 
 Doges. 
 
 About 828 the supposed body Venetian Coin op (Tseo 
 
 of St. Mark was brought to see p. xxvii 
 
 Venice, stolen from his tomb 
 
 in Alexandria, if the tale told by the pious thieves is to be 
 credited, and saved from the impious quest of pagan Saracens 
 by being suspended on the ship's mast and covered over with 
 swine's flesh. A chapel {memoria) was erected on the Broglio 
 to receive the relic. 
 
 In 976 a great conflagration destroyed this memorial chapel, 
 and also, at least to some extent, the ducal palace. This 
 occurred during the short reign of that Doge Pietro Orseolo I 
 who, as was related in an earlier chapter, was persuaded by 
 St. Romuald of Ravenna to turn hermit, or recluse, and left 
 Venice by stealth (see p. 343). Orseolo is said to have sent 
 to Constantinople for skilled builders and to have spent 
 all his wealth in reconstructing the chapel, or perhaps in 
 
 1 Entirely rebuilt and furnished with Greek mosaics by Doge Selvo in 
 1073 and reconstructed on another site in 1322. See Ruskin's ' St. James 
 of the Deep Stream ' in his St. Mark's Rest. 
 
 2 Burnt and rebuilt in 976 and again in 1025, and subsequently much 
 altered. 
 
 3 A present from the Eastern Emperor Leo. The present church, built 
 c. 1470 on the same site, just to the east of the ducal palace, contains no 
 ascertained relic of the original building. 
 
 419 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 beginning the construction of trie much larger church which 
 slowly rose on the same site. 
 
 That Venice already in these early days, in spite of the 
 wonderful growth of its commerce and its sea-power and in 
 spite of its apparently stable system of government, was ex- 
 posed to dangers similar to those from which all other Italian 
 Communes had to suffer is evident from the many and serious 
 intrigues and disorders of which we hear in connexion with 
 the election of the Doges, and the many feuds and factions 
 that seem to have taken permanent root in the city. As an 
 illustration of this we may note that in the reign of Memo — 
 a weak and bad man, deposed in 991 on suspicion of murder — 
 the powerful family of the Caloprini very nearly succeeded 
 in sacrificing their native city in order to wreak vengeance on 
 their political rivals, the Morosini ; for they fled to the court 
 of Otto II and induced him to bring a powerful fleet and army 
 against Venice, where their partisans were ready to aid the 
 besiegers by treason. Fortunately for Venice, the death of 
 Otto frustrated the design. 
 
 Memo was followed by one of the greatest of the Doges, 
 Pietro Orseolo II, who first started Venice on her career of 
 conquest as a great Mediterranean sea-power by overcoming 
 the Croats and Adriatic pirates and annexing Dalmatia. 
 Henceforth the title ' Doge of Dalmatia ' was borne by the 
 Venetian Doge, and Venice herself claimed to be mistress of 
 the Adriatic — a claim that found expression in a festival 
 called the Sensa, in which the State barges sailed out into the 
 open sea and the Doge was ' asperged ' with salt water by the 
 bishop. This festival in later times (c. 1180) was developed 
 into the picturesque ceremony of the Sposalizio — the wed- 
 ding of Venice to the Adriatic — a ceremony which was not 
 discontinued till 1797, about eight hundred years after the 
 first institution of the Sensa. Orseolo II excited great 
 admiration in the sentimental mind of Otto III. It will be 
 remembered that this pious and hysterical prince harboured 
 designs, never to be fulfilled, of withdrawing from the world, 
 as the first Doge Orseolo had done, and that for a time 
 420 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 he lived in retirement in the monastery of Classe, near Ravenna, 
 where St. Romuald vainly endeavoured to overcome his vacil- 
 lation. During this sojourn at Ravenna (about iooo) Otto 
 is said to have visited Venice ' disguised in mean attire,' and 
 to have been ' moved to tears ' at the glories of the newly 
 reconstructed cathedral and the ducal palace. But in spite of 
 tears Doge Orseolo seems not to have promised — or anyhow 
 not to have lent — the Venetian fleet, which Otto was very 
 anxious to procure in order to forward certain designs not of 
 a religious nature. 
 
 By the year 1032 so many of the Doges had been deposed, 
 disgraced, or even killed, often on the suspicion that they aimed 
 at founding hereditary despotisms, that the Arengo passed 
 laws which were doubtless meant as steps towards democracy, 
 but proved to be steps in the opposite direction. Hitherto 
 the Doge had possessed powers almost absolute, though he was 
 elected and deposed by the popular voice. Thus the Venetian 
 state was a republic which delegated kingly powers to its 
 president ; and when this proved a dangerous experiment, 
 instead of moving (as the Norman kings of Sicily had moved) 
 in the direction of representative popular government, the 
 Arengo limited the powers of the Doge by giving him two 
 consiglieri and compelling him to ' invite ' other prominent 
 citizens to give him their advice in matters of grave importance. 
 These privy councillors and this chamber of the Pregadi 
 (' Invited ') neutralized the absolutism of the Doges, but were 
 themselves the nucleus from which sprang the Venetian oli- 
 garchical tyranny and the Council of Ten, of sinister fame. 
 
 Fifty years later (1082-84) t°°k place the war waged by 
 Venice, as ally of the Eastern Emperor Alexius, against Robert 
 Guiscard, and the disastrous sea-fight near Durazzo (p. 405) 
 which resulted in the serious crippling of the Venetian fleet 
 and the deposition of Doge Selvo. But from this misfortune 
 Venice soon recovered. The death of Robert Guiscard in 1085 
 was followed by the withdrawal of the Normans from the 
 Eastern Adriatic, and thereupon the Venetian Doge resumed 
 his title as Duke of Dalmatia. From this time we may date the 
 
 421 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 rapid development of Venetian power in the Eastern Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 Doge Selvo, whose reign of thirteen years came to such a tragic 
 conclusion, is said to have adorned the new St. Mark' s with many 
 precious marbles and with Byzantine mosaics, as he had done 
 in the case of S. Giacomo di Rialto. 1 A new building, on the 
 plan of the ancient church of the Holy Apostles at Constan- 
 tinople, had been perhaps begun by Doge Orseolo I soon 
 after the conflagration of 976, but whether Orseolo's building 
 was destroyed by another fire or was never completed, and 
 was demolished, is unknown. Anyhow the reconstruction of 
 St. Mark's in the Byzantine style is usually dated from about 
 1065 — shortly before Selvo's reign. (That the remains of the 
 old memorial chapel and the still more ancient church of 
 S. Teodoro were incorporated in the new building is proved by 
 the fact that some thirty years ago portions of these churches 
 were discovered in the present edifice.) In 1094 the new and 
 magnificent church was ready for consecration ; but since the 
 great fire of 976 the body of St/Mark had disappeared — ap- 
 parently devoured by the flames. The wondrous story of its 
 opportune recovery — its miraculous self -revelation by perfume 
 and an extended gold-ringed hand — need not here be narrated. 
 To those of us who may be slow to accept the legend as 
 represented by Venetian artists conviction may be brought 
 by the statement that in 1811 the recovered body, or what did 
 duty for it, was discovered in the crypt of the church, and that 
 on the finger was found the famous gold ring, and not far off 
 a metal plate inscribed with the date October 8, 1094, and the 
 name of Selvo's successor, Doge Vitale Falieri. 
 
 Among those who at this time visited Venice to pay reverence 
 to the recovered body of the saint 2 and to see the new cathedral 
 
 1 See p. 4x9 n. Selvo's love for Byzantine architecture and mosaics was 
 doubtless encouraged by his wife, a Greek princess di tanta delicatezza that 
 she used to bathe in dew and use a golden fork, instead of her fingers, to 
 carry food to her mouth (Okey's Venice). 
 
 " The extent to which the dead bodies of saints (some perhaps genuine) 
 bulk in the history of Venice is remarkable. We hear, for instance, of 
 St. Stephen's body, rtolen from Constantinople ; of a hand of John the Baptist 
 and the corpse of his father, both given by Eastern Emperors ; of the bodies 
 
 422 
 
I 
 
 o 
 u 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 with its Oriental mosaics and marbles was Henry IV. He 
 was accorded a magnificent reception, and in return for 
 privileges vouchsafed to Venetian merchants he probably re- 
 ceived the promise of aid from the Venetian fleets against his 
 many enemies — for at this period of his reign he was not only 
 still engaged in his desperate struggle against the Papacy and 
 against revolted cities in all parts of Italy, but was already 
 being involved in the more tragic conflict with his own 
 sons. 
 
 In the first and second Crusades (1095-99 and 1147-49) 
 the Venetians took a brilliant part, perhaps more from com- 
 mercial than from religious motives — face Mr. Ruskin, who 
 assures his ' cockney friends ' that though Venice was intensely 
 covetous she was sincerely pious, and that she was covetous 
 not merely of money but of fame and marble pillars. Perhaps 
 as evidence of her commercial jealousy we may note the fact 
 that in the first Crusade she had a very severe and victorious 
 naval combat with the Pisans off Rhodes, and as a specimen 
 of her covetousness of marble pillars we may call to mind the 
 three magnificent columns brought home in 1127 by Doge 
 Michieli, who had gone to the East to succour King Baldwin 
 of Jerusalem, had inflicted a terrible defeat on the Saracen 
 fleet off Jaffa, had helped to capture Tyre, and on his homeward 
 voyage had seized and ravaged many islands belonging to the 
 Eastern Emperor. Among the splendid spoils that he brought 
 in triumph to Venice were the corpses of two saints already 
 mentioned and these three great columns — one of which still 
 lies somewhere in the Grand Canal, while the other two were 
 with very great difficulty erected by the skill of a I^ombard 
 engineer, Barattieri, and have stood for the last seven hundred 
 years and more in the Piazzetta. 1 
 
 of S. Isidore and S. Donato, the acquisition of which was regarded as a greater 
 triumph than the capture of Tyre or Jerusalem. 
 
 1 For details see guide-books and Ruskin's pugilistic St. Mark's Rest; 
 also Venice, in Medicsval Towns. A strange commentary on the assertions 
 of chroniclers, ancient and modern, in regard to the immense prosperity of 
 Venice at this period is the statement made by others that during the reign 
 of Doge Vitale Falieri (1085-96) two-thirds of the citizens perished from famine 
 and earthquake. 
 
 423 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 In 1 172 another change was made in the constitution. The 
 Doge's authority was again limited, but once more what was 
 doubtless believed by the people to be a measure tending 
 towards democracy really increased the power of the nobles. 
 The sestieri (six wards of the city) were nominally allowed 
 to elect the great annual Council ; but although in the first 
 instance this body was elected by twelve nominees of the 
 wards, after the first year the Council itself chose the twelve 
 electors. It thus became practically self-elective. It also 
 delegated a small committee of its members to choose the 
 Doge. Thus the people were defrauded of their elective 
 powers. 
 
 In 1177 took place at Venice the dramatic meeting 
 of Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III. The 
 scene has already been slightly sketched (p. 374). During 
 the third Crusade (1189-92) — the Crusade in which Frederick 
 Barbarossa lost his life — the Venetians were once more induced 
 by commercial and perhaps other motives to send a powerful 
 fleet to the East, where they distinguished themselves at the 
 relief of Tyre and the siege of Acre. 
 
 In 1 193 was elected as Doge the famous Knrico Dandolo, 
 whose name perhaps first became familiar to some of us 
 through Byron's well-known line — though whether we are 
 right in calling him ' blind old Dandolo ' seems doubtful. 1 
 During half a century he had already distinguished himself 
 greatly both in diplomacy and in war, and although he was 
 now about eighty-five years of age we shall hear much more 
 of him in a later chapter — for at the age of ninety-seven he 
 was twice captor of Constantinople, and his feats at the storming 
 of this city have invested him with a nimbus of fame which 
 even the iniquity and the horrors of this so-called fourth 
 Crusade have failed to dim. 
 
 1 ' The alleged blindness of Dandolo,' says Mr. Okey, ' is one of the enigmas 
 Of history. The chroniclers are hopelessly at variance.' One of these, who 
 was his constant companion (Villehardouin), asserts that he ' could not see a 
 whit.' Others do not mention the subject. 
 
 424 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 Milan 
 
 The story of Milan offers a very striking contrast to that of 
 Venice. It was neither a sea-power nor a wealthy trade-mart. 
 It possessed no natural defences, and lying close to the northern 
 gates of Italy it has ever been the prey of invaders, and prob- 
 ably more than any other European city, except perhaps 
 Rome, has suffered from devastation and enslavement ever 
 since the fall of the Roman Empire down to our days. Venice, 
 though not by any means always a model of political freedom, 
 was autonomous under her own Doges during eleven centuries 
 (697-1797), whereas Milan was twice almost totally razed to 
 the ground, and, except for about two centuries (1076-1277) 
 of stormy and precarious republican liberty, groaned during 
 all these long ages under taskmasters of many nationalities. 1 
 
 Of Roman Mediolanum, although from the days of Diocletian 
 to those of Attila it was the residence of the Western Emperors 
 and is said to have equalled Rome in extent and importance, 
 there is scarce a relic extant save the sixteen Corinthian 
 columns in the Corso della Porta Ticinese. From the age 
 of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine have survived probably only 
 certain parts of the basilica of S. Ambrogio (wholly recon- 
 structed in the ninth century), and although the Franks and 
 Burgundians, who in 538 sacked the city and massacred, 
 according to Procopius, 300,000 of the inhabitants, are said to 
 have spared a few churches, the oldest complete edifice in 
 Milan is probably S. I/Orenzo, which was built 2 on the founda- 
 tions of a Roman temple a few years after this catastrophe. 
 
 Ever since the time of St. Ambrose the Church of Milan, 
 like that of Ravenna, was inclined to assert its independence 
 of Rome, and in seasons of danger or disorder after the fall of 
 the Lombard kingdom the Archbishops of Milan sometimes 
 
 1 Goths, Lombards, Franks, Saxons, Franconians, Hohenstaufer, the Vis- 
 conti, Sforzas, Louis XII, Francis I, Charles V, Philip of Spain, Austrians, 
 Buonaparte, Austrians again. The French took Milan four times. 
 
 * In imitation of S. Vitale in Ravenna. There are several Romanesque 
 churches (Simpliciano, Sepolcro, and others) that survived the later catastrophe 
 of 1162. 
 
 425 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 took the lead in the city and assumed the reins of civil 
 government. A striking example of this is seen in the 
 case of Archbishop Aribert (Heribert, or Herbert), who 
 for about ten years, 1035 to 1045, made stand against the 
 Emperors Conrad II and Henry III. At first he was an 
 imperialist (for his coronation of Conrad and Gisela see p. 348) 
 and headed the hereditary nobles against the people and the 
 petty nobility (vavasors) ; but he was suspected and arrested 
 by Conrad. Finally he set himself at the head of the popular 
 party and defied the imperialist nobles and the forces of the 
 Emperor, who attacked Milan, but died while it was still being 
 besieged. Aribert seems to have inspired almost the whole 
 of the citizens with enthusiasm for freedom from the German 
 oppressor and successfully repelled the besiegers. An in- 
 vention of his, adopted later by other Italian cities, 1 proved 
 very effective in arousing and concentrating patriotic ardour. 
 This was the Carroccio, which, like the Ark of the Israelites, 
 accompanied the citizens to the field of battle — a car drawn 
 by oxen and surmounted by a mast bearing a large crucifix 
 and by a yardarm from which waved two ensigns. From this 
 car, or from another that followed it, resounded the bell that 
 gave signals to the fighters. 
 
 In spite of his successes Aribert found himself in a very 
 unpleasant position as the opponent of the aristocratic party, 
 to which as a champion of the independent Milanese Church 
 and of the marriage of clerics he naturally belonged. The 
 Cluny reformers and Hildebrand, who represented the cause 
 of the Papacy and of celibacy, favoured the Milanese popular 
 party, as he did, but were bitterly hostile to the autonomy 
 of the Milanese Church of St. Ambrose, of which he, as also 
 the nobility, was a zealous advocate. Finally he withdrew 
 into private life, and shortly afterwards (1045) he died. After 
 his death fierce conflicts took place, the people fighting for 
 
 1 Imitated also by the English at the Battle of the Standard (1138). At 
 Montaperti, in 1260, the Florentine Guelfs made their last desperate stand 
 around their Carroccio. This Florentine Guelf Carroccio was painted red 
 (like their giglio vermiglio of Par. xvi), and their bell was, according to 
 
 Machiavelli, called the Martinella. 
 
 426 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 political freedom and religious enslavement, while the nobility, 
 fiercely demanding liberty for their Church and their married 
 clergy, were ready to betray their civic freedom to the foreign 
 foe. At last the papal and popular party gained the upper 
 hand ; the married priests were chased from the churches 
 and their wives insulted in public by the women of the city. 
 A deacon of the Roman Church, Erlembald, seized the supreme 
 power and governed Milan for some time with a Council of 
 Thirty, proving such a zealous champion of the papal party 
 that the Pope dubbed him with the title il Gonfaloniere delta 
 Chiesa. But there were still many who were devoted to 
 their Ambrosian Church, and when in a tumult Erlembald was 
 slain the Milanese determined to appeal for an archbishop, 
 not to Gregory, but to Henry IV — an act that brought down 
 on Milan thunderbolts from the Papal Chair. 
 
 Not long after this we first hear of Consuls at Milan. It 
 seems as if the Milanese had made up their minds to sub- 
 ordinate their religious differences to their republican freedom. 
 For some sixty or seventy years little is recorded — a fact 
 doubtless due to a period of comparative peace and prosperity. 
 About 1 154 the curtain rises on the momentous conflict 
 between Frederick Barbarossa and the Iyombard cities, and, as 
 we know, Milan was the centre — the Carroccio, as it were — 
 around which the battle gathered. The fortunes of the battle, 
 and of Milan, we have already followed. 
 
 Florence (down to 1200) 
 
 La bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, Fiorenza. 
 
 Dante 
 
 In connexion with Florence, which later will become the 
 
 chief centre of our interest, there is comparatively little of 
 
 general importance to record during these four centuries, and 
 
 the subject is dismissed curtly not only by the Tacitean 
 
 Machiavelli, but even by Sismondi in his sixteen-volume work 
 
 on the Italian Republics. There are however various details 
 
 which merely through their association with the ' fairest 
 
 daughter of Rome ' exercise a fascination on all who love 
 
 427 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Italian art and Italian literature. I shall here recapitulate 
 very briefly what is known of the early fortunes of the city 
 and then touch on a few of these details, without attempting 
 to give them any historical continuity. 
 
 Florentia was originally doubtless nothing but the river- 
 station of the Etruscan and Gallic hill-fortress of Faesulae. 
 It first grew into a town when the pax Romana after the wars 
 of Marius and Sulla afforded more security to the lowlands. 
 Faesulae served as the headquarters of Catiline's army. On 
 its capture its great Ftruscan walls (of which remnants still 
 survive) were probably entirely dismantled ; but the town 
 continued to exist. Florentia, according to tradition, was 
 founded by Julius Caesar. He probably enlarged and walled it, 
 as Romulus did in the case of Roma quadrata, like a Roman 
 camp. He furnished it with baths and temples and a citadel 
 and an amphitheatre, and populated it not only with Fiesolans 
 but with Roman coloni. x A possible relic of Roman Florentia 
 may survive in the lower portions of the Baptistery, 2 which 
 according to the old historian Villani (d. 1348) was originally 
 a temple of Mars, the patron-god of Florence. Another very 
 interesting relic, which finally disappeared in the great flood 
 °f *33Z> twelve years after Dante's death, was a statue of 
 Mars. It perhaps once stood in this temple. It was after- 
 wards placed on a column near the river, and was overthrown 
 by Goths and lay for centuries in, or near, the water. When the 
 Ponte Vecchio was rebuilt — some say by Charles the Great, 
 
 1 Dante believed himself to be of Roman descent. It is likely that the 
 family (Alighieri) was related to the Roman Frangipani of later days. In 
 his poem ( Inf. xv) he makes his old teacher Brunetto I»atini speak with hatred 
 and contempt of the bestie fiesolane, that ' ungrateful and malignant folk 
 that in ancient days descended from Fiesole ' and brought discord and other 
 evils into Florence. In the Paradiso Justinian speaks of the Roman Eagle 
 having been ' bitter to the hill ' beneath which Dante was born. 
 
 2 Evidently built on the site of the temple — perhaps by St. Ambrose, who 
 is known to have founded S. Lorenzo in 394 ? or by his friend Zenobius ? 
 or about the sixth century ? or by Theodelinda ? It was the cathedral till 
 1 128, when the honour was transferred to S. Salvatore (S. Reparata ?), the 
 original of S. M. del Fiore. During about fourteen centuries Dante's il mio 
 bel San Giovanni has served as the one Catholic baptistery for Florentines. 
 In it Dante, as also his ancestor Cacciaguida (he tells us), was baptized, and 
 here he hoped, in vain, some day to be crowned as poet (Par. xv, 9). 
 
 428 
 
38. The Baptistery, Florence 
 
 428 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 though it was probably not till about 1180 — the weatherworn 
 remnant of this statue was placed at the head of the bridge, 
 where it became an object of sinister associations ; for nigh 
 this ' mutilated stone ' that guarded the bridge, Dante tells us, 
 was sacrificed to the god of war the young Buondelmonte ; 
 and his murder caused the outbreak of the great feud of Neri 
 and Bianchi in Florence. 
 
 To return to earlier days — it may be remembered how, 
 about the year 405, Florence together with Fiesole was besieged 
 by Radegast and his vast army of Northern barbarians, and 
 how Stilicho came to the rescue and smote the invaders. Old 
 Villani ascribes the rescue to the prayers of the great first 
 Bishop of Florence, St. Zenobius — the legends and cere- 
 monies connected with whom are known to most who have 
 visited Florence. A hundred and fifty years later Totila is 
 said to have sacked the city, destroying everything but the 
 Baptistery — a deed that Dante wrongly attributes to Attila. 
 Then — after another lapse of centuries — we hear of it being 
 visited by Charles the Great, who, as tradition and an 
 inscription on the facade assert, founded the small basilica 
 of the Santi ApostoH and caused it to be consecrated by 
 Archbishop Turpin in the presence of Orlando and other 
 of his paladins (!). 
 
 During the supremacy of the Carolingians and the tumultuous 
 times of the so-called regno d' Italia indipendente there is little 
 certain to record. That the city was now flourishing is apparent 
 from the frequent visits paid to it by Emperors, such as the 
 Ottos, and from the fact that many fine Romanesque buildings 
 are mentioned by chroniclers. Among these we may specially 
 note S. Miniato, which Machiavelli says was founded by 
 Henry II in 1002. It is the only complete specimen of all 
 these Romanesque churches still extant in Florence. 
 
 Under Otto II and Otto III Florence was ruled (till 1001, 
 or perhaps 1006) by the famous Marquess Ugo of Brandenburg 
 — ilgran bar one, as he is called by Dante, ancestor of five noble 
 Florentinefamilies — whose tomb, sculptured by Mino da Fie- 
 sole, is to be seen in the Badia (the Abbey Church, founded 
 
 429 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 by his mother, Countess Willa, in 978) . His successor, Marquess 
 Boniface, who extended his rule as Duke of Ferrara, Modena, 
 and Mantua, was the father of that Countess Matilda of whom 
 we have heard so much. 
 
 Under Boniface (d. 1052) and his widow Beatrice (d. 1076) 
 and their daughter Matilda (d. 1115) Florence became an im- 
 portant commercial centre and extended herself beyond the 
 cerchia antica of her old walls, from the bells within which 
 she continued even till the times of Dante to ' take her tierces 
 and nones.' This was the Golden Age of Florence that is so 
 graphically described by old Cacciaguida in the Paradise The 
 city was wholly Guelf in sentiment, and the vile intestinal 
 feuds had not yet been introduced. Men and women lived 
 the simple life of the old heroic age. They could think of 
 something nobler than murdering fellow-citizens. Cacciaguida 
 himself, as we know already, girded on the sword of a Crusader 
 and followed the Emperor Conrad III to the Fast, where 
 fighting the infidel he was slain — ' unswathed from the fallacious 
 world,' to use his own quaint phrase recorded by Dante. And 
 we are told how another Florentine Crusader, one of the noble 
 family of the Pazzi, brought from Jerusalem fragments of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, from which the bishop in the presence of 
 an excited multitude struck fire and lighted therewith the 
 candles on the high altar — a fact that is still commemorated 
 by the Easter ceremony of the white dove, the columbina delta 
 casa de' Pazzi, which brings the same sacred never-extinguished 
 fire from the altar of the Duomo to explode the fireworks on 
 the carro de' Pazzi in the Piazza. 
 
 About 1063, during the rule of Countess Beatrice and her 
 second husband, Godfrey of Lorraine, occurred an outburst of 
 popular feeling the violence and obstinacy of which prove how 
 independent and headstrong the Florentines were becoming. 
 The Emperor Henry IV, who, as we know, quarrelled with the 
 Popes on the subject of the election and investiture of bishops, 
 and who had elected many of his own German bishops, tried 
 to force a bishop named Mezzabarba on Florence ; by his 
 enemies he is even accused of having sold the bishopric to 
 
 430 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 the man. For nearly five years incessant tumults raged. In 
 vain did the Pope send Pietro Damiano to restore peace. 
 Finally a champion appeared — a zealot monk — who offered 
 to stand the test of fire, and, unlike poor Savonarola, did so, 
 it is said, unscathed. Thereupon he was made bishop and 
 Mezzabarba had to disappear. 
 
 In 1114, one year before the death of Matilda, the Pisans — 
 afterwards so hated by Florence that Dante rails at them as 
 ' foxes full of fraud ' and as ' the disgrace of the beautiful 
 land where si is heard ' — begged the Florentines to guard their 
 country against Lucca while they were absent on their Balearic 
 expedition. This the Florentines did, and they received as 
 a gift the two beautiful porphyry columns which flank the 
 eastern portal of their Baptistery and Ghiberti's bronze doors. 
 It seems an act of mean revenge that the Florentines should 
 have later suspended from these very columns the harbour 
 chains captured by the Genoese from the Pisans. However, 
 reparation has been made in our age, and the chains now hang 
 in Pisa's Campo Santo. 
 
 In her famous Legacy Countess Matilda seems to have 
 assumed rights of private ownership which even the most 
 absolute of feudal monarchs would scarcely have claimed. 
 She attempted to bequeath to the Church, and to the Pope 
 as the representative of the Church, not only her allodial 
 possessions but apparently the whole of the Tuscan territory, 
 consisting mainly of fiefs that under the feudal system reverted 
 to the Empire. This Legacy brought many evils in its train, 
 but for Florence it was a blessing in disguise, seeing that the 
 attempted alienation of the state's territory on the failure of 
 hereditary rulers incited the city to assert republican freedom. 
 The system of communal government that was gradually 
 introduced will occupy our attention on later occasions. It 
 is here sufficient to notice that the one real bulwark of popular 
 power consisted in the merchant guilds (Arti), by means of 
 which the middle classes, ever more influential through com- 
 merce and the crafts, combined against the nobles. A feat 
 that confirmed the self-confidence of the citizens and made 
 
 431 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 them realize their strength was the capture and destruction 
 of Fiesole, which, although no longer a strong fortress, had 
 begun to prove a thorn in the side of the young republic. 
 
 In 1 173 the city was surrounded by its new (second) circle 
 of walls. These included a much larger space than the old 
 Florentia quadrata, though (as Professor Gardner says) 
 much which we are wont to regard as essential to Florence 
 stands outside them. A few years later the popular govern- 
 ment was for a time overthrown by a rising of the nobles, 
 
 headed by the German family 
 of the Uberti — ancestors of 
 that Farinata degli Uberti 
 whom Dante 'saw in the In- 
 ferno rising from his fiery 
 tomb in gloomy and proud 
 Florentine Coin op c. 1200 defiance, ' as if he held Hell 
 See p. xxviii in great contempt/ but who 
 
 surely, as the saviour of Flor- 
 ence from utter destruction after the rout on the Arbia, 
 deserved a better fate. 
 
 The Uberti deposed the republican Consuls and wielded 
 the supreme power for about two years (1177-79), but the 
 popular party proved the victor, and in spite of the attempted 
 suppression of their commune by Frederick Barbarossa they 
 finally compelled the nobles to submit themselves to the 
 popular magistrate 1 and to take up their abode, to a certain 
 extent at least, within the new circle of the walls and the new 
 city wards (Sestieri). This arrangement was doubtless deemed 
 necessary, but it introduced a new and terrible danger, for 
 these nobles took to building impregnable strongholds within 
 the precincts of the city 2 and formed so-called ' Tower 
 
 1 It was about this time that instead of Consuls the Florentines instituted 
 as their supreme magistrate a PodestA (a ' Power ' or ' Authority,' almost a 
 dictator, originally the name of the German governor imposed on a city 
 by the Emperor). He was not a Florentine, but a stranger, and he was not 
 allowed to marry a Florentine nor to eat or drink in the house of any 
 citizen. 
 
 2 A striking example of this is afforded by the fifty towers (now thirteen) 
 of S. Gimignano. See Fig. 54. 
 
 432 
 
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICS 
 
 Societies' (Societd delle Torre) in opposition to the Arti or 
 Merchant Guilds. Moreover, finding themselves in such close 
 quarters, they naturally began to fight one with another. 
 Things came to a crisis in 1215, when, as has been already 
 mentioned, young Buondelmonte was murdered to revenge the 
 slight that he had cast on the noble family of the Amidei, 
 relatives of the Uberti, by jilting his fiancee and marrying 
 a maiden of the Donati clan. This caused the outburst of 
 those family feuds which, complicated with the Guelf and 
 Ghibelline political factions, were to prove so disastrous to 
 Florence for many years to come. 
 
 2 £ 
 
 433 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 1 
 
 800-1200 
 
 THE epithet ' Romanesque ' is sometimes applied to 
 all the round-arch styles of medieval architecture 
 which were derived from the Roman — to the Early 
 Christian (basilican), to Byzantine, to I/ombard, Tuscan, 
 Norman (French, English, and Sicilian), to German and Spanish 
 Romanesque, even to Saracen, as being influenced by Roman 
 or Byzantine ; and some writers go so far as to call Gothic 
 a form of Romanesque, regarding it as the final outcome of 
 the round-arch period of transition. This use of the word 
 can perhaps be defended ; but I have preferred to regard the 
 Italian basilican style, the Byzantine, the Romanesque, and 
 the Gothic as specifically distinct, 2 and in a former chapter 
 I have briefly discussed the origins of that architecture 
 which, I think, may equally well be entitled ' Early Italian 
 Romanesque ' or ' Roman-I/Ombard/ if we keep in mind that 
 the word ' Iyombard' by no means limits Roman-l^ombard 
 architecture to what is now called I^ombardy. 
 
 Some of the Early Romanesque relics of the Lombard period 
 and of the days of Charles the Great have been already de- 
 scribed. During the next period — the reigns of the Carolingians 
 and the succeeding Dark Age — architecture, as all other art, 
 suffered almost total eclipse for about two centuries.* At 
 
 1 For further details see List of Illustrations. 
 
 2 The new principles that came into existence with the column-supported 
 arch, the pendentive-supported dome, and the pointed vault seem to denote 
 the evolution of new species. The Romanesque, too, had its new principles. 
 
 3 As we have already seen, it was just during these two centuries (800- 
 1000) that the Venetians began to adorn their city with splendid buildings. 
 (The original St. Mark's dates from 830 ; the original Doges' Palace and 
 
 434 
 
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Rome indeed the obscuration lasted far longer. We hear of 
 restorations and reconstructions, for which the ancient monu- 
 ments were ruthlessly plundered, and a few curious mosaics 
 and frescos of this age have survived ; but until the twelfth 
 century, or later, Rome remained in gross darkness, while in 
 other parts of Italy, both in the north and in the south, a new 
 and splendid architecture was rapidly arising — developing 
 itself in wonderful perfection from that Roman-Iyombard 
 architecture which had begun to unfold as early as the days 
 of Queen Theodelinda (c. 600), but which seems to have been 
 arrested in its growth until towards the close of the tenth 
 century, in spite of all the favour that for a time art and 
 learning are said to have received from Charles the Great. 
 Possibly the dread that the world would come to an end in 
 a.d. 1000 may have to some extent paralysed Christendom 
 and made the erection of substantial churches seem super- 
 fluous ; but, whatever the reasons were, soon after the year 
 1000 almost all the Christian world was seized with a sudden 
 desire to build splendid temples — to cast aside its old attire, 
 as Rodolf Glaber says, writing about 1045, and ' put on a new 
 white robe ' (candidam ecclesiarum vestem induere). 
 
 The Romanesque style resulted from the alliance of ancient 
 Roman architecture with that of Northern countries — the home 
 of the I/ombards — and, as Mr. Ruskin has pointed out, some of 
 the characteristics that distinguish it sharply from the Basilican 
 and Byzantine styles were evidently due to Northern influ- 
 ences. For example, a Romanesque church offers generally 
 a most striking contrast to the richly coloured and decorated 
 surfaces, the gleaming columns and marble-covered walls and 
 great mosaics, of Byzantine architecture. We Northerners 
 often seem to distrust bright colour and rich decoration ; most 
 of us prefer what is dim and almost colourless — the checker 
 
 S. Zaccaria from the same period-; the present Torcello Cathedral mainly 
 from 864.) But Venice stood in close relation to the- East and Byzantine 
 architecture and did riot take any great part in the Romanesque movement, 
 although it possessed some very beautiful specimens of Romanesque work, 
 such as the palaces given in Pig. 56, and the (now terribly restored) apse 
 of Murano's basilica which Ruskin praised so enthusiastically. 
 
 435 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and the play of light and shadow amid the gloom of forests 
 or in our great cavernous Norman cathedrals. In Italy the 
 Northmen had the advantage of being able to procure — 
 sometimes to steal from ancient buildings — splendid marble 
 columns instead of having to construct massive piers, and 
 the contrast of marble and stone and brick in Italian Roman- 
 esque is often exceedingly beautiful. The chief decorative 
 effect aimed at was, however, not that of colour and reflexion, 
 but the play of light and shade amid mouldings and sculptures 
 and arcades and all kinds of concave and convex work. Thus 
 inside the building we have convex forms, as those of sculptured 
 capitals and high reliefs, to catch the light, and outside we 
 have the hollows of arcades, and colonnaded facades, and 
 sculptured reliefs, and overhanging corbels, and beautiful, 
 deeply receding portals and windows, which catch the shade 
 and by acting as a foil to the sculptures and the marbles invest 
 the building with a beauty which is incomparably finer than 
 that of any old basilica viewed exteriorly, and perhaps outvies 
 the glory of even such a dream of colour as St. Mark's. 
 
 A certain amount of colour decoration was adopted in 
 Italian Romanesque — especially in Tuscany, where marble 
 and mosaics were freely used. The wooden roofs, flat (as in 
 Pisa Cathedral) or open-timber (as in S. Zeno and S. Miniato), 
 were gaily painted. But these painted wooden roofs gave way, 
 especially in Northern forms of Romanesque, to ugly barrel 
 or tunnel vaulting, and to the still uglier groined or ribbed 
 cross-vaulting formed by two barrel vaults crossing each 
 other at right angles — a system that was, as we shall see later, 
 happily annihilated by the introduction of the pointed Gothic 
 arch and the invention of the true Gothic vault. 
 
 Another, somewhat late, invention of Italian Romanesque, 
 adopted afterwards by Gothic, was the rose or wheel window — 
 magnificent examples of which still exist (see Figs. 25, 26). 
 
 The main constructive principle of Romanesque was still 
 that of rigid strength. In the ancient system of colonnade and 
 architrave — what Gothic zealots call the system of ' grovelling 
 horizontality,' though its essential principle is that of perfect 
 43<5 
 
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 verticality — there was no great superincumbent weight and 
 scarcely any side-thrust (none indeed, when the roof was 
 wanting or flat). When the arch-supported roof -walls (clere- 
 stories) of basilicas became higher, sufficient buttress work 
 was done by the side aisles ; but when Byzantine domes 
 and Romanesque and Norman arches and apses began to 
 assume large proportions it was necessary to build the walls 
 of immense thickness, or to prop them exteriorly. And here 
 it may be noted in passing that the principle of balance (instead 
 of rigid strength) which was later used in Gothic architecture 
 allows the most enormous weights to be poised mid-air on a 
 system of arches and piers (or clustered pillars) and external 
 buttresses, so that comparatively thin walls, perforated too 
 with immense windows, suffice to hold the whole in equipoise 
 quite securely — although it must be confessed that the sensa- 
 tion produced by the interior of a great Gothic cathedral, 
 when for the moment one forgets the external apparatus of 
 flying buttresses, is apt to be one of uncomfortable insecurity. 
 Before giving some of the chief examples of Italian Roman- 
 esque it may be well to mention, though it is impossible here 
 to discuss adequately, the much vexed question of the relation- 
 ship of this style of architecture to that which we call ' Norman ' 
 and to German Romanesque. The question is whether the 
 architecture of the Normans in Normandy, which produced 
 the magnificent churches of Caen and which was introduced 
 by the Normans into England, as well as the Romanesque 
 architecture of the rest of France, with its splendid churches 
 of Angouleme, Toulouse, V&zelay, and Aries, and that of 
 Belgium, with its beautiful Tournay Cathedral, and that 
 of Germany, with its fine, though cruelly restored, cathedrals 
 of Mainz, Worms, Trier, and Speyer, and that of Toro and 
 Tarragona in Spain, and that of Palermo and Cefalu in Sicily, 
 and lastly what we call Italian Romanesque, were all derived, 
 as some have imagined, from the inventive genius of Viking 
 master-builders — or whether by some incredible coincidence 
 this style of building arose independently in all these various 
 countries — or, lastly, whether, as I have assumed, it originated 
 
 437 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 when, about the seventh century, the Lombard princes in 
 North Italy, and afterwards the Lombard dukes in South and 
 Central Italy, employed native master-builders — possibly the 
 famous magistri comacini — to erect churches and palaces in 
 Italian cities. If this be so, then it seems very likely that the 
 new style spread from Italy across the Alps, down the course of 
 the Rhine x and through Burgundy, and was (c. 1060) adopted 
 by the dukes of Normandy. But it may have reached 
 Normandy also by another route, for these Norman dukes had 
 direct connexions with Italy through their kinsmen who were 
 in Southern Italy some forty years before William the Con- 
 queror's mighty St.-Etienne in Caen began to rise. 2 
 
 This question of the first origins of Norman is one that each 
 of us probably prefers to settle for himself as he feels impelled 
 by reason or by patriotism. But in doing this it may be 
 well to remember that the existence of a similar, or even an 
 identical, style in countries far apart is often explainable by 
 the fact that master-builders and workmen were not seldom 
 summoned great distances from well-known centres of archi- 
 tecture. Thus Venice was constantly sending to Constanti- 
 nople for builders, and Charles the Great and other Frank and 
 German princes doubtless employed many Italian architects 
 in their northern dominions ; so one need not feel astonished 
 if in England and France we find characteristics of Italian 
 Romanesque and even of Byzantine and Oriental ornament 
 (brought by the Crusaders), or if in Italy we find zigzag 
 (which, like the ubiquitous swastika, may surely sometimes 
 be spontaneously generated), or if, while the Englishman Of a 
 Mill was archbishop and chancellor at Palermo, the church of 
 S. Spirito was built with the massive piers and slightly pointed 
 
 1 The following are the chief early German Romanesque churches. The 
 dates intimate when the original Romanesque portions of these churches 
 (most of them now very much rebuilt) were erected: Gernrode (960). Coin: 
 Maria im Capitol and the church of the Apostles (960-1020). Mainz : Dom 
 (970-1050). Trier: Dom (1016). Speyer : Dom (1030-1100). Worms: 
 Dom (1120-1200). Laach Abbey (1100). 
 
 2 About 1060 Robert Guiscard was building churches in Salerno and other 
 places in that Lombard-Romanesque style which the Norman kings later 
 introduced into Sicily. 
 
 438 
 
oo 
 
 CO 
 
 § 
 
 a 
 
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 arches that characterize English Norman of the same date 
 (c. 1175). From such facts we need not infer that Italian 
 and Sicilian Romanesque was ' made in England ' — or even in 
 Normandy. 
 
 A striking and beautiful feature of Italian Romanesque 
 is the campanile. We have already seen (p. 282) that 
 Italian bell-towers date from early days and that some of the 
 old basilicas have very fine circular campanili ; but the lofty 
 square campanili that are so characteristic of Italy (and to 
 which the round I/eaning Tower of Pisa offers such a strik- 
 ing contrast) are due to Romanesque architecture. In Rome, 
 otherwise very little affected by Romanesque, many beautiful 
 square campanili of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 exist, such as those of S. Maria in Gosmedin (Fig. 21), 
 S. Maria in Trastevere, and SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 1 The Roman 
 campanile of this age has usually storeys of dark brown 
 brickwork separated by cornices of marble or terra-cotta, and 
 a flat terrace at the top (the spires being later additions). 
 Above the basement each storey has on each side generally 
 two windows, open or blind, with marble colonnelli, whereas 
 in the campanili of North Italy the number of windows, as in 
 the Siena campanile, where each storey has an additional 
 window, increases towards the top of the building (see Figs. 41, 
 55. 65). 
 
 LOMBARDY AND EMILIA 
 
 The Romanesque of Lombardy, as one might expect from 
 its half-Northern nature, is often wanting in delicacy of orna- 
 mentation and sometimes inclines towards the fantastic and 
 grotesque, but it is without doubt a very much more virile 
 and healthy type than the Tuscan, or perhaps we should say 
 the Pisan. The chief characteristics of Lombard Romanesque 
 churches are the exceedingly beautiful proportions of the 
 
 1 This is the only church in Rome that shows exteriorly distinct Romanesque 
 features, e.g. a deeply recessed arcade round the upper part of its apse, built 
 in the twelfth century, after the destruction of the old church by Robert 
 Guiscard's Saracens in 1084. 
 
 439 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 external architecture ; the grand colonnaded facades, some- 
 times richly adorned with sculpture ; the exquisite arcade 
 decoration of the apses ; the splendid recessed portals and 
 windows ; the projecting porches, with columns often resting 
 on marble lions ; the superb campanili, and in later buildings 
 the magnificent rose-windows. The following are the most 
 important of these churches. Some of them will be found 
 briefly described in the I,ist of Illustrations The dates 
 indicate approximately when the Romanesque portions of 
 the churches were originally built. 
 
 Pavia : S. Michele (here Berengar, Frederick I, and others were crowned 
 with the Iron Crown. Rebuilt c. 1050. Vaulted, like S. Ambrogio. Pine 
 Romanesque portal). 
 
 Pavia : S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro (rebuilt c. 1100. See Pig. 13). 
 
 Verona : S. Zeno (e. 1070-1140. Pig. 55). 
 
 Cremona : Cathedral (1107-90) and Torrazzo (1260-80). 
 
 Parma : Cathedral (1058-e. 1200). 
 
 Modena : Cathedral (1099-1184). 
 
 Ferrara : Cathedral (1135-c. 1200. Pig. 39). 
 
 Piacenza : Cathedral (1122-e. 1200). 
 
 Como : S. Pedele (1100 ? rebuilt c. 1265) and S. Abbondio (c. 750 ? rebuilt 
 c. 1050, totally renovated c. 1870, but has old remains. See p. 280). 
 
 Besides these there is a church of great importance, namely, 
 S. Ambrogio in Milan, of which frequent mention has already 
 been made. It is said to have been founded by St. Ambrose 
 about the year 380, but it seems to have been rebuilt by 
 Archbishop Anspert in the ninth century, and was recon- 
 structed in the Romanesque style at latest about 1140. The 
 fine atrium dates probably from Archbishop Anspert's time, 
 and the campanile from about 1130. Exteriorly the style 
 of the church is unmistakably early and simple Romanesque ; 
 but the inside, which is of the same age, shows most remarkable 
 Gothic features in the ribbed vaulting of nave and aisles, the 
 clustered columns, and the shafts springing upwards from the 
 capitals of the lower piers (see p. 281). The question is 
 whether this new system was introduced from beyond the 
 Alps at a time when it was hardly known in Northern 
 countries, or whether it was actually devised here at this 
 440 
 
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ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 early date. 1 This we shall consider when we come to Italian 
 Gothic architecture. 
 
 Tuscany 
 
 The wonderful group of buildings that suddenly reveals 
 itself as one issues forth from the Via Solferino or the Via 
 Niccola Pisano into the Piazza del Duomo at Pisa impresses 
 on the memory the main features of what is called Tuscan, 
 but might perhaps be better called Pisan, Romanesque. If 
 we have lately visited the churches of I/smbardy we cannot 
 but feel that we have before us a variety of Romanesque 
 which might be called a different species. It is here im- 
 possible to discuss this point fully, but a glance at Fig. 40 
 will show that the characteristic features of all three edifices 
 — the cathedral, the round I/eaning Tower, and the lower 
 half of the Baptistery (the upper being later and Gothicized) — 
 are that the basement is adorned with columns and tall blind 
 arcades and that the upper parts, especially of the campanile 
 and the facade, have tier upon tier of very beautifully pro- 
 portioned open colonnades. 2 These handsome facades, seen to 
 perfection at Pisa and less so at I^ucca, are scarcely known 
 in I/ombardy — and the fact that they are found in Dalmatia 
 would seem to show that they may be due to Byzantine, or 
 Oriental, influences, such as one might expect in the case of 
 Pisa in an age when her fleets swept the Saracens from the seas 
 and visited the I^evantine coasts. 
 
 There are in Pisa several other Romanesque churches, 
 namely, S. Sisto (c. 1090) and S. Frediano (c. 1150) and 
 
 1 In Stones of Venice Mr. Ruskin regards the vaulting shaft as a ' petrified ' 
 form of the wooden uprights in old Northern edifices. ' The upright pilaster 
 above the nave pier remains in the stone edifice. ... In that form the 
 Lombards brought it into Italy in the seventh century, and it remains to 
 this day in S. Ambrogio of Milan and S. Michele of Pavia.' 
 
 * Note the arrangement of diminishing columns in the second and fourth 
 tiers of the facade, and the central columns of the two upper tiers above the 
 central arches of the two lower ; also the nineteen arches of the first tier as 
 against twenty-one in the second. The date of the f acade is probably about 
 1 120, though some put it a century later. Doubtless it underwent much 
 restoration. The campanile was certainly begun about 1175, though not 
 finished till much later. 
 
 44I 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 S. Paolo (c. 1220 ?), which latter has a fine Pisan facade. At 
 Lucca we have a number of churches * built evidently in 
 imitation of Pisan architecture, but distinctly inferior to the 
 Duomo of Pisa in beauty of proportion, as will be seen from the 
 illustration given of the cathedral, the facade of which dates 
 from about 1204. A still greater want of artistic feeling is 
 shown by S. Michele, in which the gable is built up to a great 
 height above the roof of the church in order to give space for the 
 display of the colonnaded Pisan facade. Another extravagant 
 imitation of this facade is afforded by S. Giovanni at Pistoia. 
 Of Florentine Romanesque most has disappeared, but 
 besides relics of it surviving in SS. Apostoli, S. Spirito, and 
 S. Lorenzo, there remains one very celebrated and perfect 
 specimen — S. Miniato : 
 
 la chiesa, che soggioga 
 La ben guidata sopra Rubaconte. 2 
 
 In some respects S. Miniato resembles rather a Latin basilica 
 than a Lombard Romanesque church. It is, says Mothes, 
 " one of the most interesting examples of the transition from 
 the basilican to the Romanesque style, and a proof that the 
 Florentines regarded the Romanesque with as much reserve 
 as later they regarded Gothic* Its main features are easily 
 observable in the illustration (Fig. 30), Here I can only draw 
 attention to its difference from other forms of Romanesque by 
 remarking that the lavish marble incrustation of the inner walls 
 and of the f aQade, 3 which is gay with black and white marbles 
 used as surface decoration, with no sign of open arcades or 
 
 1 A very interesting Lucchese church is S. Frediano, originally founded, 
 as also the Duomo, about 570 by the Irish bishop Frigidianus. It was rebuilt 
 c. 1 120. It has the usual Romanesque colonnade round the exterior of the 
 apse, but with horizontal architraves instead of arches. The square cam- 
 panile of the Duomo is beautifully proportioned. The round, arcaded Pisan 
 campanile seems to have found no imitators. 
 
 2 Purg. xii, 101. ' The church which dominates the well-guided [i.e. ill- 
 guided] city above the Ponte delle Grazie.' It crowns a hill on the south side 
 of the Arno. According to Machiavelli it was founded 0. 1002 by Henry II. 
 Others give 1013. 
 
 3 Asserted by some to be fifteenth-century work or later, and doubtless 
 much restored and with late additions ; but probably the general scheme is 
 of the eleventh century. 
 
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ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 any light and shadow effect, is in spirit, though not in design, 
 rather Byzantine than Romanesque, and may be considered 
 almost more diverse from Lombard Romanesque than even 
 the Pisan. As we shall see later, Byzantine painting (either 
 through Venice or through the Byzantine paintings of South 
 Italy) was supreme at Florence before the days of Cimabue, 
 and probably the marble-encrusted facade of S. Miniato, as 
 those of some other Tuscan churches, is due to stich influences. 
 
 Central and South Italy 
 
 At the epoch when (iooo-iioo) the revival of architecture 
 took place in Italy Florence was under her Margraves, Ugo 
 and Boniface and Guelf , and was in sympathy neither with the 
 Empire nor with the Lombard cities. Perhaps this accounts 
 for the apparent fact that the Lombard form of Romanesque 
 was not favoured there ; and except for one period of short- 
 lived friendship (see p. 431) Florence and Pisa seem to have 
 been in a constant state of rivalry and hostility, so that it 
 is not surprising that the self-sufficient and independent 
 Florentine spirit did not condescend to imitate the productions 
 of Pisan architects. 
 
 But in other parts of Tuscany there are some very beautiful 
 relics of Lombard Romanesque work. Toscanella has been 
 already mentioned in connexion with the early Roman- 
 Lombard style (p. 280). The exceedingly beautiful portals 
 and rose-windows of S. Pietro and S. M. Maggiore (Figs. 25, 26) 
 date from c. 1040. At Volterra the Duomo was once a fine 
 Lombard Romanesque edifice of the year 1120, and the 
 ancient Baptistery possesses still a very beautiful portal 
 of c. 1200 (Fig. 32). At S. Gimignano there are several 
 Knights-Templar churches of the twelfth century, and the 
 Duomo, or Collegiata, which is said to date from c. 1148, 
 retains a fine Romanesque nave and columns (Fig. 42). The 
 two great centres of Lombard power in Central and South 
 Italy were Spoleto and Benevento, and here we find, as might 
 be expected, fine examples of Lombard Romanesque. The 
 Spoleto Duomo dates from about 1050 and was renewed about 
 
 443 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 1 150 ; the Duomo of Benevento is said to have been " admired 
 by Adalbert of Bremen in the year 1047.' I* * s Lombard 
 work influenced by Saracenic architecture. A still more 
 striking example is the Hospice-church at Aquila represented 
 in Fig. 49. 
 
 Thus the North Italian Lombard Romanesque may be traced 
 southwards through the regions of the old Lombard duchies, 
 until, avoiding Rome, it meets both Byzantine and Saracen 
 (Arab) architecture ; and ere long in South Italy and in Sicily 
 we find the Normans assimilating this Northern, Roman- 
 Lombard style, and at the same time being affected by the 
 Southern influences of Byzantine and Arab architecture. 
 
 In many towns of Campania, Apulia, and Calabria exist 
 churches (mostly barbarously spoilt) which were originally 
 Romanesque, or were Byzantine, with fine domes, and were 
 rebuilt or enlarged in Romanesque style by the Normans — 
 with sometimes a touch of Saracenic. At Canosa the five- 
 domed Byzantine church of S. Sabino (where, by the way, 
 Robert Guiscard's son, the Crusader Bohemund, has his tomb) 
 shows Norman-Lombard additions. At Trani the Byzantine 
 cathedral has a fine Romanesque portal. At Bari several 
 ancient Byzantine churches received Romanesque additions 
 in the time of King Roger. The cathedral of Salerno was 
 built (c. 1070) by Robert Guiscard, and its fine Romanesque 
 architecture is still perceptible, although terribly defaced by 
 modern restoration. (The atrium, with splendid ancient columns 
 from Paestum, defies the restorer.) Then, again, at Amalfi and 
 the neighbouring Ravello we have in the cathedrals remarkable 
 but badly spoilt specimens of the South Italian Lombard style. 
 Both were perhaps first erected in the eleventh century, even 
 before the supremacy of Robert Guiscard and the development 
 of Norman-Lombard architecture. But the Amalfi church 
 more probably dates from after the submission of the town, 
 for centuries more or less independent amidst its many 
 enemies, to the Norman king, Roger of Sicily, in the year 
 (1131) which followed his assumption of the crown. 
 
 444 
 
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ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Sicily 
 
 In a former chapter we have followed from its rise to its 
 setting the short-lived but brilliant period of Norman supremacy 
 in South Italy and Sicily and have noted the picturesque inter- 
 mixture of races in the population of cities such as Palermo, 
 the residence of the Norman kings. Palermo, as also most of 
 Sicily, had been for more than 240 years (830-1072) in the 
 power of the Saracens. Its inhabitants numbered 300,000, 
 and it is said to have contained no less than three hundred 
 mosques, small and great. The Saracens had assimilated 
 much from the previous Byzantine civilization, and the 
 Normans in their tum, instead of extirpating the infidel 
 Moslems, gave them considerable religious and civic liberty, 
 used them as soldiers and as officials, and borrowed much from 
 their science and art. 
 
 Naturally Sicilian architecture during the Norman period 
 shows Byzantine and Saracenic characteristics combined with 
 Norman Romanesque — the main source of which was, as we 
 have seen, the Lombard Romanesque of South Italy. 1 Of 
 the many splendid churches erected in Palermo and elsewhere 
 in Sicily by the Norman kings, especially by King Roger and 
 by William the Good, some were distinctly Byzantine in plan, 
 such as the Martorana (with a dome and three apsides), 
 S. Cataldo (with three domes), and S. Giovanni degli Eremiti 
 (with five), whereas others are in type decidedly Romanesque, 
 such as the cathedrals at Monreale and Cefalu and the church 
 S. Spirito, not far from Palermo, 2 already mentioned as 
 reminiscent of English Norman architecture. 
 
 1 Doubtless there is more than accidental resemblance between Sicilian 
 Norman and the Norman of Normandy, as seen in the case of Cefalu Cathedral, 
 which is evidently on the same plan as William the Conqueror's great 
 St.-Etienne at Caen. The Cefalu Cathedral was probably founded in n 29, 
 and St.-I$tienne was finished soon after William's death, which took place 
 in 1087. 
 
 2 Outside Porta Agata and near the scene of the Sicilian Vespers. It 
 was founded by the English Archbishop of Palermo, Of a Mill. Also we 
 must not forget that the Queen of Sicily was at this time an English princess 
 (see p. 409). 
 
 445 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Four of the most important of these Sicilian Norman 
 churches, as well as the tombs of King Roger and Emperor 
 Frederick II, are given in my illustrations, and are described 
 in the I/ist (pp. xxii, xxiii), so here I need only add the remark 
 that the presence of the pointed arch is attributed by some to 
 Saracen influence, while others believe it to be a kind of fore- 
 shadowing of Gothic, such as we have already noted in 
 S. Ambrogio. But the pointed arch was used not infrequently 
 in Romanesque long before the arrival of Gothic, and is found 
 also in England in buildings erected before what is called 
 the transition period between Norman and Early English — e.g. 
 in Fountains and Malmesbury Abbeys, both of which are 
 pure Norman work and contemporary with the magnificent 
 Cappella Palatina (Fig. 33) built in 1130 by King Roger 
 as the Chapel Royal of his palace at Palermo — once the 
 castle of Saracen Emirs, then what Villari calls ' the first truly 
 regal palace in Europe,' and now, except for the wonderful 
 Cappella, a disappointing ruin. 1 
 
 NOTE ON MOSAICS AND PLASTIC ART 
 IN SOUTH ITALY AND SICILY 
 
 1 050-1 200 
 
 In a later chapter we shall consider the origins of the great 
 revival of art in Tuscany and other parts of Italy towards the 
 end of the thirteenth century and shall note the early signs 
 of the new spirit and the influence of the Byzantine painters 
 and mosaic-workers who, especially after the sack of Con- 
 stantinople by the I/atins in 1204, flooded the whole of Italy. 
 Here I wish to draw attention to the state of things in South 
 Italy and Sicily during the period c. 1050-1200 in regard to 
 mosaics and plastic art. It is a subject on which much more 
 
 1 Of the other very numerous palaces in and around Palermo only a few 
 relics exist, as the Zisa (built by William I), the Cuba (by William II), and 
 the Favara, a Saracen-Norman castle used later by Frederick II. 
 
 446 
 
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SICILIAN MOSAICS (i 05 0-1200) 
 light will have to be thrown before we can hope to feel any 
 certainty as to the theory that the splendid outburst of art in 
 Tuscany in the days of Niccolo Pisano and Giotto and Dante 
 was largely due to the sculptors and poets, and perhaps even 
 the painters, of Southern Italy. 
 
 Byzantine mosaics and Byzantine painting and Byzantine 
 metal-work (not sculpture, which was not favoured by the 
 Eastern spirit) doubtless prevailed for centuries in the parts 
 of South Italy that were subject to the Byzantine Emperor. 1 
 If archives are to be believed, there was an almost infinite 
 amount of such treasures in these regions, and the number of 
 fine bronze doors of Byzantine workmanship that still exist 
 in the cathedrals of Campania and Apulia is considerable 
 {e.g. at Amalfi, Atrani, Salerno, etc.). The dates of these 
 Byzantine doors vary from c. 1050 to 1100. And of somewhat 
 later date we find equally fine work done by native artists, 
 e.g. the great bronze doors of Trani Cathedral, and others 
 at Benevento and Ravello. 
 
 Here and there too we find mosaics that date from the 
 Norman period and are evidently not Byzantine work, as the 
 great St. Matthew mosaic at Salemo. At Salerno also is 
 the famous paliotto — an altar-covering with ivory reliefs repre- 
 senting a number of Biblical scenes. The skill displayed in this 
 work is very remarkable. It is certainly not by any artist 
 trained solely in the Byzantine school, and if it really dates 
 from the twelfth century there seems a possibility that this 
 early Lombard Romanesque school of South Italy may have 
 ultimately proved capable of producing work that deserves, 
 still more than Niccolo's Pisan pulpit, to be called the ' ark ' 
 from which the Tuscan sculptors came forth. 
 
 But it is in Sicilian mosaics that we find the most distinct 
 evidence towards the end of this period (c. 1140-1200) of a 
 great school of native art. These mosaics are essentially 
 different from those of the Byzantine school, and the fact 
 that at this epoch the great Roman school of mosaics was 
 
 1 Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassiao is said to.have imported many Byzan- 
 tine artists c. 1066. 
 
 447 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 apparently x almost extinct — had been so indeed since about 
 goo — makes it fairly certain that a new and distinctly noble 
 style had been developed by I/ombard-Norman artists in Sicily. 
 
 In the Cappella Palatina at Palermo (Fig. 33) there is a 
 splendid display of mosaics, the oldest and finest of which date 
 from the reign of King Roger (c. 1032-40). The dignified and 
 impressive representation of the Saviour both here and at 
 Cefalti is very notable. Cefalti Cathedral (Fig. 44) contains 
 still finer examples of early Sicilian mosaics. The treatment 
 of some of the saints and angels shows perhaps some Byzantine 
 influence, but the splendid figure of Christ is of the I/)mbard- 
 Norman type. If tradition can be trusted, Roger built Cefalti 
 in 1129, before he assumed the kingly title, and in this case 
 some of these mosaics are probably the oldest of their kind 
 and may have been Byzantine work ; but the figure of Christ 
 is attributed to the year 1148. 
 
 In the Palermo church called (since 1433) la Martorana from 
 the foundress of a convent, but originally named S. Maria dell' 
 Ammiraglio (King Roger's Admiral, or Emir, who founded it 
 in 1143), there is the interesting mosaic shown in Fig. 34. It 
 once probably adorned the iaqa.de. It represents Count Roger 
 receiving his kingly crown from the hands of Christ — a finely 
 imaginative protest against his non-recognition by Pope 
 Innocent II when he assumed the royal title (p. 407). 
 
 In the Monreale Cathedral there is a similar mosaic, in 
 which William the Good is represented, like his grandfather, 
 receiving his crown from Christ — the idea evidently having 
 become hereditary. This church displays immense expanses 
 (over 7000 square yards) of mosaics of various dates. They 
 represent scenes from Old Testament history, from the life 
 of Christ and the lives of the Apostles, and introduce numberless 
 saints and angels. 
 
 1 Nevertheless to the twelfth century seem to belong such fine mosaics as 
 those of S. Clemente (Rome) and S. Maria in Trastevere (Fig. 57). Whether 
 these and also the mosaics of the Norman kings were the work of Roman or 
 Byzantine artists or of an independent Lombard-Sicilian school is a point 
 to be proved not only from technique and material, but from choice and 
 treatment of subject and symbolism. 
 448 
 
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NOTES ON COINS 1 
 PLATE II 
 
 FROM C. 650 TO C. 1313 
 
 i. A gold coin of the very degraded ' Heraclian ' type 
 (c. 670) shows Gonstans II and his three sons, Constantine 
 Pogonatus (whose beard, grown during an African expedition, 
 gave him his surname) and Heraclius and Tiberius. When 
 Constantine Pogonatus came to the throne he made his two 
 brothers Augusti and gave them equal powers with himself, 
 in imitation, it is said, of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 2. Constantine VI and his mother Irene, who blinded him. 
 Gold Byzantine coin of about 800. 
 
 3. Coin of the last Lombard king, Desiderius. Electron ire- 
 missis. Obv. : DN. DESiDE^j ^ (the $ is a common abbreviation 
 for Rex on the I/>mbard coins) . Rev. : A star or flower in a circle 
 and the words Fi,avia tuCA. For ' plavia ' see on Plate 1, 17. 
 This epithet is found on Lombard coins applied to I^ucca, 
 Piacenza, etc., and may mean that these cities were ' royal 
 burghs ' with certain privileges. The names of many other 
 cities occur on this type of coin, e.g. Milan, Pavia (Ticino), etc., 
 where probably there were royal mints. Some curious coins 
 like this one (' star tremisses ' with the name of some city) 
 are extant with a meaningless legend (vrvrvi . . .) instead of 
 the king's name. Also in 1904 was discovered at Ilanz, 
 Switzerland, a hoard in which were many such tremisses 
 stamped with the name of Charles the Great. Both these 
 types were evidently issued after the deportation of Desiderius 
 (774), the old reverse being kept. 
 
 1 See also p. 117. 
 
 2F 449 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 4. Coin of I/iutprand. Obv. of a gold tremissis. Bust of 
 I/iutprand with diadem, sceptre, cuirass, and military cloak. 
 Legend : dn. i,utpran 9. On the rewrs e of this type of 
 Lombard coin a winged figure of St. Michael, patron saint 
 of the Lombards, takes the place of the Victory that is so 
 frequent on classical coins. The early Lombard coins (even 
 those of Agilulf and Theodelinda) are barbarous imitations of 
 imperial coinage. About the time of I/iutprand (712-44) 
 they become more original, but are still of very barbarous 
 execution and with legends often illiterate. 
 
 5. Charles the Great (mould procured from Bibliothfeque 
 Nat., Paris). Coins of Charles occur with names of various 
 cities, Paris, Parma, Florence, Rome, etc. This is a rarer 
 imperial coin with portrait (note the moustache). Legend: 
 CAROi,us imp. Aug., and on rev. religio kristiana sur- 
 rounding the so-called Carolingian temple (see coin on p. 419). 
 The letter M=40 nummi (r> = 2o). 
 
 6. Louis le Debonnaire. Also from the Bibl. Nat., Paris. 
 For details consult Engel and Serrure, Big. 402. 
 
 7. Ducat of King Roger (II) of Sicily and his son. In 1140, 
 ten years after assuming the regal title, Roger abolished the 
 imperial coinage (the so-called tari) and issued silver ducats 
 with his own portrait. 
 
 8. Augustal of Frederick II (pbv. and rev.). A very fine 
 coin. ' The true precursor of the great Italian coins and medals 
 of the fifteenth century ' (Serrure). 
 
 9. Carlin d'or (\ ounce) of Charles d'Anjou, issued in 1277 
 from the. mint in the Castel dell' Uovo, Naples. Rev. shows 
 the Annunciation. 
 
 10. Real d'or (\ ounce) of Charles d'Anjou, issued in 1270, 
 in imitation of the Augustal of Frederick II. 
 
 11. Silver coin of the type of the magnificent gold ducats 
 of Peter III of Aragon and Costanza, Manfred's daughter. 
 Issued not long after the Sicilian Vespers (1282). The typical 
 coin of Sicily for the next two centuries. On obv. the imperial 
 eagle and costa[ntia] dei gratia arag. sic. REG. On rev. 
 Peter's name as king. 
 
 450 
 
Pirate II 
 
 r-'VW, ($M.\$ 
 
 *&\'W 
 
 l^Q 
 
 
 :fm Mi--.\ ^!/:« Arm 
 
 ■ : ii lli W fe! 
 
 SKm iP ffii life 
 
 
 M 1 
 
 V*i»& 
 
 «•• 
 
 
 
 • 5 ^^'. ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ;W$ 
 
 '{■£ v. ' ! ; 
 
 ir :l 
 
 15^ 
 
 m v "sv 
 
 1K# 
 
 45. Coins : Heracuus To Henry VII 
 c. 650-1313 
 
 45° 
 
NOTES ON COINS 
 
 12. Coin of Robert d'Anjou, Duke of Calabria, son of 
 Charles II ('lo Zoppo'), and grandson of the great Charles 
 d'Anjou. He was King of Sicily 1309-43. See Dante, Par. 
 viii, 76. 
 
 13. A fine coin of Pavia of c. 1400, but showing older type. 
 On rev. a bishop enthroned. Pavia declared its independence 
 after the death of Frederick II in 1250, but afterwards fell 
 under the power of the Milanese Visconti. 
 
 14. Venetian gold sequin, first coined by Doge Giovanni 
 Dandolo, c. 1285. Obv. : Doge Dandolo kneeling and receiving 
 sceptre from St. Mark. Rev. : St. Mark blessing. See also 
 coin of much earlier date, p. 419. 
 
 15. Silver florin of Pisa (later than 13 13) with the name of 
 Frederick Barbarossa, which was kept by Ghibelline Pisa on 
 her coins until 1494 (!) — except during 1312-13, when the 
 name of Henry VII was substituted (see No. 18). Obv. : 
 Imperial eagle and fredericus imperator. Rev. : Madonna 
 and Child. 
 
 16. Gold florin of Florence of 1304. See the silver grosso 
 of about 1200 given on p. 432, which was adopted as the 
 type for this later gold coinage, with John the Baptist, the 
 patron saint of Florence, and the Florentine lily (river-flag), 
 called by Dante il maladetto fiore. 
 
 17. Said to be the only coin-portrait (German ?) of Frederick 
 Barbarossa. It is incredibly barbarous and grotesque — like 
 a very ugly, beardless boy. 
 
 18. Pisan coin with name of Henry VII — therefore the date 
 is 1312-13. See No. 15. 
 
 19. A very conventional portrait of Henry VII. 
 
 451 
 
PART V 
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 1190-1313 
 
 (See Genealogy of Hohenstaufer, p. 383) 
 
 (1) Henry VI 
 
 IT will be remembered that the year before Frederick 
 Barbarossa was drowned in' the Salef his son Henry 
 became, through his wife Constance, the successor of 
 William the Good of Sicily, whose marriage with Joan of 
 England had proved childless. Many Sicilians however refused 
 to accept the German overlord whom the English archbishop 
 Of a Mill had foisted on them. Of a Mill's political rival, 
 Aiello of Salerno, who had for years acted as the late king's 
 Secretary of State {protonotario) , instigated a rising in favour 
 of Tancred, Count of I^ecce, bastard son of Duke Roger, a 
 son of King Roger, and caused him to be crowned king ; and 
 Pope Clement III sent his blessing. Forthwith Henry the 
 Cruel — f or this title his violent and ruthless nature earned him 
 — assembled an army, vowing vengeance ; but the tidings of 
 his father's death in the East and the insurrection of Henry 
 the I^ion in Germany compelled him to recross the Alps. He 
 soon suppressed the rival claimant to the German crown and 
 was ere long in Rome, where, having won the favour of the 
 Roman people by a very dastardly act, 1 he was able to compel 
 the Pope (Celestine III) to crown him as Emperor (1191). 
 He then marched south to subjugate the Two Sicilies, and with 
 1 Namely, by handing over to their vengeance the town and stronghold of 
 Tusculum — which, it must be confessed, had long been a nest of ' Tusculan 
 Counts ' and notorious for such Popes as John XII, besides being a grievous 
 thorn in the side of republican Rome. It was now utterly destroyed. Thus 
 disappeared the town of the son of Ulysses, the home of Cato, and the scene of 
 Cicero's Tusculan Disputations. 
 
 453 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the help of ships from Pisa (that ' shame of Italy,' as Dante 
 calls the city) beleaguered Naples — at this time almost a free 
 city. But Norman ships drove the Pisans away, and Henry, 
 with an army decimated by disease, returned to Germany. 1 
 Hereupon the cause of Tancred gained strength in the south 
 of Italy. The Salernitans threw off their allegiance to the 
 German king and gave up the Empress Constance, residing 
 at that time in their city, to Tancred, who was chivalrous enough 
 to set her at liberty — an act which makes appear all the more 
 hideous the ingratitude and inhumanity of Henry ; for when 
 Tancred died in 1193, and his little son William was proclaimed 
 King of the Sicilies under the regency of the widow-mother 
 Sibilla, Henry came marching south again and, having captured 
 Sibilla and her child, sent them with other prisoners to Germany 
 and caused them to be blinded. 
 
 He was now master of the Sicilies as well as overlord of 
 Northern Italy, where by a judicious combination of con- 
 cession and severity he held the republics in curb. Over Tus- 
 cany he set his brother Philip, and other German dukes over 
 Umbria and Romagna. With the Papacy and Rome he did 
 not attempt to meddle much. As usual, there were conflicts 
 going on in the city between the people and the nobility. Just 
 at this time an oligarchy with a Podesid at its head was in 
 power — soon to be supplanted by a republican Senate and a 
 Prefect. To Henry it was fairly indifferent which party pre- 
 vailed, for both kept the Pope in order. 
 
 The Empress Constance, who was a gentle and pious, and 
 now an elderly, woman, doubtless felt keenly the barbarities 
 committed by her German spouse. She had retired to the 
 little town of Jesi, not far from Ancona, and here in December 
 1194 she gave birth to a son — the future Emperor Frederick II. 
 
 1 It was in 1193-94 that Richard Coeur-de-I,ion was captured by Leopold 
 of Austria and handed over to Henry VI. German historians assert that the 
 capture was justified by the fact that Richard came to Germany for the 
 purpose of aiding Henry the Lion in his rebellions ; and they extol the 
 magnanimity of Henry in releasing the English king instead of giving him 
 over to the vengeful Philippe Auguste — but they forget to mention the amount 
 of ransom that the German monarch pocketed. 
 
 454 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 The child was elected King of the Romans by the German 
 nobles assembled at Aachen in 1196, on which occasion 
 Henry extracted from the electors the recognition of the 
 absolute hereditary right of his descendants, whether in the 
 male or the female line, to the German crown. Shortly after 
 this he was recalled to South Italy by renewed insurrections, 
 which he suppressed by the most barbarous inhumanities. 
 Encouraged by his success, he began to form plans for the 
 conquest of Dalmatia, which he claimed as an integral part of 
 the Norman dominions, and even for the overthrow of Con- 
 stantinople and the annexation of the Eastern Empire — a 
 project that was realized not much later, but not by him ; for 
 he died at Messina in 1197, aged only thirty-two years. 
 
 (2) Frederick II and Pope Innocent III 
 
 According to the promise made by the electors the infant 
 son of Henry ought to have succeeded, and for a time did 
 succeed, under the regency of his mother, to the kingship of 
 Germany and Italy, including the so-called Two Sicilies ; and 
 as King of the Romans he was already Emperor-designate. 
 But in Germany Henry's brother and a rival seized power and 
 were both crowned king. And ere the child was four years 
 old his mother Constance died, leaving him under the guardian- 
 ship of the Pope, whom she appointed the regent of the 
 Sicilies. What right she had to do this may well be asked — 
 as we have already asked by what right Matilda demised the 
 duchy of Tuscany to the Church — but such an act need not 
 surprise us in the case of a woman who had been compelled 
 to renounce the life of a religieuse, if not of a nun, in order 
 to contract a by no means happy marriage. Moreover, how- 
 ever illegal the act, it was accepted and thus became a fact of 
 historical import. Nor is it easy to feel certain that the result 
 did not justify the deed. 
 
 The Pope who thus became nominally the regent of the 
 Two Sicilies — for this was of course the only realm to which 
 Constance, as heiress of the Norman kings, had any claim — 
 was Innocent III, the son of a Lombard Count of Segni and of 
 
 455 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 a Roman mother. At the age of thirty-seven he ascended the 
 papal throne, some three months after the death of Henry VI. 
 He was of all Roman pontiffs perhaps the ablest, and certainly 
 the most masterful and ambitious ; and he finally succeeded 
 in realizing for a time his dreams of a papal empire and 
 imposing his overlordship on all the monarchs 1 of Europe, 
 the kingdoms of which he treated as fiefs of the Papacy. ' No 
 such spectacle/ says a modern writer, ' had been seen since 
 the time of Charlemagne ; none such was to be seen again 
 till the coming of Napoleon.' Nor were his triumphs limited 
 to the kingdoms of the West ; he held also the East in fee ; 
 for when (in 1202-4) Constantinople was captured and shame- 
 fully sacked 2 by the French would-be Crusaders and the 
 Venetians, although at first he professed to be scandalized, 
 he soon consoled himself by the fact that the supremacy of 
 the Roman pontiff was acknowledged by the new I^atin dynasty 
 of Byzantine Emperors — the first of whom received the imperial 
 purple from the hands of the legate of Innocent and the third was 
 crowned and invested in St. Peter's at Rome by Innocent's suc- 
 cessor, Honorius. It was indeed no empty boast that was con- 
 tained in the words attributed to Innocent, that an Emperor was 
 but a moon that borrowed radiance from the sun of the Papacy. 3 
 
 ' King John of England among them. Once the defiant excommunicated 
 foe of Innocent, John ended by grovelling at the feet of Pandulf, the papal 
 legate, when he landed at Dover, and received back from his hands his crown 
 as a vassal of the Papacy. 
 
 1 See ' Noteon Byzantine Emperors,' p. 308. The so-called fourth Crusade 
 (of which a picturesque account will be found in Gibbon, chs. lx-lxi) is only 
 slightly connected with Italian history, through Venice and Doge Dandolo 
 and the horses of St. Mark's. Innocent had preached a Crusade, and a great 
 number of French and Flemings assembled in North Italy and hired Venetian 
 ships ; but being unable to pay, they were persuaded by the Venetians to 
 help them to capture Zara, in Dalmatia, formerly Venetian domain. Zara 
 was taken. The Venetians then persuaded the Crusaders to attack Constan- 
 tinople and reseat on the throne the expelled Emperor— the usurper having 
 shown favour to the Pisans, the great rivals of Venice in the East. The 
 Emperor was restored ; but quarrels arose and the Crusaders and Venetians 
 again stormed Constantinople and sacked it in the most barbarous fashion, 
 and placed Baldwin of Flanders on the imperial throne — the first of six 
 I,atin Emperors of the Bast. 
 
 * A simile used also by Dante at the end of his De Monorchia, although 
 in his poem (Purg. xvi) he more justly speaks of two suns. 
 
 456 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Another of Innocent's triumphs was won by a still more 
 shameful Crusade and by means even more blood-curdling 
 than the sack of Constantinople. The story of the annihilation 
 of the Albigenses and the devastation of a great part of the 
 south of France, if told worthily, would occupy much space ; 
 but it is only indirectly connected with our main subject and 
 what brief remarks I can afford to make upon it are relegated 
 to a subsequent chapter, in order that they should not here 
 interrupt the narrative. 
 
 In one case Innocent failed. Not only Rome — where people 
 and nobles were as usual at strife — but also many cities of 
 Northern and Central Italy were in a state of more or less 
 open rebellion against German domination. This discontent 
 Innocent fomented and captained, dreaming to substitute 
 his own suzerainty in place of the Empire. But here he was 
 deceived. Emperors and kings might receive their crowns 
 from the successor of St. Peter, but cities which had so hardly 
 won their liberties were not going to exchange servitude to a 
 German Emperor for servitude to a Roman Pope. The Guelf 
 league, formed (1197) by the cities of Tuscany, refused to 
 become the tool of an ambitious pontiff, however loudly he 
 might assert his hatred of the common foe and repeat his 
 favourite formula : ' Away with the detestable German race ! ' 
 
 Nor did the republics mistrust Innocent without good cause, 
 as was soon proved when in Germany things took such a turn 
 as to make him dissimulate his detestation. The minority of 
 Frederick had revived the old Welf and Waibling feuds and 
 two rival claimants had been crowned — the one at Aachen, 
 the other at Mainz — Otto of Brunswick, son of the rebellious 
 Henry the Iyion and nephew of Richard Coeur-de-I^ion, and 
 Philip, son of Barbarossa and brother of the late Emperor. 
 For ten years (1198-1208) the country was rent by civil war. 
 Finally Philip was assassinated and Otto, proclaimed sole 
 German king by the electors assembled at Frankfurt, courted 
 the favour of Innocent by promising him the suzerainty of 
 the Matilda domains and other territories in North Italy. The 
 attempt succeeded and in 1208 Otto was crowned by the Pope 
 
 457 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 at Rome. 1 But the Romans, already hostile to Innocent's 
 vast ambitions, were incensed at his duplicity and the bestowal 
 of the imperial dignity on a foreign prince without their assent. 
 Serious tumults took place when Otto attempted to pass from 
 the Vatican across the Tiber and a thousand of his Germans 
 were slain. In fierce anger he withdrew northwards, reoccupied 
 the Matilda domains, and set his Podestd. in the cities which 
 he had promised to cede to the Papacy. Nor did this suffice 
 to appease his resentment. He returned with a strong force 
 and invaded territories of the Church and the realm of 
 Frederick. Hereupon Innocent excommunicated him, and, 
 as was so often the case, a weird success attended the act 
 of the masterful pontiff. The thunderbolt seemed to wither 
 the powers of Otto. He retreated to Germany, and ere long, 
 after suffering a crushing defeat (1214) in a quarrel with 
 Philippe Auguste of France, he was deposed by his nobles. 2 
 
 (3) Frederick II, German King and Emperor 
 
 The German nobles had ere this (in 1212) invited the young 
 Frederick to cross the Alps. This he did, and in 1215 he was 
 crowned at Aachen as German king. As an infant he had been 
 proclaimed, also at Aachen, King of the Romans, and now the 
 title (which involved that of Emperor-designate) was solemnly 
 confirmed by a great Council held at the I/ateran, where more 
 than 1500 prelates and many nobles were present. But although 
 he was thus acknowledged to have succeeded to Otto's dignities 
 he was not invited by Innocent to be crowned Emperor. The 
 wily and ambitious pontiff evidently deemed it safer to defer 
 this ceremony — perhaps on the ground that Otto still lived. 
 
 On his journey from Palermo to Germany Frederick had 
 visited Rome and Pope Innocent, whom he then saw for the 
 
 1 This seems rather inconsistent with his feelings about the detestable 
 German race and imperial moonshine ; but the bribe was big, and Innocent 
 was very anxious that in any case the young Frederick should remain his 
 feudatory and not become Emperor. 
 
 * In his struggles against his nobles and Prance he was supported largely 
 by King John of England, and another result of this defeat at Bou vines was 
 our Magna Carta. 
 
 45 8 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 first time. The generous and impulsive youth, not more than 
 eighteen years of age, seems to have been most effusive towards 
 his former guardian, expressing his deep gratitude by con- 
 firming the Pope's title to the territories claimed by the Church, 
 by promising to join a Crusade, and even, it is said, by vowing 
 to cede his southern kingdoms as a fief to the Papacy under 
 the rule of his (still infant) son Henry, as soon as he should 
 receive the imperial crown. I^uckily, this last promise was 
 never fulfilled. Even before the death of Innocent, which 
 took place in 1216, Frederick had repented and recanted, and 
 ere long he was to prove as fiercely adverse to the Papacy as 
 Otto had been. Nor was Frederick alone in this rapid change 
 of front. A general movement had begun which was destined 
 finally to overthrow the whole fabric of the temporal power 
 of the Popes, and first to fall in sudden collapse was Innocent's 
 Babel-tower of papal supremacy, founded as it was on super- 
 stitious reverence for an antiquated form from which moral 
 greatness had long ago departed. 
 
 How the Church was for a time to regain some of her ancient 
 moral grandeur and moral influence — not through Popes and 
 cardinals, but through the revival in humbler hearts of the 
 spirit of Christian love and unworldliness, as practised by 
 St. Francis and professed, if not practised, by Domenic — we 
 shall see. 
 
 In 1220 Frederick determined to revisit his southern 
 dominions, leaving Germany under the viceroyalty of his son 
 Henry — a lad of about ten — whom he caused to be crowned King 
 of the Romans at Frankfurt. Henceforth, during thirty years, 
 his life was associated almost exclusively with Sicily and Italy. 
 In Northern Italy his authority was to a great extent nominal, 
 for many of the cities, having become still more powerful by 
 the Guelf I/eague and the vast increase of trade, enjoyed 
 complete liberty, except when, from time to time, they were 
 overawed by the presence of imperial troops. Moreover his 
 Northern Italian domains had little attraction for him ; it was 
 the south, Sicily and Apulia especially, that he regarded as his 
 home and his true kingdom. And he had other reasons for 
 
 459 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 his return. During his absence in the north troubles had 
 arisen in Sicily. His Moslem soldiery had proved overbearing 
 and the Christians were indignant. He felt it necessary to 
 put things in order — and he did this effectually on his arrival 
 by removing all Saracen troops from Sicily and forming a 
 settlement of them in Nocera (near Pompeii), which henceforth 
 was known as Nocera dei Pagani and proved for him an 
 invaluable point d'appui. 
 
 Innocent had been succeeded in 1218 by Honorius III, who 
 was at first hostile ; but when Frederick arrived at Rome this 
 mild-tempered Pope was persuaded by lavish concessions and 
 promises about Crusades and other matters to crown him as 
 Emperor — a ceremony f acihtated by the fact that the deposed 
 Otto had lately died. The coronation of Frederick and his 
 queen, Constance of Aragon, took place in 1220. Two years 
 later — the year of the terrible earthquake which on Christmas 
 Day caused the death of many thousands in North Italy — 
 Frederick's queen died, and the Pope, ever intent on Crusades, 
 persuaded him to marry Iolanthe de Brienne, sister of the 
 French titular King of Jerusalem (afterwards Emperor at 
 Constantinople). Nevertheless Frederick showed no great 
 desire to keep his promise and distinguish himself as a Crusader. 
 Although, curiously enough, he proved later a zealous and cruel 
 persecutor of heretics, he had not only toleration but ad- 
 miration for infidels ; indeed he was probably, to say the least, 
 as good a Moslem as he was a Christian. So years passed, 
 and Honorius died (1226) and the promise was still unfulfilled. 
 But the next Pope, Gregory IX, though over eighty years of 
 age, showed such determination that Frederick felt compelled 
 to yield, and, having collected a large band of Crusaders — 
 mostly Germans — set sail from Brindisi. A severe epidemic 
 however broke out among his followers, who had suffered 
 intensely from the Apulian dog-days, and he hastily ordered 
 the fleet to be put about and the armament to be disembarked 
 at Otranto. 
 
 Thereupon the fiery old Pope Gregory excommunicated him 
 and published an Encyclical branding him as a traitor and 
 460 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 coward. The no less fiery young Emperor responded with a 
 courage and a candour which, as Villari says, would have done 
 credit to I^uther himself. His famous Manifest was the first really 
 important and formal protest of the highest civil power against 
 the usurpations of the Church and that Papal Supremacy 
 which Innocent had built up so successfully. ' It was addressed 
 to all the Princes and Peoples of the Empire, reminding them 
 of the fate of the unlucky Count of Toulouse and of King John 
 of England, and it drew with pitiless hand a vivid picture of 
 the demoralization of the Church and the worldly ambitions 
 of the Popes. The Emperor of Christendom declared him- 
 self in sympathy with the views of heretics in regard to the 
 unapostolic character of the Papacy.' (Gregorovius.) The 
 Manifest was read in public on the Roman Capitol amid great 
 enthusiasm. A tumult arose and Gregory fled to Viterbo 
 and then to Perugia, whence he launched excommunication 
 against his adversaries. 
 
 It may at first somewhat surprise us to hear that under 
 these circumstances Frederick decided voluntarily to under- 
 take a Crusade — this time in all seriousness — but reflexion 
 will make us realize that it was something of a master-stroke. 
 He wished to show the world that Emperors and Crusaders 
 were wholly indifferent to futile thunderbolts, and to prove 
 that the Pope cared less for the liberation of the Holy 
 Sepulchre than for his own petty vengeance. Still under ban 
 and stigmatized by the clerics as a ' pirate, not a Crusader,' 
 he reached Jerusalem. Here, no priest daring to perform 
 the ceremony, he lifted with his own hand the crown from the 
 altar of the Holy Sepulchre and set it on his head — an act 
 which by force of contrast recalls that gran capitano of the 
 first Crusade who refused to be crowned in the city where the 
 King of Kings had worn a crown of thorns. 1 
 
 1 See p. 357. Frederick did not fight his way to Jerusalem. Before 
 leaving Italy he had by clever diplomacy secured that the city should be 
 handed over to him by the Sultan of Egypt, -whom he promised to help against 
 his rival, the Sultan of Damascus. The assumption of the crown by Frederick 
 violated the nominal rights of his father-in-law, Jean de Brienne, who was 
 made Eastern Emperor in 1228 and joined the Pope's motley brigade against 
 Frederick. 
 
 461 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Meanwhile in Italy Pope Gregory, still in exile at Perugia, 
 had proclaimed a Holy War against the absent and excom- 
 municated Emperor, and when Frederick landed in Apulia 
 (1229) his Crusaders, many of whom were Moslems, were 
 confronted by a motley force arrayed under the banner of 
 the Papacy. But the Saracen soldiers of the Cross soon 
 put to flight the soldiery of the Cross Keys, and the Pope 
 was glad to make peace and graciously liberated Frederick 
 from ban. 1 He then turned his mercenaries against humbler, 
 but not less dangerous, adversaries — the Patarini and other 
 heretics, who of late had been zealously disseminating their 
 pernicious doctrines in North Italy and elsewhere ; and 
 strangely enough we find Frederick joining in this pitiable 
 persecution. Gregory IX has the unenviable renown of 
 having first introduced the dread tribunal of the Inquisition 
 into Rome and of having burnt many condemned heretics — 
 probably in the piazza of S. Maria Maggiore — to make a Roman 
 holiday. In passing we may note the strange fact that the 
 Roman mob, which for political reasons was for ever expelling 
 and recalling Popes, was apparently in full sympathy with 
 the Popes in regard to such inhumanities perpetrated in the 
 name of religion. But after glutting their eyes on these autos- 
 de-fd the mobile mob suddenly turned against their benefactor 
 and again chased him out of Rome. 
 
 The years 1230-35 were momentous for Rome. Twice she 
 made a desperate attempt to rid herself, so to speak, of the Old 
 Man of the papal See ; but on both occasions Frederick — com- 
 pelled by political reasons, especially by his son's treasonable 
 intrigues — listened to the pitiable appeals of the exiled Pope, 
 who was now calling on Christendom to wage a Holy War 
 against the Romans just as shortly before he had proclaimed a 
 Crusade against Frederick himself. Had Rome at this crisis 
 gained political freedom and put herself at the head of a Roman 
 
 1 Gregory had been recalled to Rome by the citizens, terrified by a great 
 inundation of the Tiber, which is said to have drowned thousands and to 
 have broken down the Pons Aemilius (Senatorum). Of this bridge, still 
 more damaged by the inundation of 1598, the relics form the well-known 
 Ponte Rotto. 
 
 462 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Confederation the later fortunes of Italy would have been 
 very different from what they were — whether to her advantage 
 and that of humanity, who can tell ? But the struggle ended 
 in favour of the Papacy in spite of the heroic efforts of the 
 Romans. Their citizen army under the command of Senators 
 followed their red and golden banner, inscribed with the proud 
 S.P.Q.R. of the ancient Republic, and harried the towns of 
 Tuscany and Latium, which the fugitive Pope was endeavour- 
 ing to fortify and form into an anti-Roman Confederation. 
 Then, on the mediation of Frederick, they allowed Gregory to 
 return. But they soon repented — or, to use the simile of the 
 old papal chronicler, seven worse devils entered into them — 
 and, driven to fury by the thought of the free northern 
 republics and their own servitude, they once more rose and 
 demanded liberty. Their Senator Lucas Sorelli proclaimed 
 Lower Tuscany and the Campagna to be domains of the Roman 
 Republic. Pope Gregory fled and laid Rome under interdict. 
 The Romans retaliated by plundering the Lateran. Finally, in 
 response to his loud appeals auxiliaries from far and near came 
 to the Pope's succour, and Frederick again lent his aid. A 
 fierce battle took place near Viterbo. The Romans were 
 defeated and chased back to their city ; and ere long they were 
 forced to renounce the hope of liberty and to accept papal 
 overlordship, 1 under the condition of a nominal municipal 
 autonomy on the one side, and on the other the immunity of 
 the clerics from taxes and the operation of the civil law. 
 
 Frederick's son Henry, who since the year 1220 had acted 
 as viceroy in Germany, now set up the standard of revolt, 
 intrigued with the Lombard cities and the Pope, and proclaimed 
 himself king. Frederick, after foiling his son's negotiations by 
 sending help to the Pope, hastened across the Alps and suc- 
 ceeded in overpowering and capturing the rebel, who was sent 
 (1235) to Apulia and lingered out the rest of his life in prison — 
 a fate that, as we shall see, befell another of Frederick's sons. 
 
 1 Pope Gregory, however, declined to return to Rome — that ' lair of 
 roaring wild beasts.' He remained two years longer in exile, and in 1237 
 made a triumphal entry, while Frederick was engaged in battling with the 
 Lombard cities. 
 
 463 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 In the place of Henry, as viceroy in Germany, Frederick 
 elected his second son, Conrad. He then turned his attention 
 to the Guelf I/ombard cities, which had become more and more 
 wealthy, independent, and rebellious, even to the point of 
 blocking Alpine passes, and had engaged in ever fiercer 
 conflict with the cities that favoured the imperial cause. This 
 cause had however recently gained greatly in power under the 
 leadership of a monk's son, that ' Son of the Devil,' as he was 
 popularly called, the ' black-haired Ezzelino,' whom Ariosto 
 has called a child of hell and Dante has put in the infernal 
 river of blood together with Alexander and Dionysius. Ezzelino 
 had already made himself master of several towns, and when 
 Frederick came and captured Vincenza it was given over 
 to this condottiere, who shortly afterwards took Padua and 
 Mantua and thus became the tyrant, or viceroy, of a con- 
 siderable domain. Milan headed the resistance of the remain- 
 ing Guelf cities, but at Cortenova they suffered a rout as 
 terrible as that of Legnano and Frederick entered Cremona 
 in triumph, bringing with him the Milanese Carroccio, drawn, 
 it is Said, by a white elephant and bearing strapped to its mast 
 the Milanese Podestti, Tiepolo, son of the Doge of Venice. 
 Broken remnants of the car Frederick sent to Rome, to be 
 exhibited and preserved in the Capitol. 
 
 All this naturally caused Pope Gregory deep displeasure. 
 He assembled a I^ateran Council and fulminated excommuni- 
 cation. A reply was sent by Pier delle Vigne, that trusty 
 secretary of the Emperor who held both keys of Frederick's 
 heart. 1 Frederick proposed to submit himself to a general 
 Council. The Pope convoked a Council, but*it was a purely 
 clerical Council and was to be held at Rome. This was not 
 at all what Frederick meant, and when (1241) a multitude — 
 a rabble, turba, as Frederick called them — of cardinals and 
 
 1 Dante, Inf. xiii, 58. Later he was accused (wrongly, he tells Dante) of 
 revealing State secrets and was imprisoned and perhaps blinded by Frederick's 
 order ; whereupon he killed himself. In Dante's Inferno his spirit inhabits 
 the bleeding tree (in the Wood of the Suicides) from which Virgil bids his 
 brother-poet break off a twig in order to make it utter its story ' in blood 
 and words.' 
 
 464 
 
HiISTORlCAL OUTLINE 
 
 bishops and other clerics embarked for Rome at Genoa it was 
 decided that Pisan and imperial vessels should attack them. 
 The strange naval encounter took place near the isle of Monte 
 Cristo. The convoy of Genoese galleys was routed and the 
 captured clerics taken in triumph to Naples. 
 
 Meanwhile Frederick had marched southwards, and was 
 contemplating an attack on Rome when news reached his 
 camp at Grottaferrata (near the Alban I^ake) that his old 
 adversary Pope Gregory, who had nearly reached his hundredth 
 year, 1 was dead. Many of the prelates were still in Frederick's 
 hands, and the Ten Cardinals that were in Rome, after being 
 for two months closely imprisoned by the Senator Rubeus — a 
 despotic individual who at that time was paramount in the 
 city — at last gained their release from the cruel confinement 
 (in which one of them had died) by electing a weakly old man, 
 Celestine IV. He survived his election only eighteen days. 
 Then followed a papal interregnum of nearly two years, during 
 which all the cardinals dispersed, taking refuge in various 
 country strongholds. At last, after many admonitions and 
 threats from Frederick, who continued to devastate the 
 Campagna, though he did not venture to attack Rome, the 
 electors met at Anagni. 
 
 Frederick had released some of the captured prelates in 
 order to secure their support at the papal election, and Car- 
 dinal Fieschi of Genoa, who had long enjoyed his friendship, 
 was chosen. But Frederick only lost a friend by this election, 
 for, as he himself exclaimed, ' no Pope was ever a Ghibelline.' 
 Indeed Innocent IV proved as determined an opponent as 
 ever Gregory had been. He began by refusing to remove 
 the ban from the Emperor because he would not evacuate 
 certain fortresses, and in 1245 he sailed off to Genoa and made 
 his way to I/yon, in France, 2 where he assembled a Council 
 and proclaimed Frederick's deposition. 
 
 A battle of Titans then took place, in which Encyclicals 
 
 1 Fere centenarius, says the English chronicler Matthew Paris. He was 
 over eighty when consecrated in 1227. 
 
 8 He proposed himself to the courts of Aragon, France, and England, but 
 was ' politely begged to spare them the honour of a visit ' (Gregorovius). 
 
 2 G 465 
 
Medieval Italy 
 
 and Manifests were hurled like rocks and thunderbolts, while 
 Europe looked on in silent awe. The contest seemed at the 
 time to have no very decided result. Frederick's attack on 
 the greed and arrogance and vices of the Papacy and clergy 
 was hailed with enthusiasm by the greater part of Christendom, 
 but Innocent also found wide support when he claimed that 
 ' to the Head of the Church had been given the two swords 
 of power, spiritual and temporal, and that of his own will he 
 could lend one to the Emperor.' Europe had not yet arrived 
 at that discernment between the realms of religion and civil 
 power for which in his MonarcMa and in his poem 1 Dante 
 so vigorously contends. But doubtless this great conflict 
 had far-reaching, if not easily perceptible, effects, and even at 
 the time it caused on the one side dangerous risings and the 
 proclamation of a rival Emperor, and on the other a very 
 strong revival of anti-papal feeling, of which the Ghibelline 
 party in North Italy took advantage in order to suffocate the 
 young republics. The bloody Ezzelino, now Frederick's son- 
 in-law, supported by Frederick's illegitimate son Enzio (or 
 Enzo), subjugated many of the towns of Iyombardy, Emilia, 
 and Venetia, and endeavoured to convert them into Signories 
 (a fate that ere long was to fall on most of the Italian republics), 
 or rather perhaps to found one great Signoria of many cities. 
 For a time Frederick remained in his southern dominions, 
 in constant conflict with allies of the Pope, who continued to 
 preach crusades against the excommunicated monarch and 
 found no methods too shameful if only by stirring up fanati- 
 cism against the 'infidel foe of the Faith' and inciting 
 revolt against this ' second Nero ' he could annihilate the 
 ' viper brood ' of the Hohenstaufen princes. Mendicant friars, 
 suborned by papal gold, instigated the Sicilian barons to murder 
 the Emperor.* The plot was however fortunately discovered, 
 and not long afterwards (1247) Frederick made his way to 
 North Italy in order to join his son Enzio in the campaign 
 
 » Soleva Roma . . . Duo Soli aver . . . L'un I'altrohaspento, ed i giunta 
 la spada Col pasiurale (Purg. xvi). 
 
 » Letters of Innocent are extant in which he addresses the would-be 
 assassins as ' glorious sons of the Church. 
 
 466 
 
47- Tomb op Frederick II 
 Palermo 
 
 466 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 against the republican cities. Here he suffered a disastrous 
 reverse, for during his siege of Parma, which made a heroic 
 resistance, the besieged took advantage of his absence on a 
 hunting expedition to venture a sally and succeeded in de- 
 stroying his camp and slaying and capturing thousands of his 
 men, so that, in almost as desperate state as was Frederick 
 Barbarossa after Legnano, with great difficulty he reassem- 
 bled his forces in Cremona, intending to renew the war. But 
 another blow fell on him. His son Enzio was captured by the 
 Bolognese, and the unfortunate youth spent all the rest of his 
 life, nigh twenty-three years, as a prisoner. 1 
 
 As was the case also with the great Theoderic, the last 
 years of Frederick were overcast not only by disaster but by 
 dark suspicions and by acts cruel and unjust. The fate of 
 his secretary and counsellor Pier delle Vigne of Capua, who 
 had long enjoyed his confidence, has been already related. 
 It seems to have been at Cremona that Frederick had him 
 arrested, and perhaps blinded, and at Pisa that Pier ended 
 his life by suicide. In the same year Frederick, broken down 
 by calamities, withdrew to his well-loved Apulia, and a few 
 months later (1250) he died, after a short illness, in one of his 
 castles — Castel Fiorentino, near I^ucera — some say surrounded 
 by his faithful Saracens, according to others, whom Gregorovius 
 follows, ' clothed in the habit of a Cistercian monk and absolved 
 by his true friend the Archbishop of Palermo.' 
 
 Laetentur caeli et exsultet terra, wrote Innocent, the Chief 
 Pastor of the Christian Church, to the Sicilian people when 
 he heard of the death of their king — with which brutality we 
 may contrast the words of that king when he learnt the 
 death of his great opponent, Pope Gregory IX : de morte ejus 
 multa compassione conducimur, et licet digno contra eum odio 
 mover emur? 
 
 1 Probably in the (now much restored) Palazzo del Re Enzio at Bologna. 
 His captivity is said to have been solaced by the affection of the beautiful 
 Lucia Viadagola, from whom the Bentivogli claim descent. 
 
 2 And yet Pope Gregory had often called him a ' blasphemous beast ' and 
 worse. But Frederick, infidel as he was, had enough Christian and knightly 
 sentiment to agree with the noble words of Odysseus : ' It is an unholy act 
 
 467 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Innocent's one object in life seems to have been to crush 
 the ' viper brood ' of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He at once 
 hastened from I,yon to Italy, which he had not visited for six 
 years, fulminating excommunications and preaching crusades 
 against the youthful Conrad, Frederick's son, the German 
 king. Conrad came down to the south to assert his rights ; 
 but he soon died (1254), leaving an infant son, Conradin — 
 the last legitimate scion of the imperial house of the Hohen- 
 staufer. 1 
 
 (4) Manfred and Charles of Anjou 
 
 An illegitimate son of Frederick, Manfred, Prince of Taranto, 
 had been appointed by his father's will the viceroy of South 
 Italy under the suzerainty of his half-brother Conrad. On 
 Conrad's death Manfred, who was a youth of twenty-two, 
 at first loyally supported the infant heir, Conradin, and appealed 
 to Innocent to do the same. But Innocent demanded full and 
 
 to triumph over the dead.' The influence of Frederick's Sicilian court on 
 literature will be touched upon later. I shall not attempt here to give what 
 journalists call an ' appreciation ' of his character. His was one of those 
 richly composite natures which defy analysis. His best qualities came from his 
 Norman mother. A huge Life has been published by M. Breholles (at the 
 cost of the Due de Lugnes) . He tries to prove that Frederick regarded himself 
 as a kind of Messiah; but the Biblical expressions used by Frederick (e.g. 
 when he called his birthplace ' Bethlehem ' and told Pier delle Vigne to ' feed 
 his sheep ') may be explained by the usage of the age. Undoubtedly he was 
 a free-thinker, a cosmopolitan in religion, with a strong penchant for Oriental 
 forms of thought and Oriental habits, such as concubinage; and there is no 
 reason to doubt that he used to speak of Moses, Christ, and Mohammed as 
 three deceived deceivers whose religion he could better ; and we cannot be 
 surprised that Dante in the Inferno condemns him to a fiery tomb as a heresi- 
 arch. But what is surprising is that Frederick was himself strictly Catholic 
 and a zealous persecutor of unorthodoxy, and, if Dante does not calumniate 
 him, invented a most cruel form of torture and death for such heretics (see 
 Inf. xxii, 66). It reminds one of Poggio's story of the brigand who had many 
 unpardoned murders on his conscience, but came at the risk of his life into a 
 town to obtain absolution for having drunk a few drops of milk in Lent. 
 
 1 See table, p. 383. Henry, Frederick's son by Isabella of England, had been 
 made viceroy of Sicily. He died about the same time as his father. Pope 
 Innocent offered (!) the crown of Sicily to Charles of Anjou and Richard of 
 Cornwall, both of whom refused it. He then persuaded Henry III of England 
 to let his little son, Edmund of Lancaster, aged eight, assume the title. But 
 Henry showed no inclination to respond when called upon by Popes to assert 
 bis son's claim by force and to conquer Sicily. 
 
 468 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 open submission to papal overlordship, and Manfred preferred 
 open hostility, and by the help of his faithful Saracens he 
 succeeded in routing the Pope's mercenaries at Foggia. Five 
 days later Pope Innocent died at Naples. 
 
 The new Pope, Alexander IV (1254-61), was at first much 
 hampered by the state of things in Rome, where under a 
 Bolognese Podestd named Brancaleone a republican government 
 fully constituted with the popular councils and guilds (Arti) 
 of the northern Communes held sway for a season and favoured 
 Manfred as the adversary of the Papacy. So it came to pass 
 that in spite of various papal excommunications — to which 
 Christendom was becoming alarmingly indifferent — Manfred's 
 cause so prospered that, taking perhaps advantage of a false 
 rumour of Conradin's death and in any case considering it 
 better to take the reins out of the hands of a feeble child 
 whose authority even in Germany was challenged by rival 
 claimants (such as Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile), 
 he followed King Roger's example and assumed the royal crown 
 in the cathedral of Palermo (1258). 
 
 Manfred now had against him not only the Pope and the 
 Guelf s but the legitimist Ghibellines, the supporters of Conradin. 
 In the south he held his own by the aid of his German troops 
 arid his faithful Saracens ; but this did not increase his popu- 
 larity, and he deepened the resentment by importing from 
 Africa fresh contingents of Moslem mercenaries. 
 
 Meanwhile in the north the Ghibelline cause, which — although 
 the great feud often lent itself to private faction — was 
 generally the cause of feudalism and foreign domination as 
 against republican liberty, had received a serious blow by the 
 overthrow of Ezzelino. For twenty years his had been a 
 name of terror in North Italy. He lorded it as despot, 
 though nominally a feudatory of the Empire, over all the 
 cities between Lago di Garda and the Venetian lagunes. 
 But the republican spirit was not to be extinguished. With 
 the aid of the Guelf communes the enslaved cities freed them- 
 selves, and Ezzelino was thrown into prison, where (1259) he 
 perished, it is said, by tearing the bandages from his wounds. 
 
 469 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Thus the popular cause was for a time triumphant in the 
 north, while in Tuscany the Florentine Guelfs succeeded 
 in expelling the Uberti and their Ghibelline supporters. This 
 triumph however was short-lived, for (as we shall see later) the 
 exiles collected an army and crushed their adversaries at 
 Montaperti, near Siena, and Florence would have been sacked 
 and razed to the ground but for the interposition of the great 
 Ghibelline chief Farinata degli Uberti. In this battle, which, 
 as Dante says, ' stained the Arbia red ' with the blood of the 
 Guelfs, Manfred's German cavalry took a conspicuous part. 
 This established his authority also in Central Italy, and his 
 Vicar, Guido Novello, for a time governed Florence. 
 
 But his fortunes were now to decline. Pope Alexander 
 died in 1261, and the cardinals, after months of hesitation, 
 chose the son of a shoemaker of Troyes who had risen to be 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem. The election of this French Pope 
 (Urban IV) soon had its results. Seeing that Henry III of 
 England was too much occupied with his barons, he offered 
 the crown of Sicily (already presented by Innocent to the little 
 English prince) to Charles of Anjou, brother to i/ouis IX (St 
 Louis) of France ; and this offer was unfortunately accepted. 
 
 Charles, Count of Anjou and also, through his wife, of 
 Provence, had distinguished himself together with his royal 
 brother in the seventh Crusade and had lately been elected 
 Senator by the Romans. His ambitious, adventurous, un- 
 scrupulous, and cruel character, and his extraordinary luck, 
 found ample scope, as we shall see, in bringing disasters on 
 Italy and Sicily. This he accomplished mainly by the aid 
 of the Papacy. When the French Pope died (1265) a Provencal, 
 a subject and admirer of Charles, was elected. This pontiff, 
 Clement IV, found it easy to persuade Charles's brother, the 
 French king, to allow a crusade to be preached in France 
 against Manfred, and a large body of recruits was enlisted by 
 means of the contributions of the pious and by papal indulgences. 
 Manfred, on the other hand, assembled at Capua his German 
 and Saracen land forces — who derided the advent of the 
 French adventurer— while a fleet of Sicilian and Pisan ships 
 47° 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 cruised along the coasts to prevent the invader effecting a 
 landing. 
 
 The adventurous Charles however trusted to his luck. He 
 sailed from Marseille with only a thousand horsemen. His 
 armada of seventy small vessels was dispersed by the winds, 
 but he ran the blockade with three and by means of a boat 
 reached land safely near Ostia. He was received with en- 
 thusiasm by his Roman friends and given quarters in the 
 convent of S. Paolo fuori le mura. Two days later the rest 
 of his ships arrived, the tempest having scattered the enemy. 
 He then made his formal entry into Rome (May 21, 1265 — 
 the month and year in which Dante was born) . Here he had 
 to wait eight months for his land army. Meantime, though 
 often in great straits for want of money, he amused himself by 
 acting the role of Senator, founding the University of Rome, 
 and being invested and crowned as King of the Sicilies — a 
 function performed by cardinals, 1 as Pope Clement was still 
 at Perugia, not having yet ventured to come to Rome. 
 
 Had Manfred risked at this crisis the bold stroke of surprising 
 Rome and capturing the French adventurer, the history of 
 Italy might have been very different from what it is. His 
 nobles however were not to be trusted, and while he hesitated 
 the land army of Charles, augmented by Italian Guelfs (among 
 them four hundred Florentine exiles), made its way to Rome. 
 Manfred now took up a position near Benevento, and here 
 Charles attacked him. The battle, long doubtful, was decided 
 by the desertion of Manfred's barons ; whereupon he dashed 
 forward into the midst of the fray and was killed. Among 
 the thousands of the slain his body was at last discovered, and 
 the soldiers, honouring their gallant foe, raised above it a 
 great cairn of stones ; but the Archbishop of Cosenza, ordered 
 by Pope Clement, dragged it forth and carried it, ' with candles 
 quenched and inverted,' beyond the frontier of the kingdom, 
 to the ' banks of the Verde ' — perhaps the I^iris — and there 
 
 1 The first time anyone less than an Emperor or Pope was crowned in 
 St. Peter's. On his arrival Charles had very coolly quartered himself in the 
 Lateran, but he received a most indignant letter from the Pope and had to 
 clear out. 
 
 47 1 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 cast it out to the winds and rain and birds and beasts of prey. 1 
 Charles wreaked his fury also on the young wife and four of 
 the children of Manfred — all of whom spent the rest of their 
 lives, some more than thirty years, in dungeons. One escaped 
 — to become later Queen of Sicily — and to her, his bella figlia, 
 la buona Costanza, Manfred sent greetings by Dante from the 
 Mount of Purgatory. 
 
 The fall of Manfred of course produced a great revival of 
 Guelf supremacy in the northern cities. Florence expelled 
 Manfred's officials and the Guelf constitution was established 
 on a firm basis. 
 
 (5) CoNRADIN AND CHARLES OF AnJOU 
 
 The cruel and tyrannical conduct of Charles soon aroused 
 hatred and revolt, both in Sicily, where his intolerable extor- 
 tions and his intention to make Naples the capital of his 
 kingdom instead of Palermo made him specially unpopular, 
 and also in the north, where the Ghibellines, led by Pisa and 
 Siena, were once more gaining strength and beginning to look 
 towards Germany — for the young German king, Conradin, 
 now a lad of fourteen years, seemed to show a desire to try 
 his fortunes against the French usurper. 
 
 It was a strange state of things and one which well illustrates 
 the complexities of Italian history. Here we see half the 
 inhabitants of Italy turning to a German youth for help while 
 they groan under the lash of the French tyrant who has been 
 imposed on them by the Pope, the supreme guardian of their 
 moral and spiritual weal ; we see the Pope abetting this 
 foreign oppressor and at the same time craftily patronizing 
 the cause of republican liberty in order to gain allies against 
 the ' viper brood ' of German princes ; we see some of the 
 
 1 See the wonderful passage (Purg. iii) in which Manfred himself relates 
 all this to Dante, who met him, in spirit, in the Antipurgatory. The descrip- 
 tion of the young prince, ' fair-haired and handsome and of aspect gentle, 
 save that a wound had cleft one of his eyebrows,' has always reminded me 
 of that vision of Prince Edward which (in Shakespeare's Richard III) appeared 
 to his murderer, Clarence : ' Then came wandering by A shadow like an angel, 
 with bright hair Dabbled in blood. . . .' 
 
 472 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 so-called republics utterly false to the cause of true liberty 
 merely for the sake of wreaking vengeance on political rivals, 
 making alliance with the Papacy and at the Pope's bidding 
 slavishly recognizing Charles of Anjou as their lord and master 
 — even electing him as their Podestd, as Florence did, to 
 her eternal disgrace. 
 
 In the year 1267 the brave young Conradin crossed the Alps. 
 He was received enthusiastically by Pavia and Pisa and other 
 Ghibelline cities. The feeble bolt of excommunication launched 
 by Pope Clement from Viterbo had no effect, and by mid- 
 summer of 1268 the boy-king was in Rome, where, on the 
 Capitol, he was acclaimed Emperor by the fickle mob. Im- 
 patient to meet his foe, he soon, perhaps too soon, led forth 
 his troops. He found Charles not far from Tagliacozzo, in 
 the vicinity of I/ago di Fucino. At first fortune favoured 
 him ; but his troops betook themselves to pillage and were 
 suddenly assailed and routed by a strong reserve of cavalry 
 commanded by Charles himself and Valery, constable of Cham- 
 pagne. With five hundred horsemen Conradin escaped and 
 reached Rome ; but he was timorously received, and with a 
 few companions he decided to flee. They struck southwards, 
 towards the Pomptine marshes, as once Caius Marius and 
 Cicero had done. At Astura, then a small fishing village, he 
 found a vessel and embarked, hoping to reach Pisa, but the 
 owner of the neighbouring castle, 1 one of the Frangipani, 
 gave chase and captured him and handed him over to his 
 pursuers. 
 
 Charles had slaughtered most of his important prisoners — 
 cutting off the hands and feet of many, and, as this proved 
 too long and disagreeable a process, shutting up the rest in a 
 wooden building and burning them to death. But he thought 
 it politic to give Conradin a mock trial. Of the judges, ap- 
 pointed by Charles to pass the verdict that he wished, only 
 one gave his voice for it ; one, like Socrates, risked his life by 
 
 1 Astura, where Cicero had a villa and first took refuge in his flight, -is now 
 an island of ruins amid malarious swamps. Walls of the Frangipani castle 
 still exist, and a single tower. In the dim distance looms the Circeian Cape. 
 
 473 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 opposing it ; the rest were silent. Then Charles, interpreting 
 silence as consent, pronounced the sentence of death on the 
 young king and twelve of his companions. The tidings was 
 received by Conradin as he was playing chess with his relative 
 and fellow-victim, Duke Frederick of Baden. On October 29, 
 1268, the pitiable execution took place at Naples, in the Piazza 
 del Mercato, which in those days was open to the sea. 1 Conradin, 
 who was but sixteen years of age, is said to have shown no 
 terror, but to have embraced his companions and the execu- 
 tioner and to have laid his head on the block exclaiming : 
 ' Ah, my mother, what sorrow I have caused thee ! ' 
 
 (6) Charles of Anjou and the Sicilian Vespers 
 
 A month later Pope Clement, who had never dared to return 
 to Rome, died at Viterbo. He had given no sign of horror at 
 the bloody and brutal deed perpetrated by Charles. Indeed 
 he exulted at the extinction of the hated ' viper brood ' of 
 Hohenstaufen. But he had doubtless begun to realize that 
 Charles was his master — that he had raised a fiend whom he 
 could not exorcize. And how entirely Charles was master is 
 shown by the fact that for nearly three years no Pope was 
 elected, the Italian cardinals being paralysed by the insolence 
 of the French prelates and officials. Nor was he content with 
 being master of the Sicilies and in Rome and the greater part 
 of Italy. He dreamt of a far greater realm. After persuad- 
 ing his brother to undertake a crusade against Tunis (where 
 Louis died of the plague) he tried to establish and extend his 
 rapacious dominion in those regions. Then he turned his 
 thoughts to the East, and by betrothing his daughter to the 
 son and heir of the exiled Latin Emperor of Byzantium, 
 Baldwin II of Courtenay, who offered to cede him the province 
 of Thessalonica when restored to his throne, he hoped to found 
 a dynasty which should rule the combined Empire of the East 
 and the West. But Baldwin, expelled by Michael Palaeo- 
 logus, spent the rest of his existence in soliciting aid from the 
 
 1 In the neighbouring chnrch of S. Croce is a porphyry pillar that is said 
 to have stood on the spot where Conradin was beheaded. 
 
 474 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 princes of Europe, and the dreamland castle of Charles melted 
 into air. 
 
 In 1271 the cardinals at last ventured to meet at Viterbo in 
 order to elect a Pope ; but such tedious delays did the opposition 
 of the French prelates cause that at last the people of Viterbo 
 unroofed the building in which the electors were confined 
 so as to hasten their decision. While all this was going on 
 Charles, who had just returned from Tunis, appeared on the 
 scene. There came also Guy de Montfort, who was now his 
 viceroy in Tuscany. He was grandson of the terrible Simon 
 de Montfort, exterminator of the Albigenses. His father (Earl 
 Simon of Leicester) had been killed in the battle of Evesham, 
 and his body had been despitefully treated. 
 
 Now with Charles from Tunis had come an English prince, 
 a cousin of Guy's, Henry of Cornwall, nephew to Henry III 
 of England, the great enemy of the Montforts. The sight of 
 the young Henry so enraged Guy de Montfort that during the 
 celebration of Mass in the cathedral of Viterbo he killed him 
 at the high altar in the presence of Charles and the cardinals 
 and dragged him out of the church by the hair. Guy fled ; but 
 Charles took no serious step to punish the deed of his viceroy 
 — a fact that throws a lurid light on this reign of terror. Dante 
 however has made compensation by condemning the murderer 
 to the second deepest pool of the River of Blood. 1 Why he 
 did not consign Charles to a similar fate instead of assigning 
 him a pleasant glade in Antipurgatory is unexplainable, I 
 think, except by the fact that the poet loved his grandson, 
 Charles Martel (for whom see Par. viii, and table, p. 477). 
 
 The cardinals finally chose — evidently in protest against this 
 murder and against Charles and his French officials — an Italian 
 archdeacon in attendance on Prince Edward of England in 
 Palestine. Gregory X, soon after he landed at Brindisi, gave 
 manifest proofs of being a wise but determined antagonist of 
 Charles, and when, in October of 1273, Rudolf of Habsburg 
 
 1 Dante alludes to the fact that Henry's heart was sent to England in a 
 golden vase and was ' reverenced on the bank of the Thames.' The vase is 
 said to have been placed on the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 475 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 was elected as German king, or rather German Kaiser, 1 he gave 
 his explicit approval — an act that naturally incensed Charles, 
 for the new German 'Emperor' soon began to re-establish 
 German influence in North Italy and Tuscany. Moreover, 
 in opposition to Charles's policy of bloody reprisal, Gregory 
 endeavoured to conciliate factions and feuds. He succeeded 
 to some extent at Bologna and Milan, but failed entirely in 
 the case of Florence, where Guelf predominance was now 
 finally established, and where {as indeed in Rome and else- 
 where) the Guelf, or republican, party by no means identified 
 itself with papal interests.* Gregory also opposed Charles 
 in favouring Michael Palaeologus and refusing to listen to the 
 mendicant ex-Emperor Baldwin ; and when, in 1275, he actually 
 went so far as to meet Rudolf of Habsburg at I^ausanne and 
 promised to crown him Emperor open hostility was inevitable. 
 But early in 1276 Gregory X died at Arezzo (his tomb is 
 in the Duomo). During the next eighteen months three 
 Popes came on the scene and passed. Then, after a vacancy 
 of six months, Nicholas III, of the Orsini family, was elected. 3 
 He is said to have tried to marry his niece to Charles and, 
 
 1 He is called Imperador even by Dante (Purg. vii, 94), although never 
 crowned by the Pope. In a retired glade of the Mount of Purgatory Rudolf 
 sits sad and solitary, as ' one who had neglected to do his duty ' — viz. to take 
 a proper interest in Italy and be crowned at Rome. Not far off, in an amicable 
 company, is our Henry III, ' the king of the simple life,' and Charles of Anjou 
 singing hymns (through his ' masculine nose ') out of the same hymn-book 
 as his mortal foe, Peter of Aragon. See Pig. 48 and explanation. 
 
 2 Florence, though Guelf, proved so recalcitrant to the Pope that he laid 
 it under interdict, and being compelled by a flood to cross the Arno by a 
 Florentine bridge, he only suspended the ban for a few hours — till he had 
 passed through the city. The terms Guelf and Ghibelline had quite lost 
 their original papal and imperial significations. Here we have Popes favour- 
 ing the German Emperor and hostile to the Florentine Guelfs. The papal 
 policy was, of course, never really on the side of republican liberty. 
 
 * Had he succeeded in his designs, says Gregorovius, he would have made 
 his nepotes kings of Tuscany and I/Ombardy. ' Son of the She-bear [Orsa}, so 
 greedy to advance my cubs that on earth I pocketed wealth and here I pocketed 
 myself,' is how he describes himself to Dante, who puts him, as Simonist, 
 in Malebolge, upside down in a hole with his feet alight. Hearing Dante 
 speaking Italian, he exclaims, ' Art thou already here, Boniface I ' mistaking 
 him for Pope Boniface VIII, who was destined (in 1303) to be thrust down 
 head-foremost into the same hole and to be followed later by Clement V, 
 who removed the seat of the Papacy to Avignon. 
 
 476 
 
48. Charges of Anjotj 
 Rome 
 
 476 
 
i. ANGEVINS AND CHARGES OF VALOIS 
 
 Louis VIII 
 
 Crowned in London 1217; 
 King of Fiance 1223-36 
 
 Louis IX (St. Louis) 
 d. 1270 
 
 Philippe III (le Hardi) 
 d. 1285 
 
 Charles Martel 
 
 Claimant to throne 
 
 of Hungary ; 
 
 m. Clemence oi 
 
 Habsburg 1291 ; 
 
 d. 1295 
 
 Charles Robert 
 of Hungary 
 
 Charles of Anion 
 a. 128s 
 
 Charles n (lo Zoppo) 
 
 d. 1309 
 
 Robert of Calabria 
 
 m. Violante 1297 ; 
 
 King of Naples 1309 ; 
 
 d. 1343 
 
 Leonore 
 
 m. Frederick of 
 
 Sicily 1302 
 
 PhiUppe IV (le Bel) 
 d. 1314 
 
 Charles of Valois 
 
 d. 1324 
 1 A second son became a cleric. 
 
 2. EARLY SPANISH KINGS OF SICILY 
 Peter m 
 
 m. Constance, Manfred's daughter; 
 
 King of Aragon 1276 ; 
 
 King of Sicily 1282 ; 
 
 d. 1283 
 
 Alfonso III 
 
 King of Aragon 1285 ; 
 
 d. 1290 
 
 ' James 
 King of Sicily 1286 ; 
 King of Aragon 1290 
 
 Frederick 
 
 Viceroy of James in 
 
 Sicily ; assumes the 
 
 crown 1296; 
 
 d. 1337 
 
 Violante 
 
 m. Robert of Calabria 
 
 1297 
 
 Peter II 
 d. 1342 
 
 In 1410 Sicily becomes an appendage of the crown of Aragon. 
 possesses the Angevin Rene and establishes bis court at Naples. 
 
 In 1442 Alfonso of Aragon dis- 
 
 477 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 having been repulsed contemptuously, to have not only 
 continued Gregory's anti-French policy, but to have incited 
 the rebellion which terminated in the Vespers of Palermo. 
 
 In the north of Italy Rudolf's influence and that of the 
 Ghibelline nobles now increased rapidly. In Milan the Visconti 
 became masters ,* in Verona the Scaligeri ; almost everywhere 
 hatred of Charles and the French deepened, except in Florence, 
 where the Arti found their trade favoured by his policy. The 
 storm was gathering fast ; but it was from the south that the 
 fatal flash was to come. 
 
 The moment before Conradin laid his head on the block, 
 it is said, he threw his glove amidst the crowd. This glove 
 was taken to Peter, a Spanish prince who was married to 
 Manfred's daughter, Constance, and who later (1276) became 
 King of Aragon and Catalonia and had already conquered 
 Valencia and Majorca from the Moors and had thus gained free 
 access to Sicily. Incited by his wife, he listened to the appeals 
 of the Sicilians, driven to despair by the tyranny of Charles and 
 his French officials, and to the arguments of John of Procida, 
 a learned physician, who after the battle of Tagliacozzo had 
 fled to Spain and had for ten years urged Peter to lay claim, 
 as heir of Manfred, to the crown of the Sicilies. And now 
 Peter was watching his chance — which soon came. 
 
 Pope Nicholas having died in 1280, the cardinals again met 
 at Viterbo, and Charles once more betook himself thither, 
 determined this time to have a proper Pope ; and the French- 
 man who was elected (Martin IV) proved all that he desired 
 and supported his tyranny vigorously until, a few years later, 
 he died of a surfeit of Bolsena eels and Vernaccia wine, as 
 related by Dante, who met his skeleton-spirit on the Mount 
 of Purgatory doing penance for gluttony. 
 
 It was on Easter Tuesday in 1282, just when Charles, con- 
 fiding in his papal ally, was again meditating the conquest 
 of the Eastern Empire, that a spark — an insult offered by a 
 French soldier to a Sicilian bride — caused a terrific explosion. 
 All Palermo rose, ' shouting Kill ! kill ! ' as Dante says, and 
 almost every Frenchman in Sicily was slaughtered. 
 478 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 (7) From the Sicilian Vespers to the 
 Peace of Caltabellotta 
 
 The history of Italy during this period (1282-1302) is 
 dominated and obscured by the turmoil of the long and ob- 
 stinate contest between the French Angevins and the Spanish 
 Aragonese for the possession of Sicily. Although of course 
 momentous for the political future of Italy, this struggle between 
 her foreign usurpers is only indirectly connected with her true 
 history. I shall therefore give merely a brief account of this 
 struggle and then pass on to the state of things in Rome and 
 other cities during the pontificate of the Prince of modern 
 Pharisees, as Dante calls Pope Boniface VIII. 
 
 When the tragedy of the Vespers took place King Peter 
 of Aragon was preparing an expedition, nominally against 
 Tunis ; but doubtless Sicily was his ulterior object. Having 
 failed to capture Tunis, he turned his fleet northwards. In five 
 days he was at Trapani, and five days later (September 4, 
 1282) at Palermo, where he was acclaimed King of Sicily. 
 Charles, furious with indignation, sent across the Straits a 
 large army commanded by his son, Charles the I^ame (Carlo lo 
 Zoppo). But the ' Cripple of Jerusalem,' as Dante calls him, 
 was soon compelled to withdraw his forces from the island, 
 and Peter's admiral, I/oria, inflicted on the Angevin fleet two 
 crushing defeats, first near Malta and then in the Bay of Naples, 
 and succeeded in capturing lo Zoppo himself. In Calabria, too, 
 the people rose against the French. Charles was obliged to 
 withdraw northwards, and while awaiting reinforcements from 
 France he died at Foggia (January 1285). 
 
 His youthful grandson, Charles Martel, 1 was proclaimed king 
 in the place of his captive father ; but some four years later, 
 through the influence of our King Edward I, lo Zoppo was 
 
 1 Heir also of the throne of Hungary, through his mother, Mary of Hungary. 
 He married Clemence (the bella Clemenza of Par. ix, i, unless this was his 
 daughter), daughter of Rudolf of Habsburg, and died 1295, fourteen years 
 before his father's decease. His brother Robert of Calabria succeeded to the 
 Angevin throne of Naples. Charles Martel was a very dear friend of Dante's, 
 who met him at Florence — and later in heaven (see Par. viii). 
 
 479 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 liberated and for the next twenty years was King of Naples 
 and South Italy and claimant to the crown of Sicily, which 
 rested on the head of a Spanish monarch. This Spanish 
 monarch was, however, not Peter of Aragon and Sicily — for he 
 had died in the same year as his great adversary, Charles of 
 Anjou, and had been succeeded in Sicily by his son James 
 (the Just). James and Charles II (the I,ame) waged inter- 
 mittent war with little result. In 1290 James became King 
 of Aragon, on the death of his elder brother, Alfonso, and his 
 younger brother, Frederick, became Spanish viceroy in Sicily. 
 Frederick however was not content with this title, and in 
 1296 had himself proclaimed King of Sicily. Between the 
 two brothers there ensued a fierce conflict, fomented and 
 embittered by the fiendish malice and ambition of Pope 
 Boniface, who at last induced Constance, the pious widow of 
 King Peter, to visit Rome with her elder son, King James, 
 and to make a disgraceful compact with her younger son's 
 arch-enemy, lo Zoppo, giving him her daughter Violante to 
 wife. The fratricidal war was of course renewed with increased 
 bitterness, and the old Spanish admiral IvOria, who had faith- 
 lessly abandoned Frederick and had espoused the Angevin 
 cause, defeated the Sicilian fleet with great loss. At last 
 (in 1302), after Boniface had added to his sins the iniquity of 
 inviting to Italy Charles of Valois (of whose ill-fated enterprise 
 we shall soon hear more), the combatants, weary of strife, 
 patched up, much to the disgust of Pope Boniface, the Peace 
 of Caltabellotta, by which the kingship of Sicily was conceded 
 to Frederick for his lifetime ; but he bound himself to marry 
 Leonore, the daughter of Charles II (lo Zoppo), under the 
 condition that any eventual heir, should receive Sardinia or 
 Cyprus, but resign Sicily to the Angevins — a condition which, 
 on his death in 1337, was not fulfilled because the Sicilians 
 refused to become subjects of the French princes. 1 
 
 1 The Angevin Kings of Naples and South Italy came to an end in 1443, 
 when le bon roi Rene was dispossessed by the Spanish Alfonso, who thus 
 became King of the Two Sicilies. Caltabellotta is in West Sicily, not very 
 far from the gigantic ruins of Selinus. The (Saracen) word means 'Castle 
 of the Cork-oaks.' 
 
 480 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 (8) Rome from 1285 to 1303. Boniface VIII 
 
 In the same year (1285) in which Charles of Anjou and Peter 
 of Aragon and Sicily died the French Pope Martin IV succumbed 
 to his surfeit of eels and vernaccia. The pacific, although gouty, 
 old cardinal who succeeded (Honorius IV) was brother to the 
 Senator of Rome, Pandulf , of the illustrious house of the Savelli. 
 The brothers — one from the I^ateran, the other from the 
 Capitol — exercised a beneficent influence and curbed for two 
 years the fury of the rival factions of the Orsini and the Colonna, 
 though both were so crippled by gout that the Senator had 
 to be lifted into his curule chair and the Pope had to use a 
 mechanical device for elevating the Host. After the decease 
 of Honorius a vacancy of ten months was caused not only 
 by the violence of the party factions but also by the ravages 
 of the plague, which carried off six of the cardinals. At last 
 was consecrated Nicholas IV, the Bishop of Palestrina (the 
 Orsini stronghold) and formerly a friend of the Orsini Pope, 
 Nicholas III (' son of the She-bear '). This was the signal 
 for the outbreak of a still more violent conflict between the 
 two great families of the Orsini and the Colonna, who called 
 themselves respectively Guelfs and Ghibellines — names which 
 signified little but that the bearers were mortal foes and rival 
 competitors for cardinal hats and papal tiaras. 
 
 When this Pope died (1292) the battle between the cardinals 
 was so obstinate that for two years no election took place — 
 a state of things that enabled Charles the I^ame to assume, as 
 his father had done, a dominating position, as if he were actually 
 the Head of the Church. Finally, the cardinals being assembled 
 at Perugia and the deadlock seeming as hopeless as ever, it 
 happened that somebody mentioned a certain hermit called 
 Peter, who lived in a cave on Monte Morrone, in the Abruzzi 
 (some fifty miles north-east of Rome), where he had founded 
 a religious Order and had gained a reputation for visions and 
 miracles. 1 A cardinal, perhaps half in joke, suggested solving 
 
 1 When visiting Gregory X in Lyon to obtain sanction for his new Order 
 he astonished that pontiff by hanging up his monk's cowl on a sunbeam. 
 Frescos at Aquila depict bis miracles. 
 
 2 H 481 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 difficulties by electing this hermit, and with sudden and unani- 
 mous impulse the assembly greeted the solution. Three bishops 
 were commissioned to acquaint Peter of his election. 
 
 The simple-minded old monk (he was seventy-two years 
 of age) was dumbfoundered and refused to entertain the idea. 
 Then a great multitude of nobles and prelates and other 
 people, led by King Charles and his son Charles Martel, made 
 their way to the cave, and at last he allowed himself to be 
 escorted thence— the king and the king's son leading the ass 
 on which, clothed in his simple hermit's dress, he had mounted. 
 In a church near Aquila — evidently S. Maria di Collemaggio 
 (Fig. 49) , which contains his tomb — he was consecrated, the 
 church being filled and surrounded, it is said, by 200,000 
 persons. 
 
 Instead of allowing the new Pope (Celestine V) to proceed 
 to Rome, King Charles took him off to his court at Naples, 
 in order to use him for his own purposes. But he soon dis- 
 covered that he was useless for these purposes, and ere four 
 months had elapsed the poor old hermit, finding existence 
 intolerable, abdicated ; and it is said that he was encouraged 
 to do so by angel voices that made themselves audible in his 
 bedchamber through the ingenious contrivance or ventriloquistic 
 accomplishments of a cardinal named Benedetto, 1 a scion of 
 the knightly family of the Gaetani of Anagni (or, as Dante calls 
 the town, Alagna). This crafty, arrogant, and audacious man 
 had, it is said, already secured secret conferences with King 
 Charles and had undertaken to support his policy by every 
 means at the disposal of a Roman pontiff ; and ten days after 
 the resignation of Celestine (Christmas Eve, 1294) he was 
 elected by the timorous cardinals, though many of them were 
 apparently convinced of the truth of the reports which accused 
 him of the most scandalous vices and of denying the immor- 
 tality of the soul, the divinity of Christ, and even the existence 
 of God. Ten days later, again, he made his entry into Rome 
 with a pomp ' never before beheld in Rome.' King Charles 
 
 1 Dante anyhow believed this, for he accuses Boniface of having not feared 
 to win by trickery the beautiful Lady {i.e. the Church). 
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HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 and his son, Charles Martel of Hungary, led — not this time a 
 humble donkey, but the splendid white, richly caparisoned 
 steed whereon sat Benedetto, bearing on his head a golden 
 crown ; then, after the magnificent ceremony of consecration 
 in St. Peter's was over, the two kings conducted him to the 
 I^ateran and stood behind his throne at the banquet. 
 
 The first care of the new pontiff, Pope Boniface VIII, was 
 to secure the person of his predecessor ; for there were many 
 who denied the legitimacy of the new election, affirming that 
 although Popes had been deposed (Henry III, for instance, 
 had deposed three at the same time) no Pope could voluntarily 
 abdicate, and that any such attempt was not only a heinous 
 sin against the Holy Ghost, but totally ineffective. 1 Celestine 
 had returned to his cave on Monte Morrone. learning the 
 design of Boniface he fled. After long wanderings he reached 
 the Adriatic and embarked for Dalmatia ; but a storm drove 
 him back on to the Italian coast, and some good but foolish 
 persons acclaimed him publicly as Pope and thus caused his 
 discovery and arrest. He was imprisoned by Boniface in 
 the castle of Fumone, the huge Cyclopean walls of which 
 still frown over the town of Alatri, in I^atium. A few months 
 later he was found dead — probably poisoned, although monks 
 of his Order, Celestini, are said to have possessed a nail with 
 which, they asserted, Boniface killed his victim as Jael killed 
 Sisera. 
 
 Having thus disposed of poor old Celestine and feeling 
 secure of spiritual suzerainty in the kingdom of Charles, 
 whom he regarded as his vassal, Boniface was now eager 
 to acquire also the Sicilian realm as a papal fief, and to 
 encircle his mitre with the double crown of the Two Sicilies. 
 We have already seen how he induced King James of Aragon 
 and his pious mother Constance to make an iniquitous compact 
 with Charles, and how he instigated and fomented the long 
 
 1 As is well known, Dante brands Celestine (it is doubtless this Pope, 
 though not named) as having made through cowardice the great refusal, and 
 places him amidst the vast multitude of ignoble spirits who never were alive 
 and are condemned to rush to and fro for ever in pursuit of a fluttering flag 
 over the dark plain of the Acheron (Inf. iii). 
 
 483 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and cruel war between James and his brother Frederick, 
 whom the Sicilians had accepted as their king. 
 
 Among the chief enemies of Boniface were the Colonna. 
 The more powerful and arrogant he himself became and the 
 more he robbed the Church to build up the powerful faction 
 of the Gaetani, the more vehement was the hostility of these 
 nobles, especially on the part of two Colonna cardinals. In 
 1297 Boniface took an unprecedented step and caused both of 
 these prelates to be deposed. The Colonna family accepted 
 the challenge. They declared the election of Boniface to 
 be void and demanded a Council to be called. They affixed 
 their Manifest to the high altar in St. Peter's. Boniface 
 forthwith excommunicated the deposed cardinals and others 
 of the family and proclaimed a Holy War against them. The 
 Colonnas withdrew to their country strongholds, of which 
 the chief was Palestrina. The fierce struggle ended in their 
 overthrow and humiliation. The exco mmu nicated cardinals 
 and nobles presented themselves before the triumphant 
 pontiff as suppliants, with ropes round their necks. It is 
 said (but also fiercely denied) that Boniface by affecting to 
 pardon them gained possession of Palestrina. 1 It is undeni- 
 able that somehow he did gain possession of it, and that, as 
 once Sulla had done, he demolished it utterly — ^nothing being 
 spared but the cathedral ; for his Bull, still extant, orders 
 the plough to be passed over the site and the furrows to be 
 sown with salt, ' as was done to African Carthage.' After 
 confiscating all the property of the inhabitants he ordered 
 
 1 In Dante's poem (Inf. 27) Guido of Montefeltro, whom the poet puts 
 among the flame-tortured Evil-Counsellors, describes how he was once a great 
 Ghibelline leader against Charles of Anjou (of whose Frenchmen he at Forli 
 made a bloody heap) and how he became Franciscan monk at Assisi, and how 
 Boniface got hold of him and extracted from him the treacherous device 
 by which Palestrina was captured : on which account his soul, claimed by 
 St. Francis, was snatched away to hell by a ' black cherub.' Palestrina, the 
 ancient Praeneste, is twenty miles south-east of Rome. It was famous for 
 its Temple of Fortune (destroyed by Sulla), which was raised aloft on huge 
 terraces. Relics of these survive. In the castle Conradin was a prisoner. 
 The place was rebuilt by the Colonna, and again destroyed by a Pope in 
 1436. Since 1630 it has been once more in the hands of the Colonna family. 
 Stephen Colonna, exiled by Boniface, took part, as a very old man, in the 
 Rienzi tumults. 
 
 484 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 them to build another town, which he named the Civitas 
 Papalis ; but shortly afterwards in a fit of fury he had it 
 demolished, and they were dispersed in exile. The Colonna 
 fled to foreign courts — some even to England. Such were the 
 deeds of the Supreme Pastor of the Church of Christ, ' waging 
 war nigh to the Lateran, and not on Saracens and Jews' 
 (Inf. 27). 
 
 For the year 1300 a Jubilee of the Church was appointed. 
 The Pope used the opportunity to attract to Rome pilgrims 
 and their money by proclaiming liberal indulgences for all 
 who visited the great Roman basilicas. The result proved a 
 great triumph for Boniface. Exalted on what was certainly for 
 the time the highest throne of Christendom, he was reverenced 
 as the Vicar of God by two or three million devotees who 
 streamed to Rome from every country of Europe, each bringing 
 his offering. 1 Among these were probably Giotto (see Fig. 50) 
 and Dante ; for, though some say Dante first saw Rome during 
 his momentous embassy in the following year, the celebrated 
 passage in which he likens two files of the damned in hell 
 to two lines of Jubilee pilgrims passing over the Vatican bridge 
 is so vivid that it surely must have been painted from the 
 actual scene. Another celebrated writer was also present, 
 namely Giovanni Villani — at that time a merchant. He tells 
 us that what on this occasion he saw in Rome inspired him to 
 undertake his Chronicle, which was begun in the same year 
 (that of the action of Dante's poem) on his return to Florence 
 and ended in becoming, after completion by his brother and 
 nephew, the greatest of Italian histories. 2 
 
 An immense sum was amassed from the offerings of the 
 faithful, which were so plentiful that ' day and night,' says 
 an eye-witness, ' two priests stood by the altar of St. Paul's 
 
 1 It is noticeable that no princes seem to have come — a significant fact. 
 Gregorovius says that Charles Martel of Hungary was the only exception. 
 But as he died in 1295, and as Dante saw him in heaven on April 1, 1300, 
 there seems to be some mistake. 
 
 a The last date that the elder Villani mentions is April n, 1348, and in 
 alluding to the Great Plague of that year (so well known through Boccaccio's 
 Decamerone). he wrote, ' This pestilence lasted till . . .' meaning to fill in 
 the date later ; but he never did so, as he himself died of the plague. 
 
 4 8 5 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 holding rakes in their hands, and raking together the money.' 
 Some of this was used by Boniface for reviving and prosecuting 
 the iniquitous war between James of Aragon and his brother, 
 Frederick of Sicily, and in forwarding, as he had promised 
 to do, the designs of Charles the I^ame. But the ill-gotten 
 and ill-spent money was of little avail. In his chagrin he 
 turned, as Urban IV had done, to the French court and invited 
 to Italy the younger brother of the French king, Charles of 
 Valois, grand-nephew of Charles of Anjou. On his arrival 
 at Anagni, the home and favourite residence of Boniface, the 
 French prince was nominated Captain- General of the Church 
 and Pacificator of Tuscany, He was then sent by the Pope 
 to pacify Florence, where he only succeeded in adding fury 
 to the flames and causing the wholesale banishment of 
 Ghibellines and disaffected Guelfs — among whom was Dante. 1 
 The success of Charles of Valois in the south was no greater, 
 and after the Peace of Caltabellotta had concluded the fratricidal 
 war between James and Frederick the Angevins and their 
 papal ally had to renounce all hope of recovering Sicily. 
 
 All this ill-success naturally caused friction between Boniface 
 and Charles of Valois and increased the Pope's unpopularity 
 at the French court. Now France had of late years come 
 forward noticeably as a new power. She had developed an 
 independence and a national consciousness such as at that time 
 did hot exist elsewhere in Europe. 2 King Philip IV (the Fair) 
 could feel that he had a nation behind him, and when, needing 
 money for his wars against England and later against the 
 Flemish, especially after his defeat at Courtray, he imposed 
 taxes on the clergy and convents, he was defended against 
 the fury of Boniface by French public opinion — and not only 
 
 1 He was at Rome, sent by the Florentines on an embassy to Boniface. 
 He never saw Florence again. 
 
 2 Contrast the state of things in Germany. Although Albert of Habsburg 
 (and Austria) had overcome his rival, Adolf of Nassau, his authority was 
 supported by no national sentiment. Dante accuses him of neglecting Italy, 
 but he was too much occupied with the disintegration of his own realm and 
 with such revolts as that of the Swiss (W. Tell !) ; and Boniface was not far 
 wrong when he scornfully exclaimed to Albert's envoys : ' Jmperator ! . . . 
 Imperator sum ego I ' 
 
 486 
 
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HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 by that of the laity, for even the taxed clergy held to their 
 sovereign rather than to the Pope and displayed the inde- 
 pendent spirit of a national Church. The legate who, in 1302, 
 brought an arrogant Bull from the incensed pontiff was im- 
 prisoned and then expelled, and the Bull was publicly burnt in 
 Notre Dame — an act which, though it had not the far-reaching 
 results of the Bull-burning at Wittenberg, must have made a 
 deep impression when shortly afterwards the French States- 
 General were, for the first time, assembled and the action of 
 the king was confirmed by all three estates of the realm. 
 
 Meanwhile in Rome and its neighbourhood very great 
 resentment had been caused by the wholesale peculations and 
 appropriations of Boniface. Much of his ill-gained wealth was 
 spent in enriching his relatives, the Gaetani, who thus became 
 possessed of a great number of castles and splendid estates in 
 I/atium l (some of which are still the property of the Duke 
 of Sermoneta and the Gaetani family) and formed a powerful 
 clan devoted to the papal cause. All this, together with the 
 fact that Boniface intended to excommunicate Philip, was 
 reported by the Colonna refugees at the French court and ex- 
 cited public indignation in France to such a pitch that a band 
 of crusaders was formed to liberate Christendom from a wretch 
 whom they declared to be a pseudo-Pope as well as an open 
 atheist, a slave of the obscenest vices, and a minion of the devil ; 
 and King Philip put himself at the head of this conspiracy, the 
 execution of which was confided to Sciarra Colonna and to 
 Guillaume de Nogaret, an expert jurist and a fiery advocate 
 of the rights of the crown and the civil power. 
 
 During the night of September 7, 1303, the conspirators, 
 who had with them a strong force of armed men, entered 
 Anagni, and afte"r a severe fight, during which the papal palace 
 and the adjoining cathedral were set on fire, they forced their 
 way into the presence of Boniface, whom they found seated 
 on his throne, the two-crowned tiara on his head and in his 
 trembling hands the keys and a golden cross. Sciarra, it is 
 
 1 Among the Gaetani strongholds was the famous Tomb of Caecilia Metella, 
 the battlements of which are said to have been erected by Boniface. 
 
 487 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 believed — though Nogaret fiercely denied it and Villani does not 
 assert it — seized the Pope by the arm, dragged him off his throne, 
 and tried to stab him. Finally, after being imprisoned for 
 three days, during which for fear of poison he refused all food, 
 Boniface was liberated by the people of Anagni and the con- 
 spirators took to flight. He was then conducted to Rome 
 by two Orsini cardinals and a troop of 400 armed men, and 
 when after a visit to St. Peter's and a friendly welcome from 
 the mob he retired to the Vatican he probably imagined 
 himself in safety, seeing that the Orsini were the sworn foes 
 of the Colonna, and he hoped too for help from Charles the 
 I^ame. But he soon perceived that his letters were intercepted 
 and that he was a close prisoner, the Orsini having occupied 
 with their armed followers both the Castle of S. Angelo and 
 the Borgo. About four weeks later (October 1303) he was 
 found dead. It is said that in an access of fury he killed 
 himself by running his head violently against the wall of his 
 chamber. 1 
 
 (9) Henry VII, of Luxemburg 
 
 The next Pope, Benedict XI, seems to have been an honour- 
 able and courageous man. Two days before being assaulted 
 Boniface had decided to proclaim the excommunication of 
 King Philip — from the same pulpit in Anagni Cathedral whence 
 the ban had been launched against the two great Fredericks. 
 Instead of carrying out this design of Boniface the new Pope 
 liberated the Colonna from ban, with the exception of Sciarra ; 
 he ordered full restitution to be made to the Church of all that 
 had been stolen ; he condemned openly and annulled various 
 unjust acts of Boniface ; but he also openly condemned the 
 
 1 Gross exaggerations as to his treatment are to be found in some writers, 
 such as the Englishman Walsingham (c. 1400). It is, however, very remark- 
 able how Dante, who ' drags his enemy Boniface round the walls of the 
 fiery city of Dis as Hector was dragged round Troy,' trembles with indignation 
 at the sacrilegious treatment of this same Pope by that ' modern Pilate," 
 that ' Pest of France,' as he calls King Philip (Purg. vii, 109 ; xx, 46, etc. ; 
 and for two celebrated passages in which Boniface is attacked by Dante see 
 Inf. xix, 52-84, and Par. xxvii, 19-30). 
 
 488 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Anagni outrage and excommunicated the chief accomplices. 
 It was doubtless a misfortune for the Church that after eight 
 months he died ; and a still greater misfortune was the election 
 of his successor, the Gascon Archbishop of Bordeaux, who 
 took the name Clement V. He had been a minion of Boniface, 
 but now, to secure election, he became a submissive underling 
 of King Philip. 1 He was consecrated at Lyon, in the presence 
 of the French court, and after residing about three years in 
 France (1305-8) he removed the seat of the Papacy from 
 Rome to Avignon, on the Lower Rhone, where for just upon 
 seventy years (the years of the so-called ' Babylonian cap- 
 tivity') the Roman pontiffs continued to reside, and where 
 they raised the enormous masses of the Palais des Papes that 
 still overhang the city and the great river like a towering 
 thundercloud. 
 
 It is somewhat perplexing that Clement, although in all 
 else apparently the willing tool of King Philip, should have 
 persistently resisted that monarch's desire to acquire, for 
 himself or for his brother Charles of Valois, the imperial crown. 
 Possibly the king was not really anxious to fight for the empty 
 title, knowing the independent and hostile spirit of the Italian 
 cities and remembering the ill-success of Charles ; or perhaps 
 Clement realized that with a French Emperor the Papacy 
 would be doomed to total extinction. However that may be, 
 he at first secretly favoured and then openly supported the 
 claims of Henry VII, who had been elected German king and 
 King of the Romans and was thus not only regarded as Kaiser 
 in Germany but as the Emperor- designate, who could legi- 
 timately claim confirmation of his title by the Roman people 
 and by papal coronation. 
 
 Henry VII, who as Count of Luxemburg had been not even 
 a reigning noble (regierender Fiirst) and had possessed no body 
 of armed liegemen, was raised to the throne amidst the dis- 
 turbances that followed the murder of Kaiser Albert by his 
 
 1 Dante describes Philip and Clement as a giant and his paramour. He 
 also, as we have seen, thrusts Clement head-foremost into a hole in the infernal 
 Jlalebolge together with Boniface and Nicholas III. 
 
 489 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 nephew, John the Parricide. Since the days of Frederick II 
 no German monarch had come to Italy to receive the golden 
 crown. 1 But Henry's ideas were of a higher mood. His one 
 great ambition was to re-establish the German-Italian Empire 
 and to be crowned in Rome. The German nobles for the 
 most part refused to accompany him, but in 1310 he assembled 
 a few thousand men at I,ausanne, crossed Mont Cenis, and was 
 rapturously hailed by the Ghibelline and even by some of the 
 disaffected Guelf cities of Northern Italy ; and his army was 
 considerably increased by contingents sent by several powerful 
 lords. But there were serious difficulties to confront — firstly 
 the hostility of the Angevin King of Naples, now Robert of 
 Calabria ; 2 secondly the hatred of the old Guelfs, such as the 
 Neri and Donati party in Florence, who had banished both 
 Ghibellines and disaffected Guelfs, including the poet Dante ; 
 thirdly and principally, the indignation of those who had so 
 rapturously hailed his advent but who were bitterly dis- 
 appointed because this rex pacificus, as he called himself, 
 attempted to unite all local factions for imperial objects 
 and ignored, as too petty for consideration, the personal 
 feuds which had appropriated the names of Guelf and 
 Ghibelline. 
 
 At first, nevertheless, the enthusiasm was great. Venice, 
 Genoa, and Florence, where republican feeling was strong, 
 snarled and showed their teeth, but Cremona, Padua, Brescia, 
 Pisa, Verona, Mantua, and other Ghibelline cities and Signorie 
 sent delegates to offer vows of fealty, and amidst much 
 rejoicing Henry was crowned (January 1311) with the Iron 
 Crown in S. Ambrogio at Milan. 
 
 However, the rejoicings were short-lived. As Pacificator he 
 had restored from exile the Milanese Visconti, hoping to reconcile 
 them with their successful Guelf rivals, the Delia Torre faction ; 
 but the well-meant interference resulted in an explosion which 
 
 1 In Purg. vi Dante sharply rebukes Albert for not mounting into the 
 saddle of Empire and taming Italy — the restive and vicious filly. 
 
 2 See p. 477. Charles the Lame had died in 1309 and Robert (his third 
 son — for Charles Martel was nominally King of Hungary, and a second son 
 had become cleric) was invested by Clement V at I<yon as King of the Sicilies. 
 
 490 
 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 must have startled him. A tumult broke out, and after much 
 bloodshed the Torriani were expelled. Thereupon Cremona, 
 Brescia, and other towns took up their cause and defied 
 Henry, and he felt compelled to resign his function as rex 
 pacificus, to sack Cremona and demolish her walls and to 
 force Brescia to capitulate after a siege of four months, 
 during which the most barbarous atrocities were perpetrated 
 on both sides. 
 
 A whole year had now elapsed and Rome was still a long way 
 off. In October 13 11 Henry entered with his troops the 
 unfriendly city of Genoa, where he was detained by the illness 
 and death of his wife. In March 1312 he was welcomed at 
 Pisa, which was, as usual, on the imperial side on account 
 of its hatred of republican Florence. At Pisa he heard that 
 the Colonna and other imperialists at Rome, who had already 
 sent envoys to invite both him and Pope Clement, were 
 zealously preparing for the coronation, but that the Orsini 
 had made the counter-move of inviting to Rome King Robert 
 of Naples, and that the Florentines were doing all that lay in 
 their power, by bribing the French and the papal courts and 
 by leaguing together the Guelf cities, to support King Robert 
 in any attempt that he might make to eject the ' barbarous 
 German enemy of Italy ' — lo stranie.ro, il Tedesco, il barbaro 
 nemico d'ltalia e della sua libertd. He learnt that in answer 
 to these appeals and invitations Robert had sent his brother 
 John with troops to co-operate with the Orsini at Rome, and 
 that they had occupied the Vatican, the Castle of S. Angelo, 
 and the Trastevere. 
 
 But in spite of all this, and in spite of Dante's passionate 
 appeals that he should first crush that ' poisonous viper,' 
 Florence, Henry marched southwards and in May 1312 entered 
 the Porta del Popolo and took up his quarters in the Lateran. 
 Then fighting began between his troops and those of King 
 Robert. He captured the Capitol and attempted to cross the 
 river, but was repulsed with severe losses. Finally he had 
 to renounce his long-cherished dream of a coronation in St. 
 Peter's and to content himself with a ceremony in the I^ateran 
 
 491 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 basilica * and with receiving a crown from the hands of a papal 
 legate — for Pope Clement had not ventured to come to Rome. 2 
 
 During the intense heats of August Henry left Rome and 
 marched northwards with his fever-stricken and much dimin- 
 ished army, intending to follow Dante's advice and crush 
 Florence. But the Florentines had collected what Villani 
 calls an ' infinite number of foot-soldiers,' besides some 4000 
 horsemen, and defied him, merely shutting the gates of the 
 city that faced towards S. Salvi, where he had his camp. 
 At last, seeing that he could effect nothing, he moved off by 
 night, and marching southwards again, as if wishing to return 
 to Rome, he took up quarters at Poggibonsi, not far from 
 Siena. 3 Here he remained until March 1313. He then moved 
 to Pisa, which he reached very worn out both in mind and in 
 body. 
 
 Since Henry had left Rome the people had gained the upper 
 hand in a struggle with the nobles and had established once 
 more a republic. They now invited him to return and receive 
 the imperial dignity from their hands, intimating that they 
 alone had the right to bestow it. Henry was inclined to accept 
 the offer. He was also eager to chastise King Robert for his 
 impudence, and for this purpose he had made alliance with 
 Frederick of Sicily — an act whieh so enraged Pope Clement 
 that he launched, too late, the bolt of excommunication at 
 the Emperor. 
 
 Having collected a very considerable land army, which 
 was to be supported by about 150 war-galleys supplied by 
 
 1 It will be remembered that the old Lateran basilica collapsed in 896, at 
 the time of the citation of the corpse of Pope Formosus before a Synod. The 
 new building had been burnt in 1308 and was now freshly rebuilt and perhaps 
 already adorned with Giotto's frescos. 
 
 2 The legate and the cardinals at first refused to act, but the Roman 
 people, claiming that the imperial dignity was in their gift and not that of 
 the Pope, threatened them with death. Possibly Dante had in mind this 
 failure of the dream of papal coronation in St. Peter's when he imagined a 
 crown lying on an empty throne awaiting the advent of Henry in the highest 
 heaven (Par. xxx, 137). 
 
 3 Still nearer to S. Gimignano (Figs. 42 and 54) and Certaldo, the home of 
 Boccaccio, whose father was a tradesman there. Boccaccio was born in this 
 same year (1313), but probably at Paris, 
 
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HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 Genoa, Pisa, and Sicily, Henry marched once more southwards. 
 It was again midsummer and the sufferings of his followers 
 from heat and malaria were intense. He had nearly reached 
 Buonconvento, some twenty miles south of Siena, when he 
 suddenly died — probably from an attack of malarial fever, 
 or blood-poisoning, although it was reported and generally 
 believed that the fatal poison had been administered by a 
 Domenican priest in a sacramental wafer, or the rinsings of 
 a sacramental chalice. His body was carried back to Pisa 
 and entombed in the cathedral. I,ater it was removed to 
 the Campo Santo (see Fig. 51 and explanation). 
 
 With the death of Henry of I/Uxemburg the medieval 
 German-Italian Roman Umpire (to give the somewhat fictitious 
 dignity a full and fairly accurate title) passed away for ever. 
 Other ' Holy Roman Emperors ' crossed the Alps for divers 
 political objects, but no other came, as he did, to re-establish 
 trie Roman Empire, as the successor of Augustus, on its old 
 foundation — the will of the Roman people. With the death 
 of Boniface VIII and the removal of the pontifical Seat from 
 Rome to Avignon came to an end also the Italian Papacy of 
 the Middle Age. 
 
 But this so-called Middle Age did not likewise come suddenly 
 to an end. It was at this time gradually merging into a 
 transition period such as the twilight spell between the first 
 grey of dawn and the first gold of sunrise — or perhaps, without 
 indulging in misleading solar similes, we may point to literature 
 and art as, in this case at least, truly reflecting ' the very age 
 and body of the time ' and as being the best means for 
 determining the various stages in the development of what 
 goes by the name of the Renaissance or the Rinascimento. 
 
 The age of Boniface VIII and of Henry VII was also the 
 age of Dante, and in Italian literature Dante's gigantic figure 
 seems to fill the whole of the space between the real Middle 
 Age and the beginning of the New I/earning. From different 
 standpoints he is for us the one great poet of medieval 
 literature and the first great modern poet. He stands alone. 
 Before him there were a few faint songsters who in the new 
 
 493 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Italian tongue ' practised the sweet and gracious rimes of 
 love/ but (to revert to solar similes) they were like morning 
 stars that faded away before the sun. And after his death 
 we come, as it were, to a sudden precipice ; for, although 
 in their lives Dante and Petrarch overlapped by seventeen 
 years, there is between them a gulf so impassable that they 
 seem to belong to two quite different ages. Thus a remarkable 
 break in the history of the Italian people would seem to be 
 here indicated. It is true that many extend the ' Middle 
 Age ' to a considerably later date. Some indeed would extend 
 it to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 or 
 even to the discovery of America in 1492. But it seems not 
 unreasonable to regard the great poem of Dante, written 
 between 1301 and 1320, as the true boundary-stone between 
 medieval and modern Italy, or perhaps we should call it Italy 
 of the Renaissance. In regard to art — sculpture and painting 
 — the case is similar, although the various stages and their 
 transition periods are not quite coincident with those of 
 Italian literature. The revival of sculpture, for reasons that 
 will be noted later, preceded that of painting and that of 
 literature, but, roughly speaking, we may call the Pisani and 
 Giotto contemporaries of Dante, and, like him, these artists 
 stand almost unpreceded and are followed by a period such 
 as intervenes between the wild flowers of spring and those of 
 summer — a somewhat long and barren interval, which pro- 
 duced little of note except Orcagna and the Gaddi and led up 
 to the great outburst of art in the days of della Quercia, 
 Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Fra Angelico. It is 
 at the beginning of this transition period and somewhere nigh 
 the end of Dante's life that I have determined to conclude 
 this narrative of the history of medieval Italy — a narrative 
 that has covered rather more than a thousand years. 
 
 494 
 
NOTE ON DANTE AND HENRY VII 
 
 When Henry came to Italy Dante had been an exile for 
 nearly ten years, 1 and had perhaps lately returned from 
 wanderings that may have led him as far as Paris and the 
 Netherlands, or even England. He was possibly present 
 when Henry received the Iron Crown at Milan, and is said 
 on this occasion to have ' devoted his counsels, if not his sword, 
 to the Deliverer of Italy,' possibly presenting him with a copy 
 of De Monorchia, which doubtless Henry failed to read. 
 Soon afterwards from his retreat in the Casentino the poet sent 
 to his native city a furious manifest beginning with the words 
 Dantes Allagherius fiorentinus et exsul immeritus sceleratissimis 
 Florentinis intrinsecus. It is filled with sarcasm and invective. 
 ' What will avail/ he asks, ' your ditch, your bastions and 
 towers, when the eagle, terrible with pinions of gold, comes 
 swooping down upon you ? ' And while Henry still lingered 
 at Pisa in the spring of 1312 Dante wrote him the letter already 
 mentioned, in which he addresses the would-be Roman Km- 
 peror in the most amazing terms, calling him not only a Sun- 
 god and a Sacred Sepulchre but even the I^amb of God, while 
 he abuses Florence as a fox, a viper, a hydra, a tainted sheep, 
 and so on. But, as we have seen, Henry took no notice. 
 
 Of far greater interest than these extravagant and furious 
 epistles is the De Monarchia, a I^atin treatise in three Books 
 which was probably written about the time of Henry's descent 
 into Italy. It is a striking proclamation of the hopes that 
 then inspired many minds and a passionate appeal to divine 
 Justice for some ' Messenger from heaven,' such as was the 
 
 1 For a few facts connected with Dante's life see ch. iv. I have occasionally 
 borrowed (with permission) from my edition of Dante's Inferno, which was 
 published by the Oxford University Press in 1874. 
 
 495 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 Angel who in Dante's poem came to succour the two poets and 
 to open with his wand the gate of the fiery city of Dis. 
 
 In De Monorchia Dante argues at great length and with great 
 ingenuity and erudition that the twofold nature of man needs 
 two distinct guides — two Suns, as he says in his poem — the 
 spiritual and the temporal, and he declares the Roman Emperor 
 to be supreme in matters temporal. Through an universe. 1 
 Empire alone is it possible to attain universal peace — such 
 peace as is necessary for humanity in order that it may devote 
 itself to the highest objects of existence. He discusses the 
 question whether the Roman people alone have the right to 
 bestow imperial office, and brings proofs to show that it is so 
 — that Rome is the one true centre of Christendom and of the 
 Empire. He then asks whether the imperial authority is 
 derived direct from God or through the Pope, and founds his 
 decision on the fact that Christ recognized the temporal power 
 as distinct from the spiritual. 
 
 But Dante was far more than a medieval casuist and 
 dialectician. He had sight of much that was not dreamed of 
 in the philosophy of the schoolmen. In this Universal Empire 
 of his is limned in somewhat shadowy but unmistakable 
 outline that visionary form of universal peace and brotherhood 
 and world-wide Federation which some of the greatest and 
 noblest in every age have tried to summon up from the I^imbo 
 of unfulfilled hopes into the light of reason and realization, 
 but which has now once more, like Eurydice, disappeared in 
 the lurid gloom of a war such as the world has never known 
 before. Dante's conception, says Sir William Ramsay, was 
 that of a balance of forces — a commonwealth of cities and 
 nations free and self-ruled, but under a supreme central 
 authority. Such an ideal Empire has been most nearly 
 realized, some would say, by our own British Empire ; others 
 would perhaps point to the age of the Antonines — the one age, 
 according to Gibbon, in which life has been really worth 
 living. 
 
 496 
 
EMPERORS AND POPES (1190-1313) 
 
 (See tables of the Hohenstaufer, the Norman Kings, and theAngevins, 
 pp. 382-83, 410, 477) 
 
 Emperors 
 
 Popes 
 
 Acces- 
 sion 
 
 Henry VI, 
 
 of Hohenstaufen ; son of Frederick Bar- 
 
 King of the Sicilies 1189 ; 
 German king 1190 ; 
 Emperor 1191-97. 
 {In Germany Otto of Brunswick and Philip, 
 Henry's brother, rivals. Otto crowned Emperor.) 
 
 Frederick II 
 
 King of the Sicilies 1198 
 {under guardianship of Pope Innocent) ; 
 German king 1215 ; 
 Emperor 1220-50. 
 
 Conrad IV, son of Frederick II, succeeds as 
 German king, but dies in 1254. Manfred, illegiti- 
 mate son of Frederick, makes himself King of the 
 Sicilies, but is slain at Beneven to, 1266. Conradin, 
 son of Conrad IV, invades South Italy to assert 
 his claim to the Sicilies, but is defeated by 
 Charles of Anjou at Tagliacozzo and beheaded 
 at Naples, 1268. 
 
 {The period 1254-73 in German history is 
 called the Great Interregnum. Besides Conrad and 
 Conradin there were various rival kings, as Richard 
 of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile.) 
 
 Rudolf, 
 
 of Habsburg. 
 
 German king and King of the Romans 
 1273-92. 
 {Never visited Italy, nor even crowned Emperor, 
 though called ' Imperador ' by Dante and regarded 
 as Kaiser independently of Rome.) 
 
 Adolf, of Nassau, 1292 
 {Not Emperor.) 
 
 Albrecht, of Habsburg, 1298 
 {Not Emperor.) 
 Murdered by John the Parricide 1308. 
 
 Henry VII, of Luxemburg 
 
 Elected King of Romans 1308; 
 German king (Emperor-designate) 1309 ; 
 crowned with Iron Crown at Milan 1311 ; 
 crowned Emperor at Rome 1312 {but only in 
 the Later an Church and by a papal legate) ; 
 dies 1313- 
 
 Clement III n 87 
 
 Celestine III 1191 
 
 {F orced to crown Henry as Emperor. ) 
 
 Innocent III 1198 
 
 {Crowns Otto IV Emperor 1208.) 
 
 Honorius III 1216 
 
 Gregory IX 1227 
 
 Celestine IV 1241 
 
 {Reigns eighteen days. Vacancy 
 nearly two years.) 
 
 Innocent IV 1243 
 
 Alexander IV 1254 
 
 Urban IV 
 
 
 1261 
 
 Clement IV 
 
 
 1265 
 
 Vacant 
 
 1268 to 1271 
 
 Gregory X 
 
 
 1271 
 
 Innocent V 
 
 
 1276 
 
 Hadrian V 
 
 
 1276 
 
 John XXI 
 
 
 1276 
 
 Nicholas III 
 
 
 1277 
 
 Martin IV 
 
 
 1281 
 
 Honorius IV 
 
 
 1285 
 
 Nicholas IV 
 
 
 1288 
 
 Vacant 
 
 1292 
 
 to 1294 
 
 Celestine V 
 
 
 1294 
 
 {Abdicated after four months.) 
 
 Boniface vm 
 Benedict XI 
 Clement V 
 {From 1309 to 1377 the seat of 
 the Papacy was at Avignon.) 
 
 1294 
 1303 
 I305 
 
 2 I 
 
 497 
 
M 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 v. 1200-1300 
 
 UCH has already been said about what, for want of 
 a more accurate name, is generally called religion, 
 many phases and influences of which we have noted 
 interweaving themselves in the intricate web of medieval 
 Italian history. Without attempting to disentangle the threads 
 and to follow up their connexions further than has been 
 done in the narrative, I shall here note some of the more 
 striking developments of religious sentiment in the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 During the age of the Great Heresies, when men damned 
 and massacred their fellow-men on account of some futile 
 formula that claimed to define the incomprehensible, there 
 were of course large sections of the Christian Church which 
 scornfully rejected Rome as the one repository of ortho- 
 doxy ; and also amidst those who rather arrogantly called 
 themselves ' Catholics ' we find many — and among them even 
 Emperors and Patriarchs — vigorously contesting the eccle- 
 siastical supremacy of the Roman pontiff. 
 
 After the triumph of Roman Catholicism in Western 
 Christendom, heresy — that is, doctrinal dissent from Rome — 
 had to hide its head for some centuries ; but ere long we begin 
 to hear of an ever-increasing indignation and hostility caused 
 by the growth of the temporal power and the insatiable 
 ambition of the Popes. This hostility was not of the nature 
 of heresy ; it was due to political motives, not to doctrinal 
 differences ; indeed, it was often strangely combined with deep 
 reverence for the Pope, though a hated political adversary. 
 
 499 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Thus, even as late as the fourteenth century, Dante laments 
 bitterly the maltreatment and death of his great foe, 
 Boniface VIII, speaking of the outrage as if he saw ' Christ in 
 his Vicar captured, derided, offered vinegar and gall, and slain 
 among robbers.' And still stranger than this combination of 
 reverence and rancour was what in many cases seems to have 
 been a total eclipse of the moral sense — a total incapacity to 
 realize, even in the case of a detested political enemy, that a 
 greed for worldly power, to say nothing of hideous vice and 
 crime, was incompatible with the possession and the trans- 
 mission of apostolic gifts and with the claims of a Pope to 
 be the Vicar on earth of the holy and gentle Founder of 
 Christianity. 
 
 But although this strange superstitious feeling in regard to 
 the Papacy proved long ineradicable, the state of things was 
 being profoundly, if gradually, affected by the rise of republican 
 liberty and by the illumination shed from such centres of 
 learning as the Universities of Bologna, Salerno, and Paris. 1 
 The Dark Age of superstition, in which men had paid reverence 
 (as indeed some still do) to traditional religious authority 
 irrespectively of all questions of morality, was giving way to 
 the light of reason and a truer understanding of Christ's 
 teaching ; Christendom was developing a moral sense ; and 
 when the Roman Church began to stain her hands with the 
 blood of those who refused her doctrinal guidance the hostility 
 to the Papacy ceased to be only political ; it became inspired 
 by moral indignation. ' The noblest feelings of humanity/ 
 says Gregorovius, ' revolted against the hideous enormities 
 perpetrated in the name of Christ's religion and were deeply 
 moved by sympathy with those who suffered in the heroic 
 defence of the liberty of conscience.' Green too, who gives 
 a scathing account of the state of the Anglican Church and 
 its exploitation by Rome at this period, tells us that ' the old 
 reverence for the Papacy now faded away into universal 
 
 1 As we have frequently noted, the Popes, although the natural foes of liberty 
 and progress, often sought alliance with the republics — a fact that may well 
 give us pause, seeing that it was just the light of liberty and progress which 
 revealed the hideous inner corruption of the Papacy and fostered reform. 
 SOO 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 resentment.' But such words would be far too feeble to 
 express the state of feeling in Italy after Pope Innocent's 
 crusade against the Albigenses. 
 
 The degradation of the spiritual on its contact with matter 
 is intimated to us in vivid allegory by all great poets and 
 philosophers. Of such degradation the most striking illus- 
 tration in the history of humanity is offered by the contrast 
 between the life and teaching of Christ and the so-called 
 Christianity of later days. But in human nature glows in- 
 extinguishable a particle of divine fire — or somewhat that like 
 a mirror catches gleams of celestial light — and amidst all the 
 grotesque masquerade and gruesome phantasmagoria of world 
 and flesh and devil that pass before us when we read the 
 chronicles of the medieval Church of Rome we detect here and 
 there amid the endless and tumultuous procession a few human 
 faces, as it were, aglow with earnest belief in Christ's own 
 Gospel of unworldliness and purity and self-denying love. 
 Doubtless many of those who had the courage to act as well 
 as to feel were misled by enthusiasm and exaggeration into 
 dangerous paths, and a gross degradation of their sublimest 
 teachings frequently ensued. But that was inevitable. 
 
 That the shameless licentiousness and greed of the clerics 
 and the papal court, as well as other crying abuses, aroused 
 indignation in a certain section of the Church even in early 
 days is evident from many signs. One of the first general 
 protests against these abuses was formulated by the members 
 of the French Abbey of Cluny, founded by Fra Berno in 910. 
 This attempt at internal reform was at first directed solely 
 against the evil lives of the clerics, especially the degraded 
 Benedictine monks, and although it perhaps unwisely adopted 
 clerical celibacy as one of its main principles its influence 
 doubtless effected much good not only in the provinces but also 
 at Rome, where Odo, the disciple of Berno, was favoured by 
 the republican leader Alberich and was allowed to reform 
 various Roman monasteries. Unfortunately (as in the case 
 of the later Franciscan Order) the Popes, perceiving the 
 popularity of this movement towards reform, captured Cluny, 
 
 501 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 so to speak, and used the Cluny reformers as their emissaries 
 for propagating the doctrines of the spiritual supremacy and 
 the temporal power of the Papacy. Thus the monk Hildebrand, 
 later (1073) Pope Gregory VII, the great adversary of the 
 Emperor Henry IV, was a Cluny monk ; and the moral enthu- 
 siasm that inspired the first founders of Cluny degenerated 
 into sectarian and party virulence, as is seen in the case of 
 the famous reviver of ascetic monasticism, St. Bernard of 
 Clairvaux, who, though himself a sincere reformer of moral 
 abuses, opposed fanatically all reasonable and Scriptural 
 teachings and not only gave his voice in favour of the feeble 
 Innocent II against the Cluny Pope, Anacletus, but fiercely 
 persecuted both Abelard, the philosophic reformer of Paris, 
 and his disciple, the ill-fated Arnold of Brescia, who was 
 hung and burnt at Rome by the English Pope Hadrian. 
 
 A striking evidence of the yearning that existed among the 
 clerics themselves and among the people at large for a return 
 to the simplicity and spirituality of early Christianity is the 
 enormous popularity attained by various books advocating 
 an unworldly and Christlike life and prophesying the advent 
 of an era of peace and brotherhood. The De Imitatione, or 
 perhaps the original on which in the fifteenth century Thomas 
 a Kempis founded his book, is believed by Renan and a few 
 others to date from this epoch (c. 1200) . Another such book, 
 more certainly of this period, was the Evangelium eternum of 
 a Calabrian monk, Joachin. It contained commentaries on 
 the Apocalypse and other parts of the Bible, in which the writer 
 attempted to harmonize the Old and the New Testaments 
 and cited Scripture to prove the near advent (in the year 1260) 
 of the reign of the Spirit. 
 
 Contemporaneous with these attempts at internal reform 
 were various movements of a less orthodox nature. There 
 was a sect of Bulgarian Christians who called themselves 
 Catharoi, i.e. Purists or Puritans. They seem to have 
 combined customs such as those of the Essenes with an 
 Oriental, or Manichaean, belief in two active principles, a 
 Spirit of Good and a Spirit of Evil, such as the Power of 
 502 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 Light and the Power of Darkness — the Ormuzd and Ahriman— 
 of theZoroastrians. 1 Some such doctrines as these, together 
 with a zealous advocacy of purity, unworldliness, and poverty, 
 were introduced into Provence and Central France, and were 
 received enthusiastically by many, especially by the Albigeois, 
 the inhabitants and neighbours of Albi, a town on the Tarn. 
 These Albigeois or Albigenses would probably have remained 
 unmolested had they merely preached and practised the 
 spiritual life, even if their theories on the subject of the Power 
 of Darkness were tainted with heterodoxy ; but, logically 
 if unwisely, they declared war against the corruption and 
 luxury of the Roman clergy and the papal court, and thus, 
 as we shall see, brought on themselves annihilation. 
 
 Another sect was founded at Lyon by Peter Wald (Valdes). 
 These Waldenses, or les pauvres de Lyon, were, from the 
 orthodox standpoint, more virulent heretics than even the 
 Albigenses, for they denied that the Roman Church was in 
 any true sense the Church of Christ, and they appealed, as 
 later reformers did, from the authority of the Pope and of 
 tradition to that of the Bible. Moreoyer, like later dissenters, 
 they rejected apostolic succession, and some of them entrusted 
 to lay congregations the election of pastors. 
 
 In Italy itself doctrinal heresy — that is, the re j ection of Roman 
 infallibility in doctrinal matters — for a time made but little 
 progress, but there was a strong and extensive movement 
 against the temporal power of the Church (not only among its 
 political opponents) and in favour of drastic reform in regard 
 to the luxury and immorality of the ecclesiastics — unworldli- 
 ness and even poverty being applauded as the only means 
 by which the Church could regain its spiritual influence. 
 
 Of this movement an interesting example is afforded by 
 
 the Pataria (' ragged Canaille ') of Milan. The Patarini, or 
 
 Paterini, like the Gueux of later days in the Netherlands, 
 
 adopted with pride the term of contempt. At first, during 
 
 1 The doctrine of the real existence of Bvil as an active principle is, of 
 course, like the doctrines of Transmigration and Purgatory, a very convenient 
 solvent of certain intellectual difficulties, and it can scarcely be condemned as 
 heretical by those who accept the Biblical Devil. 
 
 5°3 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the stormy period that followed the death of Archbishop 
 Aribert in 1045, the Pataria was the popular, anti-imperial 
 party in Milan, at feud with the nobles and the superior clergy, 
 and for this reason (but for no other) hostile also to the inde- 
 pendence of the Ambrosian Church, which the Milanese prelates 
 and aristocracy favoured. Thus we have one of the perplexing 
 combinations so common in the history of Italian faction 
 —a popular and unorthodox party on the side of the Papacy, 
 gulled by empty promises of reform. But that did not last 
 very long. Recognizing Rome as the real foe of their religious 
 reforms, the Patarini discarded their papal ally and developed 
 into an openly heretical sect, 1 which became the object of 
 furious attack on the part of the Popes and of those ' dogs 
 of the Ivord,' the Domenicans. 
 
 The rise of the Albigenses has been already described. 
 Their extermination took place in 1205. Pope Innocent III, 
 who, as we have seen, succeeded in imposing his over-lordship 
 on almost every monarch in Europe, was determined to brook 
 no heretics in Western Christendom. At first, it is said, he 
 hoped to effect his purpose by argument, and sent preachers 
 to I/anguedoc. These were joined by a Spanish canon, the 
 notorious Domenic (Domingo of Calahorra) , who, on his return 
 from a mission to Denmark, found himself in l'Albigeois and 
 at once devoted himself with holy ardour to the work of con- 
 version ; and when Pope Innocent, finding that his version of 
 Christ's evangel was useless, determined to try fire and sword 
 and sent his Inquisitors and legates armed with authority 
 to extirpate the abomination, the nobles of Southern France 
 (as Villari says) were organized by these papal emissaries 
 into a veritable army of Crusaders, who, excited by the 
 inflammatory preaching of Domenic and his fellow-fanatics, 
 such as the sinister and merciless Bishop Folquet of Toulouse, 
 and captained by the bloodthirsty Simon de Montfort, hurled 
 themselves on the defenceless population and turned many of 
 the fairest districts of Provence and Central France into a 
 desolation. 
 
 1 The word paterino has become a synonym for eretico. 
 504 
 
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 O 
 
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 3 
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 H 
 
 
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 D 
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 f4 
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 lie 
 O 
 
 « 
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RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 How far Domenic himself approved or incited, or took 
 actual part in, these horrors is not certain ; it is certain however 
 that the Inquisitors of Toulouse conferred on him the title 
 of ' Persecutor of Heretics,' and that the whole machinery of 
 the Inquisition was shortly after his death entrusted to his 
 Black Friars. But whether we are justified in stating, as 
 Mrs. Jameson asserts, that he was so utterly and devilishly 
 heartless as to ' gaze unmoved at the smoking ruins of Beziers, 
 where at the command of Abbot Arnold twenty thousand 
 human beings were murdered,' may be questioned. He was 
 probably not unmoved. His whole nature was probably 
 deeply moved by what he called love of God and of man — 
 by an intense yearning to save the souls of his fellow-men 
 from what he sincerely believed to be as terrible as hell itself 
 — liberty of thought. I^et us refrain from holding inquisition 
 over his character, although we may not be able to enter the 
 Spanish Chapel, or S. Maria Novella itself , without a shudder, 
 or even pass Angelico's wondrous Crucifixion in the cloister 
 of S. Marco without sadness of heart and perplexity of mind. 
 
 ' In the latter years of his life,' says Villari, ' Innocent, i s 
 if horrified at his own work, would have wished to restrain 
 the forces which had effected almost the total destruction cf 
 a whole region. But it was too late. Blood had been shed 
 and the ruin of the land was complete. The fugitives from 
 Provence flooded Italy. They moved pity by the accounts 
 of their misfortunes and aroused hatred against him who 
 had been the first cause of their cruel sufferings. Thus they 
 contributed towards the antagonism between the Papacy and 
 those classes with which the Popes had formerly allied themselve s 
 in their contest with the Empire. From this time onward the 
 relations of the Italian people towards the Papacy began to 
 experience a most momentous change.' 
 
 In 1215 Domenic was honoured at Rome by the Pope's 
 approval of his zealous activities and his institution of preach- 
 ing friars, and when soon afterwards Innocent died the 
 formal confirmation of the Domenican Order was granted by 
 Honorius III. Three years later (1219) the centre of the Order 
 
 50S 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 was established at Bologna, and before bis death there in 1221 
 Domenic's Black Friars, in co-operation with the Inquisition, 
 had worked very hard at extirpating heresy in Northern Italy ; 
 but "* Italy was almost as badly honeycombed with heretics 
 as I/anguedoc had been. The Patarini . . . abounded in Milan. 
 In Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, Florence, and other towns anti- 
 sacerdotal sentiment was very strong. In Viterbo the heretics 
 were numerous enough to elect their Count. ... In Assisi 
 a heretic was elected Podestd.' (Sedgwick.) 
 
 A few months probably before Domenic arrived at Rome 
 another celebrated Order had won the approval of Innocent. x 
 Francis Bernadone of Assisi and his small band of devoted 
 followers were received at first at the papal court with consider- 
 able suspicion, and doubtless some contemptuous amusement. 
 What Francis had come to request was not permission to extir- 
 pate heretics, but merely permission to found a society of men 
 who should attempt to live according to the precepts and the 
 example of Christ. Such a visionary scheme had no interest for 
 Popes and cardinals, but — so the story runs — an opportune 
 dream induced Innocent to reflect, and reflexion made him 
 perceive the possibility of using for his own purposes this new 
 form of religious enthusiasm. The story of St. Francis of Assisi 
 — his renunciation of all worldly ideals, his self-consecration to 
 poverty and to a humble and Christlike life of loving service 
 for humanity and for all creatures great and small — the building 
 of the little chapel of the Portiuncula and the institution of 
 the mendicant and preaching Grey Brothers and the Sisters 
 of S. Chiara and the Cesser Brethren— the visit to theSoldan 
 in Egypt — the calm and beautiful passing away of the saintly 
 soul — all this has been told fully and sympathetically by many 
 writers, so that I need not make the attempt to retell it in what 
 would necessarily be a painfully concise form. Nor need we 
 try to explain the fact that the aims and ideals professed by 
 these two men, Francis and Domenic, had a certain external 
 
 1 As in the case of the Domenicans, the Pope's death delayed the confirma- 
 tion of the Franciscan Order. It received, as Dante says, its ' primal seal ' 
 from Innocent in 1214 and was ' incoronalled with a second crown ' by 
 Honorius in 1223. 
 
 506 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 resemblance, both their systems originally recognizing the 
 principle of poverty and that of intercourse with humanity 
 rather than monastic seclusion. That such external resem- 
 blances may exist in spite of the profoundest differences 
 in the real nature of things is of course a truism. The 
 difference in this case is perhaps best intimated by quite 
 simple words, such as those used by Villari : ' Domenico 
 andd a predicare la crociata contro gli Albigesi, infiamm- 
 ando gli animi ad una sanguinosa persecuzione degli eretici. 
 Francesco invece si sarebbe sottoposto ad ogni tormento 
 piuttosto che far soffrire una qualunque creatura.' While 
 Domenic was inciting and leading the bloody and merciless 
 crusade against the Albigenses Francis was visiting hospitals, 
 tending lepers, helping to carry stones to build churches, 
 meditating verses full of tender love for all things living and 
 of gratitude for the glories and beauty of nature. 
 
 Some indication of this deep-lying difference is afforded by 
 the fact that St. Francis is said to have refused, when he met 
 Domenic at Rome, to allow his Order to be fused with that 
 of the Domenicans. Doubtless he saw plainly what kind of 
 spirit actuated his fellow-founder. Both Orders (as was also 
 the case of the far older Benedictine Order) soon deviated 
 widely from the Rules of their founders, 1 so that comparisons 
 drawn from their later history are apt to prove misleading ; 
 but the fact that the Domenicans have been ever on the side 
 of worldly power as agents of tyranny and persecution seems 
 a proof of the essential difference between the spirit of Francis 
 and that , of Domenic. Indeed, the followers of St. Francis 
 have themselves often suffered persecution. On account of 
 the Christian charity and human fellow-feeling that they 
 showed even towards the unorthodox they were accused of 
 treason by Pope Gregory IX, who, with the help of the free- 
 thinker and semi-Moslem Frederick II, carried on a violent 
 
 1 The lower church at Assisi, begun shortly after the death of Francis, who 
 bade his disciples build no large churches, and the (much later) magnificent 
 S. Maria degli Angeli, built over the remains of the little Portiuncula, are 
 striking proofs of this. As Dante says, the followers of St. Francis trod in 
 his footsteps ' setting toe on heel,' i.e. in reverse direction. 
 
 507 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 crusade against heretics ; and some of these, condemned by 
 the Inquisition and burnt at Rome about the year 1225, were 
 probably Franciscan Minorites. 
 
 In Cantos XI and XII of the Paradiso Dante makes the 
 spirit of Thomas Aquinas, the great Domenican schoolman, 
 utter a magnificent panegyric on St. Francis, and the spirit 
 of the Franciscan Bonaventura describe the militant activities 
 
 of Domenic — 
 
 That champion consecrate. 
 Kind to his own and cruel to his foes, 
 Whose impetus with greater fury smote 
 Wherever the resistance greatest was. 
 
 The Franciscan's praise of Domenic, although the canto 
 scintillates with splendid thoughts and language, seems at 
 times somewhat forced and hesitating, whereas the words of 
 Thomas Aquinas (Domenican and dryasdust schoolman as he 
 was) seem to tremble with emotion as he describes the life 
 of St. Francis — the rising, as it were, of a glorious sun — the 
 marriage of Francis to his bride, Poverty — the founding of 
 the Order — the ' final seal ' of the Stigmata — the departure 
 of the sainted spirit to its native realm of heaven. In lines 
 of the most wondrous music Dante intimates to us what he 
 believed to be the characteristics of these two ' Princes of the 
 Church ' : 
 
 L'unfu tutto serafico in ardore, 
 L'allro per sapienza in terra fue 
 Di cherubica luce una splendore. 
 
 During the latter half of the thirteenth century, as we shall 
 see in another chapter, the new light of learning and of art 
 ceaselessly spread its illumination, till liberty of thought and 
 of Christian sentiment had so won its way onward that, after 
 the death of Dante's great enemy, the ' triple tyrant ' Pope 
 Boniface VIII, the medieval Papacy for a season almost 
 disappeared as a political and religious influence — glowering 
 like some savage wounded animal in the cavernous gloom of the 
 vast papal palace at Avignon. Amidst this break-up of the old 
 system we find many strange phenomena ; for old superstitions 
 prove long ineradicable after the jungle itself has been razed. 
 508 
 
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 
 One of these strange phenomena of the thirteenth century is 
 the free-thinking, oft-excommunicated, half-Oriental Emperor 
 Frederick II, who although an open disbeliever, and encouraging 
 at his Sicilian court not only the learning and the voluptuous 
 manners but also the religion of the Saracens, undertook a 
 Christian crusade against the Saracens of Palestine and actually 
 assumed the crown of Jerusalem, and then, on his return, 
 zealously persecuted home heretics, handing over many to 
 Gregory to be burnt. 
 
 The curious state of religious excitement that prevailed in 
 Italy during this transition period is evidenced by the ap- 
 pearance of numerous sects, some of which for a time attained 
 very considerable, though short-lived, influence, especially in 
 the free cities of North and Central Italy. As was but natural, 
 many strange extravagances occurred. Among these we may 
 note the episode of the Flagellants, or ' Scourgers.' A sudden 
 seismic wave, as it were, of religious hysteria began at Perugia 
 and spread rapidly through and beyond all Italy. Thousands 
 and thousands of frenzied, half-naked penitents, men, women, 
 and children, in great companies traversed the whole country, 
 howling their lamentations and prayers and scourging each 
 other pitilessly. At every town they reached they poured 
 forth imprecations and entreaties in an attempt to put an end 
 to political and religious feuds ; they visited prisons and strove 
 to induce malefactors to repent ; they liberated many prisoners. 
 At last the civil powers, alarmed, issued severe penalties 
 against these excesses. ' The hard-headed rulers of Milan,' 
 says a writer, ' erected six hundred gallows on their borders 
 and threatened to hang every Flagellant who came that way.' 
 After about 1260 we hear no more of them. 
 
 When we seek for the causes that produced such strange 
 effects we find that they were without any doubt the wide- 
 spread despair caused by the endless horrors of war and 
 intestinal feuds and the growing conviction that the Church 
 had failed completely as bearer of the Gospel of love and 
 peace. The one great incentive that fired the hysterical 
 extravagances of the Flagellants no less than the seraphic 
 
 509 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 ardour of St. Francis was the yearning for the reign of Christian 
 love on earth. And how universal this yearning was in Italy 
 is proved by many other attempts at peace-making, some of 
 them of a very dramatic and emotional nature. On one 
 occasion (about 1275) the leaders of the rancorous factions in 
 Florence were persuaded to meet on the sandy flats of the 
 Arno and to embrace each other and vow eternal reconciliation 
 — a vow soon broken. On the plain outside Verona a vast 
 multitude (some say of 400,000 human beings) met, collected 
 from various cities by a monk of Vicenza, and, melted to tears 
 by the eloquence of preaching friars, beat their breasts, lament- 
 ing their sins and supplicating God's mercy, and took solemn 
 oaths — alas, soon to be utterly forgotten — that war and party 
 feuds should be abolished among them for ever. 
 
 510 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 DOWN TO C. 1320 
 
 WE have noted the gradual rise of the free cities of 
 North Italy since the days of Hildebrand and 
 Henry IV and have seen how the Lombard 
 League, victorious over Frederick Barbarossa, laid the founda- 
 tion of what might have proved, but did not prove permanently, 
 a great republican Confederation. After his crushing defeat 
 at Iyegnano and his acceptance of the situation by the Peace 
 of Constanz the Emperor loyally recognized the liberties of 
 the northern Communes, and his son, Henry the Cruel, was so 
 much taken up with his endeavours to establish his claim 
 to the crown of the Norman kings that he made but little 
 effort to enforce his authority over Lombardy, though he set 
 his dukes over Tuscany and Umbria. His son too, the Em- 
 peror Frederick II, was almost wholly engrossed by his southern 
 dominions and exercised scarcely any authority in Northern 
 Italy except what was voluntarily conceded to him by Ghibelline 
 cities in their desire to secure imperial aid against their rivals. 
 Thus the northern cities little by little detached themselves 
 from the Empire and became republican, while South Italy 
 and Sicily became monarchical ; and when the pitiable execution 
 of Conradin at Naples in 1268 put an end to the Hohenstaufen 
 dynasty these southern regions passed into the power of 
 Angevin and Aragonese monarchs, under whose rule they 
 were destined to remain for many years. 
 
 But besides the northern Communes and the southern 
 monarchies there was a Papal State composed of regions of 
 Central Italy, such as parts of Latium, Tuscia Romana, and 
 
 511 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Sabina, in which the Popes exercised a certain amount of 
 effective authority — a matter, of course, totally distinct from 
 the claim that they made to overlordship in the Two Sicilies 
 in Tuscany, in Pentapolis (Emilia), the March of Ancona, the 
 duchy of Spoleto, and elsewhere. This Papal State (Stato delta 
 Chiesa) was of a vague, inorganic, and fluctuating nature. 
 Ever and again the Emperors had treated the actual as well 
 as the imaginary Papal States as integral parts of the Empire. 
 Thus Henry VI placed his brother, Duke Philip, as his Vicar 
 in Tuscany and others of his captains as governors in Romagna 
 and the Marches ; Frederick II too, in spite of his pious pro- 
 mises, occupied Romagna and other regions claimed by the 
 Papacy ; and Manfred, whose soldiers helped the Florentine 
 Ghibellines to their victory at Montaperti (1260), made one 
 of his captains the imperial governor of Florence, and for a 
 time, until the arrival of Charles of Anjou, was master of 
 much of the papal territory in Central Italy. Nominally of 
 course Charles of Anjou favoured the Popes, but practically 
 he too was their master and did little to extend their sovran 
 rights, so that it is not surprising that at last, in 1278, Pope 
 Nicholas III found it convenient to renounce the papal claims 
 to Romagna, Pentapolis, Ancona, and Spoleto in favour of the 
 Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg. 
 
 Thus it was only in a comparatively small territory that 
 latterly the Pope exercised sovran rights — rights which he often 
 had to share with the republican government at Rome; and he 
 had to rely on the somewhat precarious loyalty of his legates 
 and his subjects, and through insurrections, both democratic 
 and aristocratic, he frequently lost his hold on various cities, 
 such as Perugia and Viterbo. Finally, when Clement V 
 removed the Papal Seat to Avignon (1309) the authority of 
 the Popes in Central Italy dwindled away to a mere shadow. 
 
 Thus with a few strokes may be roughly intimated the state 
 of Italy during the period when the chief northern cities 
 attained their fullest development in commercial prosperity 
 and republican liberty and then suffered — some of them — the 
 same fate that in earlier days befell not a few of the ancient 
 512 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 Greek republics, where it so often happened that some eminent 
 political leader, or head of a faction, gained the favour and 
 abused the confidence of the people and established himself as 
 ' tyrant.' The process has repeated itself many times in 
 history. At first the people and the feudal nobility come into 
 conflict. Then, as trade and general prosperity increase, there 
 ensues the still bitterer conflict between capital and labour, 
 between the nouveaux riches and the working classes. The 
 old and poorer nobility then allies itself with the people. At 
 last some bold and gifted leader of this caste wins the uncon- 
 ditional support of the popular party and by a coup d'etat 
 seizes the reins of power. Thus it was with the Greek Tyran- 
 nides and thus with the Italian Signorie. 
 
 The interesting and instructive story of the rise and the 
 fortunes of the Italian Republics has been related, with full 
 accounts of the chief of these cities, by many authors from the 
 times of Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villani (c. 1300) down to 
 the Istorie fiorentine of Machiavelli (c, 1500) and onwards to 
 Sismondi and the numberless writers, political, literary, and 
 artistic, of our own days. It will be here impossible to do 
 more than state a few facts connected with some of these 
 cities, and for this purpose I shall select once more Florence, 
 Milan, and Venice, the stories of which we have already traced 
 up to about 1200 ; and I shall add some remarks about Verona, 
 Bologna, and other towns. 
 
 Florence (c. 1 200-1 320) 
 
 The early history of Florence has already been sketched. 
 From the first it had been adverse to the arrogant domination 
 of Teuton Emperors and nobles, and its freedom may be con- 
 sidered to have begun on the death of Countess Matilda in 
 1115, when it first elected its own. Consuls, But, although it 
 was destined to become the most notable of the Italian Com- 
 munes, its evolution was slow, The greater part of Tuscany 
 remained under imperial influences for a considerable time 
 after the I/ombard cities had won independence, and there 
 were Tuscan cities, such as Pisa and Arezzo, which, even after 
 
 2 k 513 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 the days of Dante and Henry of Luxemburg, remained 
 strongholds of Ghibellinism while Florence was gradually, 
 amidst many reverses and relapses, securing that republican 
 liberty which was not finally overthrown until the rise of the 
 Medici in the fifteenth century. 
 
 The early development of the Florentine republic was 
 stunted by the introduction of baneful feuds. I have already 
 related how the murder of Buondelmonte, assassinated at 
 the base of the ancient statue of Mars, divided the city into 
 two embittered factions headed by the Donati and the Uberti, 
 and how the imperialists made use of this feud in order to 
 forward their own interests. Supported by the powerful 
 influence of the Emperor Frederick II, these Ghibelline nobles 
 succeeded in expelling the democratic and papal Guelf leaders. 
 But on the death of Frederick the Guelf party was recalled 
 and reconstituted as an important factor of the Florentine 
 Commune, under the leadership of a Capitano del Popolo, 
 and finally, when in 1259 Ezzelino, the great Ghibelline tyrant 
 of North Italy, was overpowered and killed, the popular faction 
 in Florence gained such power that in its turn it expelled 
 its rivals. Thus in Florence the Guelfs were for a season 
 triumphant and the white lily was made vermilion. 1 But the 
 exiled Ghibellines collected a large army at Siena and, cap- 
 tained by Farinata degli Uberti, with the help of the Sienese 
 and Pisans and Manfred's German cavalry inflicted a crushing 
 defeat on the forces led against them by the Florentines. The 
 battle took place (1260, five years before Dante's birth) at 
 Montaperti, not far from Siena. The carnage, especially 
 round the Florentine Carroccio, was so terrible that it made, 
 says Dante, the Arbia incarnadined with blood; and so 
 disastrous was the rout that the Guelfs, not daring to 
 return to their own city, withdrew to Ducca. How Florence 
 was then doomed by the victors to be razed to the ground 
 
 1 Dante, Par. xvi, 153. The ancient Florentine (and Ghibelline) ensign 
 was a white lily on red ; the Guelfs adopted a red lily on white. Dante's 
 words ' made vermilion ' evidently also intimate the stain of blood. His 
 great ancestor, Cacciaguida (p. 368), was devoted to the Empire. The later 
 Alighieri, Dante's immediate progenitors, were staunch Guelfs. 
 514 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 and how it was saved by Farinata is known to all readers of 
 Dante. 1 
 
 For six years after this battle of Montaperti the Ghibelline 
 influence was supreme at Florence, and the city was governed 
 by Manfred's imperial Vicar, Guido Novello ; but when 
 Manfred was slain at Benevento (1266) the Guelfs once more 
 came into power. At first they submitted in a somewhat 
 disgraceful fashion to Pope Clement IV and elected as their 
 Podestd Charles of Anjou, who for a time governed Florence 
 by his emissaries. But republicanism, fostered by the immense 
 increase of trade and wealth, had now struck root firmly and 
 was beginning to assert its vitality. 
 
 The Guilds were the basis of the constitution now adopted 
 by the popular party. Of these Guilds, or Arti, there were 
 seven greater and five (later fourteen) lesser. 2 Each had its 
 Council, its president or Consul, and a military official — 
 the Gonfaloniere. These formed- the chief magistracy of the 
 popular government. . The Consuls however gave way for a 
 time to Anziani 3 and in the year of the Sicilian Vespers (1282) 
 the title was changed to that of Priors. Three (later six) 
 Priors of the greater Arts were invested with the highest 
 magisterial authority in the Commune and formed the exe- 
 cutive Signory. About the date of Dante's Priorate (1300) 
 a Gonfaloniere delta Giustizia was associated with the Priors. 
 This official possessed in seasons of sedition and disturbance 
 almost dictatorial power and thus in time became the most 
 important personage in the State. 
 
 It was during the early period of the Priorate (i.e. in 1284) 
 that Florence suddenly gained a great increase of power and 
 prosperity by a crushing defeat that her ally, Genoa, inflicted 
 on her great rival, Pisa, which city had for long blocked her 
 
 1 Inf. x. Farinata, rising erect in his fiery tomb and with proud, calm 
 dignity conversing with Dante — ' as if he had Hell in great disdain ' — is one 
 of the grandest and most vivid portraits in the Commedia. 
 
 s Dante enrolled himself in the greater Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries 
 (Medici e Speziali). 
 
 3 See Dante, Inf. xxi, 38 : Un degli anzian di Santa Zita, i.e. of I^ucca. The 
 Anziani of I,ucca and Pisa answered to the Florentine Priori. 
 
 515 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 access to the sea. The battle was fought near the rocky islet 
 of Meloria, off I^ivorno. So great was the booty and the number 
 of the prisoners that the saying arose, He who will see Pisa 
 must go to Genoa. One of the Pisan commanders at Meloria 
 was that Count Ugolino della Gheradesca whose tragic story 
 inspired one of the most touching and vivid passages in Dante's 
 great poem. After the battle he established himself as despot 
 in Pisa, but he was accused of having occasioned the defeat 
 of the Pisan fleet by treasonable complicity with the Florentine 
 
 Coin op the Sons op Ugowno, c. 1290 
 See p. xxvili 
 
 Guelfs, and his rival, Archbishop Ruggieri, succeeded in 
 treacherously bringing about his death— perhaps starving him 
 to death together with his sons and grandsons in the Torre 
 della Fame — facts which induced Dante to doom them both to 
 the frozen sea of the Traitors in the deepest pit of the Inferno. 
 
 Ugolino's fall was followed by the re-establishment of 
 Ghibelline supremacy at Pisa. The disaster of Meloria put 
 an end to its successful maritime and trade rivalry with 
 Florence, but it remained a staunch political adversary, true 
 to its imperial principles, and it frequently tried its strength 
 against its victorious rivals — evidence of which facts is supplied 
 by its famous Campo Santo, where one may see not only the 
 tomb of the last genuine Holy Roman Emperor, Henry of 
 IvUxemburg, but also the chains that once barred the harbour 
 of Pisa and were captured in 1362 by Genoa and Florence and 
 restored, as a sign of Italian unity, in our days. 
 
 Other Tuscan cities that for a time favoured the anti- 
 republican cause were Arezzo, Siena, and S. Gimignano. The 
 516 
 
54- S. GlMIGNANO 
 
 516 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 aid given by Arezzo to exiled Ghibellines induced the Floren- 
 tines in 1289 to attack the Aretines ; and they overthrew 
 them at Campaldino. At this battle Dante, then twenty- 
 four years of age, was present, as he tells us 1 in the fragment 
 that still survives of one of his letters* ' I was there,' he says, 
 ' a novice in arms, and had great fear, and at last great joy.' 
 A still more determined Ghibelline city was at first Siena, 
 which, as we have seen, gave such effectual aid to the Florentine 
 exiles at the battle of Montaperti. But ten years later (1270) 
 it changed its policy. By the influence of Charles of Anjou, 
 who after Manfred's fall possessed himself of most of the 
 Tuscan cities, Siena joined the Guelf league, and she remained 
 fairly independent and republican till a later age, when (c. 1490) 
 Pandulf the Magnificent established his Signoria over the city. 
 S. Gimignano's fate was very different. In early days it 
 became a fairly independent Commune which was inclined to 
 favour republican Florence. Dante visited it, about 1300, 
 as an envoy from Florence, and is said to have made a speech 
 in what is now called the Sala di Dante ; but in spite of his 
 eloquence democratic liberty was ruined by the party feuds 
 of the local nobility, especially that of the Ghibelline Salvucci 
 against the Ardinghelli. 2 Finally about 1353, by the com- 
 plicity of the Guelf Ardinghelli, Florence was enabled to pro- 
 claim its protectorate over the city. 
 
 When Dante was twenty-eight years of age — some three 
 years after the death of Beatrice — the Florentine State gained 
 a most important advantage by the public sanction of the 
 Ordinamenti delta Giustizia, which conferred on all citizens 
 equality before the law. Most unfortunately the chance that 
 Florence now had of developing into a model republic was 
 for a time frustrated by the introduction from Pistoia — that 
 ' den of noxious beasts,' as Dante calls it — of a new feud, that 
 of the Neri and Bianchi, whose quarrel was taken up by two 
 
 1 See also Inf. xxii, 4, and Purg. v, 92. In the next year he was present at 
 the capitulation of Caprona, a fort on the Arno held by the Fisans. See Inf. 
 xxi, 94, where he gives a vivid picture of the scene. 
 
 ''Thirteen of over fifty (?) towers built by the nobles of S. Gimignano still 
 lend a very striking appearance to this cit(& delle belle torn. See Pig. 54, 
 
 517 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 rival Florentine families, the Donati and the Cerchi. The 
 chief leader of the Neri-Donati party, Corso Donati, allied 
 himself with Pope Boniface VIII and, aided by the visit of 
 Charles of Valois to Florence in 1301, succeeded in ejecting 
 the Bianchi-Cerchi, who were accused of being not only 
 disaffected Guelfs but disguised Ghibellines. Among these 
 exiles was the poet Dante. 1 
 
 While Dante was wandering about as an exile, probably 
 at that time in the I,unigiana (which lies around me as I write 
 these words), the people of Florence rose against the tyranny 
 of Corso Donati ; and he soon afterwards met his death — 
 perhaps by violence, perhaps by an accident. 8 But these 
 events did not allow Dante to return to his native, city. When 
 exiled he had gone over openly to the Ghibellines ; but he had 
 already abandoned them, disgusted and determined to ' form 
 a party for himself.' 
 
 The subsequent history of Florence was for many years 
 that of a free republic. It was disturbed now and then by 
 war and by popular tumults, such as that of the Ciompi in 
 1378, but on the whole it enjoyed liberty and prosperity until 
 the rise of the Medicean Signoria. 
 
 Milan and other Towns (c. i 200-1 320) 
 
 While Florence was thus winning her way towards re- 
 publican liberty many of the North Italian Communes (Venice 
 and Genoa being brilliant exceptions) suffered the fate that 
 has been described. In Verona — the home of the Montecchi 
 and Capuletti — the bloodthirsty Fzzelino, as we have seen, 
 established his tyranny, as also in Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, 
 and other cities. After his death (1259) Mastino della Scala 
 
 1 For the facts connected with Dante's banishment see pp. 485-86. Ten 
 years previously he had married Gemma, probably a sister of Corso Donati, 
 leader of the ultra-Gnelfs. Though Dante never mentions his wife, he evidently 
 had great affection for Piccarda, Corso's sister, whom he met in Paradise, 
 and also for Forese, Corso's brother, though he condemns him for gluttony to 
 terrible punishment in Purgatory. 
 
 * Dante seems to confirm the report that he was thrown (doubtless in a 
 scuffle) from his horse (in the Casentino) and dragged by the stirrup (a coda 
 d'una bestia tratto, Purg. xxiv). 
 518 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 was elected Podestd, and perpetual Capitano del Popolo, and 
 thus began the dynasty of the Scaligeri. Of this family the 
 best known is that Can Grande at whose court Dante for a time 
 found a home, and experienced 
 
 come sa di sale 
 Lo pane altrui, e come & duro calls 
 Lo scendere e il salir per I 'altrui scale. 
 
 In like fashion the Gonzaga established themselves in 
 Mantua, the Margraves of Este in Ferrara, Modena, and 
 Reggio, the Correggi and Visconti in Parma, the Montefeltri 
 
 Coin op Mii,an, c. 1260 
 See p. xxviii 
 
 in Urbino, the Malatesta family in Rimini, the da Polenta in 
 Ravenna. 1 
 
 Of special interest are the annals of Milan. Its story down 
 to about 1200 has already been briefly told. After it had 
 arisen from the ashes to which the German Barbarossa reduced 
 it and had won its independence by the victory over the 
 Teuton oppressor at the battle of I^egnano and the treaty 
 of Constance it had for some time a curious triple constitution. 
 The most powerful of the three bodies politic was the Credenza 
 of St. Ambrose, which represented the popular party. The 
 Molta represented the minor nobility and the Credenza of 
 the Consuls the higher nobility. Each of these bodies had 
 its own magistrates and formed a kind of republic by itself. 
 
 1 Guido da Polenta was Dante's friend in his last days. At Ravenna the 
 poet doubtless often saw as a child the little Francesca, daughter or niece of 
 Guido, afterwards wedded to and killed by Gianciotto Malatesta, as all 
 readers of the Inferno know. The name of the Mantuan Gonzaga awakes 
 memories of Hamlet. 
 
 519 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 This state of things naturally led to dissension, and, as usual, 
 dissension led to the rise of a dictator. Thus about 1250 the 
 Torriarii (the della Torre family) espoused the popular cause 
 and came into power. But they behaved so despotically 
 that Archbishop Otto, of the rival family of the Visconti, placed 
 himself at the head of the aristocratic (Ghibelline) party and 
 was enabled to eject them (1277) and to dominate Milan for a 
 long period. Otto was succeeded by Matteo, who, although 
 for some years he was driven from the city by the exiled 
 Torriani, was restored by Henry VII, when that ' peacemaker ' 
 came in 1311 to Milan to receive the Iron Crown ; * and with 
 German help he succeeded in massacring and almost anni- 
 hilating his rivals and founding the famous dynasty of the 
 Milanese Visconti. 
 
 A remarkable, though short-lived, Signoria was that of 
 Guglielmo Spadalunga (Longsword), Margrave of Monteferrato. 
 About 1270 he made himself master of a large number of 
 Lombard towns, among which were Novara, Vercelli, Asti, and 
 Pavia. But his fictitious realm fell to pieces at once when, 
 about 1290, he was overpowered by a coalition of some of the 
 Communes that he had enslaved. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the army of these Communes 
 was led by one of the early ancestors of the present King 
 of Italy — Amedeo of Savoy. The earliest known ancestor 
 of the House of Savoy was a certain Count Umberto, called 
 Biancamano, who, descending from the Savoy mountains, 
 gained a footing by fighting and clever alliances in Piemonte 
 and in 1033 helped Conrad II to conquer Burgundy. In 1310 
 we hear of another of these Savoy Counts, I/Uigi, being elected 
 Senator of Rome. The family during many centuries by its 
 valour and energy has proved its worthiness for its present 
 high distinction. 
 
 1 Henry VII, it will be remembered, proclaimed himself rex pacificus 
 (somewhat as the German Wilhelm of our day), but found it a ' military 
 necessity ' to take a bloody part in Italian politics. His destruction of 
 Cremona is paralleled by that of I<ouvain. 
 
 520 
 
jfm 
 
 •^PW 
 
 1»;*|l!!l!p!!I!SS*!!S!lifSl!!i!|ii!!!H ■'.: 
 
 
 m 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 Genoa and Venice (c. 1200-1320) 
 
 We have already heard of the notable part that in early 
 times Genoa took in the struggle against the Saracens and how, 
 after having been captured and plundered by Saracen pirates 
 in 936, it regained its maritime power and as the champion of 
 the I/igurian towns and the ally of Pisa swept the seas with its 
 galleys. Also we have heard how the Genoese joined in the 
 first Crusade and helped to set Baldwin on the throne of 
 Jerusalem and became a great commercial and colonial power 
 in the Eastern Mediterranean. The presence of external foes, 
 first Saracens and afterwards powerful lords of I/iguria, caused 
 a coalition of the popular party with the lesser nobility. This 
 coalition was called the Compagna, and the election of Guglielmo 
 Boccanegra as Capitano del Popolo in 1257, or perhaps the final, 
 triumph of the popular party in 1270, may be regarded as the 
 beginning of the Genoese republic and of its great maritime 
 power and commercial prosperity. In 1284, as we have seen, 
 Genoa crushed its rival, Pisa, in the naval battle off Meloria. 
 Some forty years later (1298) it utterly destroyed the fleet of 
 Venice near Curzola. About eight thousand Venetians were 
 made prisoners, among them the traveller Marco Polo, who 
 wrote in prison his famous work Milione. Thus we take leave 
 of Genoa at the acme of her greatness — for not many years 
 later her sea-power was crippled by a serious defeat off Chioggia. 
 Then, by the victories of Doge Andrea Dandolo about 1350, 
 and the capture of the Genoese fleet in the Lagunes in 1380, 
 the maritime supremacy of Venice over her great rival was 
 permanently established. 
 
 The story of Venice from its earliest beginnings down to 
 about 1200 has been already briefly told. Its political and 
 artistic history during the thirteenth century continues to 
 show many interesting characteristics diverse from those of 
 the other Italian Communes. 
 
 Firstly, as regards its internal political history, its develop- 
 ment was in the direction of oligarchy, or what we may perhaps 
 call a patrician rather than a democratic republic. The old 
 
 521 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 "f H £ 6 LP Venetian families were for the most part not, as in other North 
 Italian cities, a feudal Germanic aristocracy, but were of 
 ancient Roman stock (Venice and its islands having been a 
 favourite residence of wealthy Romans in early days). The 
 close connexion, too, of Venice with Byzantium resulted in 
 the introduction of wealth and luxury and of Oriental ideas 
 not favourable to democracy. 
 
 In early days the Doge was indeed chosen by the general 
 voice of the people, who in their popular assembly (the Arengo) 
 had means of representing their will. The Doges however 
 differed essentially from the Gonfalonieri and Capitani and 
 Priori of the Communes, for they were not temporary presi- 
 dents, but were elected for life. And although the people 
 used their rights and limited the Doge's powers by means of a 
 Council and a Senate (Maggior Consiglio and Pregadi), the 
 democratic gain was cancelled by the fact that these Councils 
 were selected from the wealthy classes and that every new 
 reform diminished more and more the numbers of those from 
 whom the councillors could be chosen, so that in course of 
 time the tendency towards oligarchical government was no 
 longer to be restrained. At almost the same time when 
 Florence was passing those Ordinamenti delta Giustizia which 
 excluded the nobility from the government and gave legal 
 equality to all Florentines the Venetians decreed the momentous 
 Serratura (closing) of their Great Council, which act excluded 
 the whole body of ordinary citizens from election and limited 
 the candidature to a comparatively few noble families. 1 
 
 But many of the Venetian nobles of this period had gained 
 their wealth and rank by commerce, and the old noble families, 
 ousted by these plutocrats, grew so discontented that at last, 
 headed by Baiamonte Tiepolo, they made a violent and vain 
 attempt to overthrow the constituted government (1310). 
 ' The committee instituted to investigate the origins of this 
 conspiracy held office for a series of years, and at last by a 
 
 1 In 1315, says Villari, the first register of these families was published. 
 In later times (sixteenth century) this register acquired the name of 'The 
 Golden Book' (Libro d'oro). 
 522 
 

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 An 
 
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES 
 
 decree passed in 1335 it was declared permanent. This was 
 the notorious and formidable Council of the Ten, of which we 
 hear so much in later times. 
 
 As regards the external development of Venice during the 
 thirteenth century, its maritime power and trade were very 
 favourably influenced by its fortunate position, which enabled 
 it to serve as an emporium for commerce between Eastern 
 countries and the north-western parts of Europe. In the 
 disgraceful capture and sack of Constantinople during the so- 
 called fourth Crusade by the so-called Latins (Franks, Flemings, 
 and others) the Venetians took an active part, and were 
 rewarded by an immense extension of their commerce in the 
 East, where their merchants enjoyed many privileges. The 
 result in Venice itself was a marked revival of Byzantine 
 influence — conspicuous especially in architecture and mosaics. 1 
 This Byzantine influence lasted at Venice for a long time, 
 strongly affecting and surviving that Venetian Romanesque 
 style which I have already mentioned and shall have to 
 mention again. (See p. 434 n. and Fig. 56.) 
 
 As we have seen, the Venetians were severely defeated in 
 1298 by the Genoese fleet. During the next half-century and 
 more Genoa developed an activity very injurious to Venetian 
 trade and acquired some of the Venetian possessions in the 
 East, and it was not till the end of the fourteenth century 
 that Venice became unquestionably the Queen of the Adriatic 
 and established her supremacy over her rivals in the Levant. 
 When we come to consider the rise of Italian Gothic we shall 
 see that it was not until a somewhat late period that this style 
 of architecture began to find favour at Venice. Here we need 
 only note that this Venetian Gothic has special and beautiful 
 characteristics, being affected not only by local but also by 
 Eastern influences — among which, as Ruskin has pointed out, 
 the Saracen is sometimes recognizable. 
 
 1 E.g. the older mosaics of the vestibule in St. Mark's. Much fine marble 
 and other treasures — among them the famous bronze horses — were brought 
 from Constantinople, u. 1204, by the ' blind old Dandolo ' and his warriors. 
 
 523 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ART 
 
 C. 1200 TO C. I32O 
 
 IT has been impossible in this volume to treat the subject 
 of art fully or continuously, and now, although we have 
 arrived at a period during which most important and 
 interesting developments originated, I shall have to select a 
 few facts that seem best to illustrate these new tendencies ; 
 and I shall simply state my own impressions and conclusions 
 for what they are worth, instead of wearying the reader with 
 theories and criticism and with the multitudinous names of 
 artists and their works, many of which may for him perhaps 
 awaken no memories of what is great and beautiful. 
 
 (1) Mosaics. On this subject it will be well to recapitulate 
 a few facts. In a former chapter we traced the development 
 of Christian mosaics and noted the differences between the 
 nobler Roman style and the more gorgeous and decorative but 
 less artistic and less dignified style of the Byzantine school. 
 These differences are well illustrated by the splendid Roman 
 and Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna, while at Rome itself we 
 find a wonderful series of works illustrative of the Roman style. 
 The earliest extant specimen of Christian Roman glass- 
 mosaics (c. 320) is that which adorns the tomb of the daughter 
 of Constantine the Great, now the church of S. Costanza 
 fuori le mura. It might perhaps be more rightly called a 
 specimen of transition from ancient to Christian art, for the 
 older portions are purely pagan in subject and treatment 
 (genii, vines, etc.), and the Christian subjects are treated in 
 the ancient decorative fashion. 1 
 
 1 It will be remembered that also the fifth-century mosaics in S. Maria 
 Maggiore show a very curious pagan treatment of Christian subjects (see p. 270) . 
 524 
 
57 (i) Mosaic in S. Maria, in Trastevere 
 
 (2) Giotto's Naviceiaa in St. Peter's 
 
 Jtome 
 
 524 
 
ART 
 
 Of early Roman mosaics that are purely Christian the finest 
 ( c - 35o) is that in the tribune of S. Pudenziana (Fig. 24). 
 Another very grand and beautiful work somewhat later in 
 date (c. 530) is to be seen in the church of SS. Cosma and 
 Damiano — once an ancient temple overlooking the Forum. 
 A later example again (c. 825) is the fine mosaic in S. Prassede 
 (Fig. 24) — which, however, in its inartistic figures and over- 
 decorated apparel shows a tendency towards ' Byzantine 
 deformity,' However, a glance at photographs of these five 
 works of early Italian (Roman) artists will show that the art 
 of mosaic decoration at Rome kept at nearly the same level 
 for some five hundred years, and was generally characterized 
 by a dignity of style which at times rose to sublimity. 
 
 Then — about the year 900 — this Roman Christian art seems 
 to have died down to the root. For about two centuries 
 (900-1100) there is almost a total blank, during which we 
 discover only rude attempts in a style evidently due to 
 degenerate Byzantine influences. Towards the end of the 
 twelfth century — about the time of Innocent III — Byzantine 
 influences having become extinct, a new growth, so to speak, 
 began to shoot upwards from the old root. In Rome we find 
 examples of what we may regard as old Roman mosaic con- 
 ceived in a new spirit. One of the earliest and finest specimens 
 of this new style — which we may perhaps call ' Romanesque ' 
 — is the grand mosaic (of about 1180) in the church of S. Maria 
 in Trastevere (Fig. 57 , 1) . Further examples of this revived art 
 are to be found in S. Clemente (twelfth century) and S. Paolo 
 fuori, a portion of whose vast apse-mosaics, dating from about 
 1220, escaped the conflagration of 1823. A still later and 
 very fine example is Torriti's mosaic, the Coronation of the 
 Virgin, in the apse of S. Maria Maggiore. Then about the 
 end of the thirteenth century we have the admirable lower 
 portion of the great apsidal mosaic of S. Maria in Trastevere, 
 perhaps the work of Cavallini (about whom more later), and, 
 lastly, the famous Navicella (Fig. 57, 2) probably by Giotto, 
 who was in Rome about 1298-1300. 
 
 Thus we are able to trace in Rome with continuity the rise 
 
 525 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 and disappearance and revival of trie Roman Christian art of 
 mosaic down to the days of Giotto. 
 
 The revival of painting about 1300 exercised an influence 
 on the art of mosaic which was not entirely to its advantage. 1 
 Much as one must admire Giotto's Navicella, it is apparent 
 that here we have lost nearly all trace of that grand repose 
 which often lends the older Roman work such impressive 
 dignity. Doubtless we have received in exchange something 
 very admirable ; but the exchange is not quite satisfactory. 2 
 Painting was beginning to assert its rights and to ignore those 
 of the older art of mosaic. 
 
 In connexion with Roman art of the thirteenth century 
 (whose fair promise to take the lead in the revival of art was, 
 be it noted, nipped in the bud by the transference of the Papal 
 Seat to Avignon) a few words must here be said on the interest- 
 ing but rather obscure subject of the Cosmati. To Vasari, 
 the sixteenth-century biographer of Italian artists, these 
 Cosmati seem to have been unknown, but their names have 
 been discovered on numerous monuments of a very original 
 and beautiful character, and it appears that several artists 
 (viz. I/orenzo, Luca, Jacopo, and Giovanni) belonging to three 
 generations of the family of Cosmati were distinguished as 
 architects, mosaicists, and sculptors. 
 
 A speciality of so-called Roman Cosmati work (though 
 found also in Sicily and elsewhere) is a handsome, decora- 
 tive inlay made of small sawn slabs and dies 3 of coloured 
 stone — porphyry, verde antico, pavonazzetto, and other 
 precious marbles, found in abundance among the ruins of 
 ancient Rome — and illuminated with pieces of gilded and 
 brightly coloured glass-compost. This inlaid work they used 
 
 1 It likewise affected the art of bronze-relief — a fact very noticeable when 
 one compares the Florentine Baptistery work of Andrea Pisano and the 
 exceedingly beautiful but too ' picturesque ' work of Ghiberti. 
 
 2 It is interesting to compare the new, picturesque, and animated style of 
 Giotto's Navicella with the impressive dignity of his master Cimabue's mosaic 
 (Christ and St. John) in the apse of Pisa Cathedral. 
 
 3 Also the very beautiful inlaid pavements (opus Alexandrinum) seen in 
 many old Roman churches, such as S. Maria Maggiore and S. Maria in 
 Trastevere, are sometimes attributed to the Cosmati. 
 
 526 
 
58. Pui,pit at I<a Trinita dkua Cava 
 Near Salerno 
 
 526 
 
ART 
 
 for the decoration of altars, baldachini, pulpits, and columns, 
 especially the spiral columns that were used as stands for 
 the great Easter candles (see Fig. 58). But of all so-called 
 Cosmati works the most striking and important are numerous 
 monuments by the younger Cosmati in which this decoration 
 is used in combination with what was apparently otherwise 
 almost unknown then in Rome, namely, Gothic architecture. 
 The superstructures of these tombs are so purely Gothic in 
 style that some writers have even suggested that the younger 
 Cosmati may have visited France or England and have copied 
 Gothic monuments there and have combined the Gothic 
 architectural framework with Roman mosaic and the charac- 
 teristic inlay-work. This combination is eminently successful. 
 There is in Rome nothing more beautiful than these Cosmati 
 monuments, such as the tomb of Cardinal Gonsalvo (1299) 
 in S. Maria Maggiore, and that of William Durand (Fig. 59) 
 in S. Maria sopra Minerva, 1 and that of Cardinal Matteo 
 d'Aquasparta 2 in the Aracoeli — all three probably by Giovanni 
 de' Cosmati (Johannes Cosmas), the grandson of the first of 
 these artists. 
 
 Curiously enough, these Cosmati are not mentioned by 
 Vasari ; but he mentions a Roman artist, Cavallini by name, 
 whose works and existence are so undiscoverable that some 
 have believed him to be a fiction. Vasari asserts that this 
 Cavallini executed the facade and some of the mosaics of 
 S. Paolo fuori (later destroyed by fire) and also the fine lower 
 portion of the great apsidal mosaic of S. Maria in Trastevere, 
 already mentioned. He is also believed by some to have had 
 some share in the Navicella, which is generally attributed to 
 Giotto. But nothing certain is known about him. 
 
 It was not, however, only in Rome that a new spirit began 
 to manifest itself towards the end of the twelfth century. In 
 Sicily, as will be remembered, during the days of King Roger 
 and William the Good (c. 1130-90) magnificent mosaics were 
 
 1 The only old Gothic church in Rome — now horribly disfigured, but still 
 interesting for its vaulting. 
 
 2 Mentioned by Dante. In the Aracoeli is also a. fine Cosmati tomb (of 
 the Savelli) of about 1280. 
 
 527 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 put up in the churches of Palermo, Monreale, Cefalii, and other 
 places ; and these mosaics, though they doubtless owe much 
 to Byzantine influence, show a power and originality of their 
 own. At Venice too, although Byzantine influences were very 
 strong and persistent, and were naturally strengthened by the 
 I/atin conquest of Constantinople (1204) and the consequent 
 advent of many Byzantine artists and workmen, nevertheless 
 we find in some of the mosaics of this period in St. Mark's and 
 at Torcello a very distinct break with Byzantine tradition and 
 a surprising display of animation and natural expression. 
 
 And in other parts of North Italy were to be seen soon 
 afterwards unmistakable signs of the new-awakened life that 
 was beginning to stir beneath the dust of centuries. Thus 
 S. Prediano in IvUcca has on its facade a (much restored) mosaic 
 of about 1200 which is new in character, and in the Floren- 
 tine S. Miniato we have a fine and certainly non-Byzantine 
 mosaic of about 1280 ; and as a still earlier example (c. 1260) 
 we may take the vault frescos in Parma Baptistery, which 
 display a most wonderful vigour and vehemence — angels flying 
 rapidly, Apostles and prophets hurrying as if each were trying 
 to outrun the other. 
 
 Whence such new life originates it is never easy — it is 
 perhaps impossible — to detect, Did it in this case, as some 
 believe, come from beyond the Alps ? Surely, what little we 
 know of Northern art at this period makes us reject such a 
 theory with something like ridicule. What shall we say, 
 again, to the assertion that not only in the case of sculpture 
 and poetry but also in that of mosaics and painting the new 
 spirit came from the south — from Apulian or Sicilian sources ? 
 Perhaps it is wisest to listen unconvinced to such theories and 
 to continue all the more zealously and lovingly our quest for 
 what is great and beautiful, assured that often the search for 
 the truth is of more importance than its supposed discovery. 
 
 (2) Architecture. In former chapters I have pointed out 
 some of the characteristics of basilican, Byzantine, and 
 Romanesque architecture. Here I shall add a few remarks 
 on the origin and nature of Italian Gothic, the first important 
 528 
 
59- Cosmati Tomb in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome 528 
 
ART 
 
 examples of which date from the early years of the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 Considerably earlier than the thirteenth century attempts 
 were made in Italy to solve certain constructive difficulties by 
 applying the device of the pointed arch and the ribbed vault. 
 The pointed arch is found in Sicilian Norman and in Saracen 
 architecture, and the genuine ribbed vault, which by many 
 is regarded as the fundamental principle a of Gothic, may be 
 seen, as well as Gothic-like shafts and pilasters shooting upwards 
 from the piers as a roof-support, in the aisles and nave of 
 S. Ambrogio at Milan, the date of which is said to be about 
 1050. 
 
 Whether the new principles originated in countries north 
 of the Alps (possibly first adopted, as Ruskin believed, in 
 order to meet the necessities of wooden buildings) and were 
 introduced thence into Italy at this early age, or whether they 
 were spontaneously generated in Italy itself and adapted to 
 the exigencies of Italian architecture, is a question perhaps 
 insoluble. It seems to me to be quite clear, though the 
 distinction is not always clearly made, that there are at least 
 two very distinct types of Italian Gothic — one a direct impor- 
 tation and the other a genuine Italian development of the 
 principle of the broken arc as applied to vaulting and to 
 colonnades and windows. As a striking example of the 
 directly imported type I would cite S. Andrea at Vercelli, 
 built (c. 1220) perhaps by an English architect and furnished 
 with a dome, western towers, and buttresses, like a Northern 
 Gothic church. Also a very interesting specimen of imported 
 French Gothic is the little (much rebuilt) church of S. Maria 
 della Spina at Pisa, founded in 1230. Of genuine Italian Gothic 
 the finest early examples are probably S. Croce and S. Maria 
 Novella and the Duomo at Florence ; for the cathedral of Siena, 
 the f acade of which shows the transition from Romanesque to 
 Gothic, is externally of a florid and decorative style that is 
 
 1 The difficulty of vaulting oblong and other spaces where the altitudes of 
 the arcs are different is solved by the use of a pointed arch, or rather of a 
 broken arc, i.e. two similar curves placed at an angle less than the bend 
 of a circle. 
 
 2L 529 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 doubtless due to Northern influences ; and the Duomo at 
 Orvieto, which is of about the same date (c. 1290-1310) and is 
 sometimes described as the finest example of Italian Gothic, 
 is indeed a very magnificent building, but is, if I am not 
 mistaken, scarcely more an example of genuine Italian Gothic 
 architecture than is Milan Cathedral. 
 
 The essential differences between Northern and Italian Gothic 
 may be intimated in a few words. 
 
 First let us note that the fundamental principle of Greek 
 and Roman architecture,, as exemplified in the colonnade and 
 architrave (and also in the solid cupola of the Pantheon), is 
 that of vertical pressure — a dead weight on a vertical support 
 — while the principle underlying Gothic is balance. 1 By means 
 of such balance enormous masses may be elevated and poised 
 aloft, and, as we see in our Northern cathedrals, in order to 
 support the thrust of such masses the walls, generally of no 
 great thickness and weakened by the introduction of huge 
 windows,,have to be propped by means of mighty external but- 
 tresses, attached or flying. Now in Northern Gothic all such 
 constructive devices, both external and internal, were made 
 decorative, with pinnacles, crockets, traceries, gargoyles, etc., 
 by which process the beauty of pure form was disfigured and 
 at the same time true artistic decoration, such as mosaics and 
 frescos, were rendered almost impossible, whereas the Italians, 
 while adopting the pointed arch (or broken are) and developing 
 from it the most wonderfully proportioned forms of beauty 
 (such as the interior of S. Croce and such as Giotto's Cam- 
 panile, both of which are incomparable specimens of pure 
 form), did not allow constructive devices to usurp the province 
 of decoration. They kept the beauty of constructive form 
 and the beauty of decorative art distinct. Thus one glory of 
 Giotto's Campanile is its constructive form — as graceful as 
 that of a lily — and another glory is its rich marbles and 
 sculptures and delicate mouldings: Again, the perfect pro- 
 portions of the bare and ' barn-like' interior of S. Croce, when 
 illuminated by early-morning light, are, in spite of all the 
 1 See remarks on Romanesque Architecture, p. 437. 
 
 53° 
 
« 
 o 
 
 «" 
 u 
 
 o 
 « 
 
ART 
 
 disfiguring monuments, so lovely that (as Dante said of 
 Casella's music) they quiet all the longings of one's soul ; but 
 that is not all that S. Croce offers us : if one steps into the 
 Bardi or the Peruzzi chapel one finds oneself face to face with 
 broad walls covered with Giotto's frescos — for which no 
 Northern Gothic cathedral could easily find fitting surface. 1 
 Think of Giotto's frescos, here or at Assisi, and try to imagine 
 them in Westminster Abbey ! 
 
 The following list of some of the principal Italian Gothic 
 churches and palaces may be useful. Gothic palaces form a 
 very characteristic and impressive feature of many North 
 Italian towns. They are mostly of later date than the early 
 Gothic churches and are products of Italian genius far more 
 than are some of the churches mentioned below. Venetian 
 Gothic, it will be remembered, was also a late product and 
 possesses a very special character, having been subjected to 
 various influences, among which was doubtless the Oriental. 
 
 Churches. At Vercelli, 5. Andrea (begun c. 1220, perhaps by Brighintz, 
 an Englishman ?). 
 
 At Assisi, S. Francesco (c. 1228, by Jac. Tedesco of Meran ? Also Upper 
 Church, c. 1253, with Gothic portal, etc.). 
 
 At Pisa, S. M. delta Spina (c. 1230, French Gothic), Campo Santo (c. 1270, by 
 Giov. Pisano). Also S. Caterina and 5. Michele, examples of 'Ksan-Gothic' 
 
 At Siena, Duomo (begun c. 1210, cupola 1264, facade 1284-1320). 
 
 At Orvieto, Duomo (c. 1290-1310). 
 
 At Bologna, S. Francesco (e. 1250, with buttresses ; horribly rebuilt), 
 S. Giovanni in Monte, and S. Petronio (after the plan of Florentine Duomo). 
 
 At Verona, S. Anastasia (c. 1261). 
 
 At Florence, S. Maria Novella (begun 1278), S. Croce (begun 1294), Duomo 
 (Arn. Cambio 1296-1301, Giotto 1334-6, Andrea Pisano 1336-49), Campanile 
 (1334 onwards). 
 
 At Rome the only old Gothic church is S. Maria sopra Minerva (built 
 c. 1285, probably by the builders of S. Maria Novella). 
 
 1 One result of this love of surface is the greater breadth of the Italian 
 Gothic arches, which makes a nave, such as that of the Florentine Duomo, 
 look shorter than it is, whereas English and French Gothic naves, with their 
 more pointed and numerous arches, give the impression of much greater 
 length. And here let me once more note that, whatever claims to admiration 
 it may possess, a Northern Gothic cathedral, held together by external but- 
 tresses, seems not to possess that entirety which is supposed to be essential 
 to a work of art, for when one is inside the building these buttresses, without 
 which the whole would collapse, are out of sight, so that an effort is necessary 
 to assure oneself that they exist and to allay a feeling of anxiety. In Italian 
 Gothic one has no such sensation. 
 
 531 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 At Venice, the church of the Frari (begun c. 1230, entirely rebuilt c. 1330— 
 1400 ; simple and rather clumsy imitation of Northern style), S. Giovanni e 
 Paolo and S. Stefano (1333-80 ? Much rebuilt ; also heavy and inelegant 
 style).. 
 
 Palaces. At Siena, (of about twenty- two palaces) Palazzo piibblico (1289- 
 1305) and Palazzo Buonsignori (c. 1350). 
 
 At Bologna, Palazzo Communale (1290). 
 
 At Florence, Palazzo Vecchio (1298-1314). 
 
 At Fistoia, Palazzo Pretoria (p. 1350). 
 
 At Venice, (of about a hundred) Palazzo ducale (1310 onwards), and many 
 others (Sangredo, Morosini, Ca d'oro, etc.) of later date and genuine Venetian 
 Gothic style, the exquisite beauty of which we all know. 
 
 (3) Sculpture. (The most important fact connected with 
 Italian art of the thirteenth century is perhaps the sudden 
 appearance of a new sculpture, and the question whence it so 
 suddenly appeared opens up a subject on which a great deal 
 has been written, but very little proved. Also here I shall 
 have to limit myself to a few general impressions. 
 
 The rude and often repulsively grotesque character of 
 medieval Italian sculpture, especially where it came under 
 Germanic influences, has been frequently indicated and 
 illustrated in former chapters. 
 
 Some imagine that even before the thirteenth century they 
 can detect symptoms of a revival, and it is indeed strange that 
 with so many beautiful specimens of classic sculpture still 
 extant and visible (such as sarcophagi, reliefs, etc.) this art 
 should have become as totally extinct as that of painting ; 
 but even if the Roman scholae did keep alive through the Dark 
 Ages any glimmering spark of ancient genius, all traces of their 
 influence seem at last to have perished, and in spite of all the 
 praise that has been lately lavished on certain stone-carvers, 
 such as Gruamons (c. 1170 ?) and Antelami (c. 1200) and the 
 somewhat later Guido di Como and his son Guidetto, I think 
 an inspection of their works at I^ucca, Pistoia, Parma, and 
 elsewhere will convince the unprejudiced that, although there 
 may be some dignity in single figures (e.g. Antelami's Ezekiel 
 and Guidetto's Saint Martin at I^ucca), these productions 
 belong to the same class, let us say, as the Monza lunette 
 (p. 256) and that they stand at the end of an old order of 
 things and not at the beginning of a new, being in no artistic 
 53 2 
 
6i. The Baptistery Puwit, Pisa 
 
 532 
 
ART 
 
 sense predecessors of that famous Pisan pulpit whence, as an 
 old writer says, issued forth, as from an Ark, the great sculptors 
 of Tuscany. The reliefs on this hexagonal pulpit (for which 
 see Fig. 61) offer the first truly artistic treatment of a Christian 
 subject in sculpture, and the sudden, unheralded apparition 
 of this work of noble design and classical technique at a time 
 when in Italy — anyhow in North Italy — the sculptor's art was 
 in a state of almost hopeless degeneracy is a startling fact. 
 To stand before Niccold' s pulpit in the Pisan Baptistery after 
 inspecting grotesque productions of his 'predecessors' — for 
 instance, Bonanno's bronze doors in the south transept of 
 the Duomo — excites a heart-throb such as I once experienced 
 when, journeying oceanwards after long exile among wild 
 tribes in Central Africa, I suddenly espied on the path a shard 
 of porcelain — the fragment, perhaps, of a broken cup dropped 
 by some Arab or European caravan. 
 
 The date of this work of Niccold Pisano, who died c. 1278, 
 is 1260. Some say that he was already well known as an 
 architect and had been employed as such on the Duomo at 
 Pisa and also at Siena. But there seems no satisfactory 
 evidence of this, and it is likely that his pulpit first made him 
 well known. The question is, where and how did he acquire 
 his wondrous skill ? 
 
 Vasari asserts that Nicola (Niccold) served as apprentice to 
 certain scukori Greet employed on the ornamentation of the 
 Pisan Duomo and Baptistery and attained his skill by studying 
 Greek sarcophagi and monuments which stood in or near these 
 edifices or were built into their walls ; 1 and that he especially 
 studied and copied ' figures from the boar-hunt of Meleager ' 
 carved on a sarcophagus which had been ' placed by the 
 Pisans in the fagade of the Duomo and had been used as the 
 tomb of the mother of Countess Matilda.' There is in the 
 Campo Santo an old Roman sarcophagus with such a relief, 
 
 1 The Campo Santo, though used as a cemetery from 1203, was first sur- 
 rounded by its Gothic arcades by Giovanni Pisano, son of Niccol6, in 1270, 
 and when Niccold made his pulpit (1260) these sarcophagi and monuments, 
 says Vasari, had not been placed in the arcades. Indeed the Beatrice 
 sarcophagus was first moved thither in 1810. 
 
 533 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 but it shows no inscription such as that quoted by Vasari, 
 nor is there anything in the pulpit suggested by this relief. 
 However, another old sarcophagus (Fig. 31), half of whose 
 relief shows Phaedra and Hippolytus and half the boar-hunt, 
 has an inscription stating that it was the burial-place of 
 Beatrice, Matilda's mother ; and this displays figures from 
 which Mccold certainly drew inspiration. There is also a 
 large and beautiful Greek vase of Parian marble, with a 
 Bacchanalian procession which doubtless offered him various 
 suggestions, especially for his High Priest. But his wonderful 
 reliefs contain no direct imitation. Nevertheless, everyone who 
 feels the indescribable grace and dignity of ancient sculpture 
 must at once recognize the like spirit — not perhaps in artistic 
 composition, which is such a wonderful characteristic of the 
 best ancient reliefs, but in the beauty and truth and vigour 
 of form and the nobility of expression. By some wonderful 
 recreative power the divine, angelic, and sainted personae 
 of the Christian hierarchy are presented to us — not, as some- 
 times in old mosaics, under the disguise of classic armour or 
 apparel, but as veritable Greek deities, heroes, and heroines. 
 The Madonna — evidently inspired by the Phaedra of the 
 sarcophagus — has the regal brow and pose of Juno. Gabriel 
 is like some new-lighted Mercury, the Magi reminding one of 
 Minos or old King Priam. Even the horses of the Magi are 
 Pheidian. 
 
 When one begins to think how it could be possible to achieve 
 all this by a mere study of certain old carvings, one may be 
 tempted to agree with writers who assert that every intelligent 
 critic must smile at such an absurd suggestion. But there are 
 possibilities in the sphere of human genius that are not dreamed 
 of by such philosophers, and, ingenious as the following theory 
 is, I think the enthusiasm that always attends the discovery 
 of a mare's-nest may account for the favour with which in 
 some quarters it has been received. 
 
 We are informed that Niccold of Pisa (on the pulpit he is 
 called ' Pisanus ') was really an Apulian. An old document 
 styles him ' Nicolaus Pietri de Apulia,' thus asserting rather 
 
 534 
 
62. The Raveiao Puuit 
 Near Amalfi 
 
 534 
 
ART 
 
 ambiguously that either he or his father Peter came from the 
 south, or perhaps got the sobriquet from having visited 
 Apulia. One may be quite willing to accept any of these four 
 possibilities ; but when one is told that Niccolo acquired his 
 wonderful skill as sculptor in South Italy, one naturally asks 
 what proof there is that the art of sculpture in those regions 
 and at that period was so far advanced as to admit of this 
 possibility. One remembers Sicilian mosaics, and bronze 
 doors, mostly traceable to Byzantine artists, and one or two 
 fairly executed reliefs, and some interesting specimens of 
 architecture — but nothing else except one single pulpit ; and 
 on this Ravello pulpit (Fig. 62) these writers seemingly base 
 their theory that the fans et origo of Tuscan sculpture was 
 Apulia. 
 
 There is certainly a certain resemblance between the Ravello 
 and the Pisan pulpit, and the device of columns nesting on 
 lions indubitably shows I/ombard influence in both cases. 
 But there is nothing at Ravello (except some well-executed 
 busts) that bears any resemblance to the Pisan sculptures — 
 and surely these are the point of importance. 
 
 Now according to the inscription on this Ravello pulpit 
 Nicolaus de Fogia marmorarius hoc opus fecit, and we are told 
 that this was Niccold, son of Bartolomeo of Foggia (a favourite 
 residence of Frederick II), and that he was doubtless a relative 
 of the Niccolo who migrated to North Italy and made the 
 similar Pisan pulpit. 
 
 All this is, of course, possible ; but I really think it more 
 probable that our Niccold was a native-born Pisan, and that 
 the ' Pietri de Apulia ' should be explained by supposing that 
 his father visited and perhaps for a time resided in the south 
 — Pisa at that time having been a great maritime power and in 
 constant connexion with South Italian ports. And seeing 
 that the date of the Ravello pulpit is most assuredly 1272, 
 I think it reasonable to suppose that, if Niccold had any 
 connexion at all with it, he, or some pupil of his, may 
 have been invited to Ravelk* — or to Naples, whither Giotto 
 was invited later — and may have designed and perhaps 
 
 535 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 executed the work on somewhat the same lines as the Pisan 
 pulpit. 
 
 However that may be, it is incontestable that Niccolo was 
 the founder of that Tuscan school of great sculptors of whom 
 Michelangelo was perhaps the greatest. 
 
 With his son Giovanni, Niccold wrought also (1265-68) the 
 beautiful Siena pulpit (Fig. 63) and the Deposition lunette 
 over the door of the Duomo at I/Ucca, which Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle call the best bit of sculpture of the thirteenth 
 century. Several other fine works are attributed to him or 
 to Giovanni. (For the sculptures on Domenic's tomb see 
 Fig. 52 and explanation.) A scholar of Giovanni's was 
 Andrea Pisano (1273-1348), the fellow-worker of Giotto on 
 the Campanile and the creator of one of the wonderful bronze 
 doors of the Florentine Baptistery. 
 
 (4) Painting. It would in any case be beside my purpose 
 to give biographical details that can be found in multitudinous 
 books on the early Tuscan artists, and as the thousand years 
 or so covered by this volume do not extend to the end of 
 Giotto's life it will be better to defer our consideration of 
 the origins of Italian painting until Giotto's work and its later 
 developments can be traced. I shall therefore limit myself 
 here to certain points connected with the question whether 
 Florence was or was not the cradle of this new-born art of 
 painting, taking it for granted that none would be so bold as 
 to deny that Tuscany was its home. 
 
 The fact that the revival of the art of sculpture preceded 
 the new birth of painting in Italy is, of course, due to the 
 survival of ancient statues, sarcophagi, and other monuments 
 and the non-survival of ancient paintings — except such as 
 had not yet been excavated at Pompeii and elsewhere. And 
 first let us decide whether we may speak of the new birth, or 
 even the re-creation, of the art of painting in contradistinction 
 to the revival, or resuscitation, of the art of sculpture. Are 
 we to say that the life of all true pictorial art had become 
 totally extinct ? Are we to regard Byzantine painting as a 
 gorgeous mummy, incapable of transmitting any vital spark 
 536 
 
H 
 
 M 
 
 1= 
 
 < 
 S3 
 W 
 
 5 
 
ART 
 
 of life ? Are we to scout the suggestion that Roman and 
 Tuscan mosaics bridged the abyss of more than a thousand 
 years and made it quite easy for, say, Cimabue to find his way 
 across to the City Beautiful ? May we affirm that genius 
 is able to bridge all abysses for itself and needs no transmission 
 of ethereal flame, but is capable of artistic creation in absolute 
 independence of that law of natural evolution which forbids a 
 break in continuity ? Yes, I think we will dare to do so. 
 
 In Tuscany at the beginning of the thirteenth century the 
 Byzantine style seems to have prevailed largely. As this 
 Byzantine style was doubtless introduced into North Italy 
 via Venice it may seem surprising that it did not prevail still 
 more in I/ombardy. But the fact is that in I^ombardy at that 
 period neither the Byzantine nor any other style prevailed, 
 seeing that painting itself scarcely existed. 1 At Florence, on 
 the contrary, the number of artists was so large that when 
 Dante was young more than twenty maestri, it is said, had 
 studios there — perhaps many of them in the old Via de' Pittori. 
 And these were doubtless all ' Greeks/ or else Italians who 
 had studied the technique and the traditions of the Byzantine 
 school of painting — and what this technique and these tradi- 
 tions were we have already seen. 
 
 Among the apprentices of some such painter 2 was doubtless 
 the youth Giovanni Cenni, known better under his adopted 
 name Cimabue, who ' was born,' as Vasari truly says, ' to 
 shed the first light on the art of painting ' — or as we may 
 
 1 As also in Germany. At an earlier period at Aachen Charles the Great 
 put up mosaics stolen from Ravenna, and in his castle at Ingelheim, 
 between Mainz and Bingen, there were great frescos representing such 
 celebrities as Romulus, Alexander, Hannibal, Charles Martel, etc. ; but all this 
 has disappeared, and the relics of c. 1 150-1250 only show coarsely outlined 
 and coloured wall-paintings with evidences of Byzantine influence. (The 
 famous tapestries of QuedHnburg, c. 1200, are a puzzling exception.) One 
 may note in passing that for two centuries after 1200 (i.e. down to the days 
 of the Van Bycks) German painting was very much hampered by the 
 dominating influence of the Gothic principle of constructive decoration, which 
 not only limited the artist to altar-pieces, but reduced his pictures to narrow 
 fields, such as heavily framed triptychs. 
 
 8 Vasari says that the young Cimabue watched ' Greek painters' at work in 
 S. Maria Novella. But this church was founded in 1278, when Cimabue was 
 thirty-eight years old ! 
 
 537 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 perhaps say, to reanimate with life the mummy of Byzantine 
 art. 
 
 This new light, or life, this wondrous quality that dis- 
 tinguishes even the early attempts of the new school from the 
 pictures of the preceding ' Greek painters,' may be felt, if not 
 described, by those who in a receptive, leisurely, and uncritical 
 state of mind will, after inspecting a few Byzantine icons, 
 spend, say, half an hour in the presence of the Rucellai 
 Madonna. 
 
 The difference is not so obvious perhaps as it is when 
 we compare the Pisan pulpit with Antelami's reliefs on the 
 Baptistery at Parma, but it is, I think, as essential. It is the 
 difference between what possesses life — anyhow, the potency 
 of life — and what is lifeless. 
 
 The chief work of Cimabue was probably done in connexion 
 with the celebrated frescos at Assisi, where Giotto at first 
 worked under his direction ; but of the elder master's work 
 there little or nothing can be certainly recognized. Also of 
 the numerous altar-pieces attributed to him by Vasari three 
 only are extant. One is in the I^ouvre ; the other two are at 
 Florence, namely, that which he painted for the church of 
 della Trinita and which hangs now in the Accademia side by 
 side with a somewhat similar work by Giotto, and the beautiful 
 and noble Rucellai Madonna, which was painted for, and is 
 still to be seen within, S. Maria Novella. 
 
 I^atter-day sceptics, mostly German, have denied that 
 Cimabue painted any of these three pictures, and on the 
 ground of some old document that mentions a commission 
 offered (1285) by the monks of S. Maria Novella to the Sienese 
 painter Duccio they insist that we shall believe Duccio to 
 have painted this Madonna of the Cappella Rucellai. To 
 argue the point is here impossible. I can only state my con- 
 viction. Duccio's vast ' Ancona ' with its twenty-six scenes 
 from the life of Christ, although it is wooden and vapid in 
 execution, does certainly display the influence of the new 
 •style (of Giotto rather than of Cimabue) in regard to attempted 
 animation and expression ; but this 'Ancona,' as such an altar- 
 
 538 
 
ART 
 
 piece is called, was not painted till about 1311, and earlier 
 paintings by this master, to be seen in the Siena Gallery, 
 show scarcely a sign of liberation from the shackles of Byzan- 
 tinism. That also at Siena there were towards the end of the 
 thirteenth century some painters, such as Guido and Duccio, 
 who were affected by the new movement cannot be doubted, 
 but that on the strength of the evidence adduced we are to 
 regard Siena, and not Florence, as the cradle of the new art 
 of painting I think we may without hesitation permit ourselves 
 to deny. 
 
 539 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ORIGINS OF ITALIAN LANGUAGE 
 AND LITERATURE 
 
 TO ABOUT 13OO 
 
 I. Language 
 
 SOME have believed in a ' primitive Romance language ' 
 formed by the combination of a fairly pure Latin 
 with Gothic and Lombard and spoken 'by all the 
 peoples who were subject to Charlemagne throughout the 
 south of Europe ' (Raynouard) . About the eleventh century 
 this widespread primitive Romance, it is said, broke up, and 
 the seven Romance languages originated by a natural process 
 of differentiation. Further research has however shown 
 that in Western and Southern Europe, and especially in Italy, 
 the Northern invaders soon adopted the Latin forms both of 
 thought and of speech that were prevalent throughout the 
 Empire and ere very long gave up entirely their native tongue, 
 which left but few traces. 1 
 
 Now of Latin there were two distinct and ever more 
 divergent varieties, namely the literary language and the 
 conversational. The vigorous, conversational ' Roman ' — that 
 sermo usualis, rusticus, or castrensis, early evidences of which 
 are supplied by the classical comic writers, and of which later 
 many dialects existed in the provinces as well as in Italy itself 
 — separated itself in course of time wholly from the old dead 
 
 1 This seems true of the Goths, Vandals, and Franks, the relics of whose 
 languages in Italy, Spain, and Prance are very inconspicuous. On the other 
 hand, the Angles and Saxons imposed their language on Britain — till the 
 coming of the Normans. By the way, the Normans themselves lost their 
 original language (Danish) and adopted the Prankish Romance with wonderful 
 rapidity. See p. 400 n. 
 
 54O 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 or dying language — the literary, official, and ecclesiastical Latin 
 — that Latin which was still used in its silver-age purity by 
 Claudian, Boethius, Cassiodorus, and a few other medieval 
 writers, but which in documents, chronicles, hymns, letters, 
 treatises, epitaphs, etc., of the ninth and tenth centuries we find 
 to have become very degenerate. 
 
 It was, however, a long time before this lingua popularis 
 became the sole spoken language. The degenerate classical 
 Latin held its place for centuries — perhaps down to the twelfth 
 or thirteenth century — side by side with the volgare, and was 
 evidently ' understanded of the people.' This is proved by 
 numbers of songs which were evidently meant for popular 
 recital. Some of these songs are in quite correct Latin ; * 
 others contain a very considerable amount of very bad 
 grammar, as exemplified in the following lines — the beginning 
 of a soldiers' song, composed about 871, when the Emperor 
 Louis II was taken prisoner (see p. 316 n.) by the Lombard Duke 
 of Benevento : 
 
 Audite omnes fines terrae orrore cum tristitia 
 Quale scelus ficit factum Benevento civitas ; 
 Lhuduicum comprenderunt sancto pio Augusto. ... 
 
 On other occasions we have a queer medley of Latin and 
 genuine Italian words and constructions, as in a letter 2 of 
 Pope John XII (c. 963) — who, by the way, is said to have 
 used nothing but the popular Roman in conversation. 
 
 Thus, side by side with degraded literary Latin but entirely 
 distinct from it, was the popular volgare. This in time not only 
 became the ordinary conversational language but also began 
 to be used for ballads and love-songs (ladies, as Dante reminds 
 us, often not understanding Latin), and ultimately was adopted 
 
 1 E.g. : 
 
 tu qui servos armis ista moenia, 
 Noli dormire, moneo, sed vigila I 
 
 sung (c. 924) by soldiers guarding Modena against the Hungarians. 
 
 2 Nos audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere. Si hoc 
 facitis excommunico vos da deum omnipotentem. It may be remembered 
 that at the very Council which deposed John XII the Saxon speech of the 
 Emperor Otto I was translated by Bishop I/iudprand into Latin for the 
 benefit of the audience (p. 336».). 
 
 541 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 by the writers of the new school of poetry and was raised by 
 Dante to the rank of a great literary language. 
 
 Proofs of the early existence of this primitive Italian are 
 rare, for in its first stages it was but rarely, if ever, written, 
 and was not used in public inscriptions. The very first 
 written specimens are said to be some testimonies of witnesses 
 inserted in I/atin legal documents of about the year 960, 
 found at Capua and Teano. Of the same date is the recorded 
 excuse of a learned Italian, Gonzon, who, when on a visit to 
 the great monastery at St. Gallen, was ridiculed for committing 
 a grammatical blunder : ' I allow/ he answered, ' that I am 
 sometimes impeded by the use of our vulgar tongue, which is 
 related to I/atin.' Finally we find in old chronicles, from the 
 ninth century onward, many genuinely Italian words and 
 names, such as guerra, rocca, favellare, cambiare, Capo-in-sacco, 
 Rubacastello, Ubbriachi, Frangipani, Viva-che-vince, etc., and 
 by the twelfth century expressions such as Papa vittore ! San 
 Pietro Velegge ! and the popular cry of the Milanese at the 
 election of an archbishop, Ecco la stola ! 
 
 The tendency of a synthetic language towards decomposition 
 induced conversational ' Roman' 1 to discard terminations, or 
 to ignore their force and meaning, and therefore necessarily 
 to adopt prepositions, auxiliary verbs, articles, and a more 
 invariable arrangement of the sentence. Even in the Cata- 
 combs we find many examples of this, such as salbo (salvus), 
 unu (unus), locu (locus), homine (hominem),'gw«e cum eum bene 
 vixit, de via noba (viae novae), and later we constantly come 
 upon such jargon as feminas qui natas fuerint, or occisus 
 factum est. At length all attempt to use case-endings ceased, 
 an invariable form (generally the accusative docked of its 
 final consonant) was adopted for the singular, the prepositions 
 supplied the place of cases, and auxiliaries helped to form 
 tenses. 2 
 
 In this connexion it will be interesting to hear what Dante 
 
 1 This tendency is perceptible also in old Latin inscriptions, and in antique 
 forms preserved by I<ivy, Ennius, Lucretius, and others. 
 
 2 Note the use of avere and avoir in servir-o and servir-ai (also Spanish 
 comeri = hi de comer). 
 
 542 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 thought about his mother language at the beginning of the 
 fourteenth century. In his Latin treatise De Vulgari Eloquio 
 he first indulges his imagination about the perfect speech of 
 angels and of Adam. Then he laments the imperfections of 
 all post-Babel languages, and gives their various groups. Of 
 the Romance languages (quae oc aut oil aut si affirmando 
 loquuntur) he selects the Italian as the more venerable and 
 noble. 1 But what, he asks, is Italian ? Where shall we find 
 an idioma ilktstre, cardinale, aulicum, fit for national literature ? 
 In order to discover this he examines the chief Italian dialects 
 and lashes the ugly vulgarisms and the barbarous pronuncia- 
 tion of most of them, stigmatizing the Roman as the basest 
 of all. 2 For three dialects he has a good word to say, and it 
 is for us especially interesting that these are thirteenth-century 
 Tuscan, Sicilian, and Bolognese, for they are the three forms 
 of early Italian which will occupy most of our attention in 
 the following section. From the various forms of Tuscan 
 (Pisan, Sienese, Florentine, etc.) he gives examples of ugly 
 words and expressions, but says that the capabilities of this 
 vigorous volgare have been recognized and put to a good use 
 by certain writers, among whom he mentions Guido Cavalcanti, 
 Lapo Gianni, Cino of Pistoia, and ' one other ' — evidently 
 meaning himself. 
 
 Of the Sicilians and Apulians he says — what we shall find 
 to agree with modern theories — that while the common people 
 spoke a base and barbarous jargon (turpiter barbarizant) the 
 poets used a more than usually refined and courtly language 
 (curialiora verba) so that it had come about that all poetry 
 written by Italians was called Sicilian (ut quicquid poetantur 
 I tali Sicilianum vocetur). 
 
 The dialect of Bologna Dante calls 'perhaps the best,' 
 and at this we need not wonder, for, as we shall see, there 
 were already poets of the Bolognese school, one of whom 
 
 1 In the Convito he calls Latin nobler than Italian as being " more fixed 
 and incorruptible,' but elsewhere he speaks of a living language as nobler 
 than a dead. 
 
 2 He calls it a tristiloquium. Of the Sardinians he contemptuously remarks 
 that they imitate grammatical Latin like apes. 
 
 543 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 (Guido Guinicelli) Dante calls ' the father of myself and my 
 betters.' 
 
 His final conclusion is that, " as noble actions belong to- 
 Italy as a nation, so must the language be found in, and 
 formed from, the whole of Italy.' It is, however, curious that 
 probably among no other European people has the literary 
 language been formed less from the whole country and so 
 exclusively from the ordinary speech of one single district — 
 indeed, one might almost say, from one single city. 
 
 II. The Origins of Italian Literature 
 
 This is a subject on which to write a long treatise, wherein 
 one might (as Dante says) squeeze out more fully the juice of 
 one's opinions, would be a pleasant and comparatively easy 
 task. But to try to put it all in a nutshell, so to speak, is a 
 difficult and thankless undertaking. 
 
 Dante's great poem has already illuminated for us many a 
 dull passage ; but the influence of the Divina Commedia first 
 began to work strongly after the epoch at which this volume 
 ends, and it will be better to defer the great subject till we 
 can examine it as a whole. Here I shall only attempt to trace 
 from their diverse sources some of the rivulets which, like the 
 mountain-rills that form the river of Tuscany — 
 
 Li ruscelletli, che de' verdi colli 
 
 Del Casentin discendon giuso in Arno, 
 Facendo i lor canali e freddi e molli — 
 
 gathered their waters together to form the fair, broad river of 
 Tuscan and Italian literature. 
 
 We have already heard how Italian arose and gradually 
 established itself in the place of Latin as the spoken language. 
 We have now to hear how this vulgar tongue became the 
 literary language of Italy. In order to put this briefly and 
 distinctly I shall give a few significant facts under the following 
 heads : (i) Native Italian literature ; (2) The Provencal 
 school ; (3) The Sicilian poets ; (4) Their influence in North 
 Italy ; (5) II dolce stil nuovo. 
 
 544 
 
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 544 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 
 
 (i) Although, as we shall see, the Provencal, and perhaps 
 also the Sicilian, school of poetry influenced considerably the 
 external form of early Italian poetry, the living power that 
 vitalized this poetry, as well as the vigorous outgrowth of 
 Italian prose, was drawn not from the amorous ditties of 
 Troubadours and courtiers, but from native stock. Evidences 
 of the existence of this native stock have become in the course 
 of centuries difficult to discover, but there are some relics, and 
 one of these, a Hymn of Praise by St. Francis, somewhat resem- 
 bling the Benedicite, must excite both admiration and wonder. 
 Indeed, so wonderful does it seem that this so-called Cantico 
 del Sole should have been composed sixty years before Dante's 
 Vita Nuova that some sceptical persons have declared that 
 it must have been entirely rewritten in later times, if not 
 translated (as were the Fioretti of St. Francis) from a I^atin 
 original. 
 
 This, however, is a baseless assumption unless we found it on 
 the fact that, as often occurs when a composition is widely 
 used for recitation, there are several slightly different versions. 
 And even if the language has been modernized, it seems 
 indubitable that a fine poem was written in Italian volgare in 
 the year 1224. 
 
 The following extracts will show that this song uses a 
 language which differs from that of Dante no more than 
 Chaucer's differs from Shakespeare's : 
 
 Allissimo, omnipotente, bon Signore, 
 Tue son le laude, la gloria, e I'onore . . . 
 Laudato sie, mi signore, con tutle le tue 
 
 creature, 
 Specialmente messer lo frate sole . . . 
 Laudato sie, mi signore, per sora luna 
 
 e le stelle ; 
 In celu le hoi formate clarite e pretiose 
 
 e belle. 
 
 Thanks are given for many other gifts, such as ' sister water,' 
 
 La quale e multo utile e humile e pretiosa 
 
 e casta, 
 
 and ' brother fire,' who is so jocundo e robusto e forte. 
 
 2M 545 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Very numerous ' praises ' (laude or lodi) of like character and 
 similar language, but with scarce a trace of poetry, were initiated 
 by this Song of St. Francis and were carried through the whole 
 of Italy by his disciples as well as by other wandering preachers ; 
 and the hysterical Flagellant movement of 1258 (see p. 509) 
 called into existence thousands more. Some of the oldest and 
 best of the many laude which have survived in Umbrian and 
 Tuscan manuscripts, and which, like the hymns of certain 
 modern religious bodies, often consist of a strange medley of 
 banalite, pathos, and sublimity, are attributed to Jacopone of 
 Todi, who by some is believed to have been the author of 
 the Stdbat Mater. His experiences are worth relating. 
 
 In 1278 he was converted from a careless life by the death 
 of his wife, who was killed by the fall of a tribune at a festival 
 and was found to be robed in sackcloth worn beneath her 
 festal finery. He forthwith gave up all his wealth and courted 
 destitution and despite, assuming the guise of an idiot, and when 
 refused admission into the Franciscan Order he explained the 
 motives of his pazzia in a strangely beautiful ' mystic song/ 
 which begins thus : 
 
 Udite nova pazzia 
 Che mi vien' in fantasia : 
 Viemmi voglia esser morto 
 Perche to son visso a torto . . . 
 
 and he goes on to say, in language wondrously modern, that 
 he has given up Plato and Aristotle, for the simple-minded 
 can reach heaven without philosophy : 
 
 Semplice e puro inielletto 
 Se ne va iutto schietto, 
 Sale a divinal cospetto 
 Senza lor filosofia. 
 
 After admission as Franciscan he took zealous action as 
 reformer. He wrote hotly on this subject to Celestine (that 
 hermit-Pope who 'made the great refusal'), and naturally 
 came into violent collision with Boniface VIII, whom he 
 lampooned and by whom he was imprisoned in a subterranean 
 dungeon for four years. 
 546 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Another striking evidence of the existence of native Italian 
 verse before the Vita Nuova is the Tesoretto, an allegorical 
 Vision in 2940 jingling verses, not unlike the Vision of Piers 
 Plowman, by Ser Brunetto I^atini, for whom Dante, his pupil, 
 had evidently considerable respect and affection, although on 
 account of certain failings he felt obliged to doom him to the 
 fiery plain of the Inferno. The Tesoretto was written, according 
 to Boccaccio, before 1260. In this year Brunetto seems to 
 have been forced by the Guelf defeat at Montaperti to take 
 refuge in Paris, where he wrote a more pretentious work, 
 Le Tresor, in the French language. 
 
 But it was not only verse that was written in the early 
 Italian volgare. Many translations were made from French 
 and from Datin — versions of Northern and classical legends. 
 Aesop's Fables were volgarizzate. Brunetto's Tresor was 
 translated. Moreover chronicles, moral treatises, etc., began 
 to appear in the vulgar tongue, and what were probably the 
 first Italian romances now (c. 1260-90) saw the light. Of 
 these the Conti d'antichi cavalieri and the Cento Novelle, which 
 seem to preherald Boccaccio's Decameron, are the most 
 notable. By the time that Dante was nel mezzo del cammin 
 di nostra vita Italian translations and histories were becoming 
 fairly plentiful. As may be remembered, Giovanni Villani 
 conceived the design of his great work when he was at Rome 
 during the Jubilee of 1300. 
 
 (2) In the case of genius — such genius as that of Homer, or 
 Shakespeare, or Dante — although it is interesting to note the 
 effect of external influences on external form, it is of course 
 for the most part profitless to attempt the discovery of 
 'sources.' Dante's sublimity of imagination, his ' love of 
 love and hate of hate,' his tenderness and his fierceness, were 
 all his own ; but some of his rugged forms were doubtless 
 due to the native ore on which he put his mighty stamp, while 
 some of the gracious beauty of his ' sweet new style ' was, 
 we may feel sure, borrowed from Provencal and Sicilian song, 
 which he inspired with a nobility and dignity that will be 
 sought in vain in the often rather abject ditties of French 
 
 547 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Troubadours or the Canzoni and sonnets of Sicilian court 
 poets. 
 
 Any long digression into the realm of the Troubadours and 
 Trouveres of France — a realm, be it noted, much older than 
 that of early Italian literature — is here uncalled for. It will 
 suffice to note that the cult of Dieu et ma dame with its amorous 
 ecstasies of la Joie, that produced such choirs of knightly 
 and princely bards, was first awakened by the Oriental 
 Crusades, while on the other hand Provencal song was almost 
 entirely silenced by the hideous atrocities of the Crusade 
 against the Albigenses. 1 Even before this catastrophe (1210) 
 Provengal bards had found their way to North Italy, 2 but 
 now they seem to have come in great numbers, and, as was 
 natural, sang more of war and revenge than of chivalry, in- 
 dulging in satirical and political Sirventes more than in love-lorn 
 ballads ; and similar vigorous strains, both in the Provengal 
 tongue and in volgare, were taken up by Italian singers, who 
 were inspired by their own wars and feuds. Among these 
 early Italian-Provencal bards was Sordello, who has been 
 immortalized by Dante's verse (shall we add Browning's ?) 
 rather than by his own. 3 
 
 (3) But we must also consider another school of poets 
 which doubtless influenced (how much or how little it is very 
 difficult to say) the early singers of North Italy. Provengal 
 bards, as we have seen, had already been introduced by 
 Frederick Barbarossa into the imperial and princely courts of 
 Italy, so that it was but natural that Barbarossa's grandson, 
 Frederick II, that ' Wonder of the World ' who patronized 
 all kinds of learning and art and was addicted to Oriental 
 voluptuousness and amorous dalliance, should encourage 
 
 1 It seems strange that the last of the real Provengal Troubadours was 
 apparently the notorious Polquet, who became Bishop of Toulouse and 
 abetted Simon de Montfort in his extirpation of the Albigenses. 
 
 * Frederick Barbarossa may have first introduced them. We hear of such 
 French court-bards in Italy down to about 1360. 
 
 ' None who have read it can ever forget Dante's description of Sordello, 
 guardando a guisa di leon, quando si posa — nor much else in the three 
 cantos filled by his personality. Some doubt whether Dante's Sordello was 
 the Troubadour or the Podesta of Mantua. Perhaps he was both. 
 
 54 8 
 
<; 
 
 « 
 
 a 
 
 < 
 w 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Provencal songsters at his Sicilian court. Indeed, Frederick 
 himself tried his hand at Canzoni, and so did his unfortunate 
 son Enzio, and his unfortunate secretary, Piero delle Vigne, 
 and his chancellor, the Notary Lentini. 1 
 
 These Sicilian Troubadours made no use of that Sicilian 
 dialect which Dante calls a base and barbarous jargon, nor 
 were they influenced in the least by the Arabian tendencies 
 of Frederick's court. They adopted a conventional ' poetic ' 
 language, in which Provencalisms and Iyatinisms were mingled 
 with a kind of refined Italian volgare. This literary language 
 of the Sicilian court (lingua cortegiana) has an amazingly close 
 resemblance to the language used by early Tuscan poets, and 
 it is a most interesting and puzzling question how we are to 
 account for this resemblance. As the Sicilian school ' died 
 out with the Hohenstaufen dynasty, is it possible that these 
 Sicilian Canzoni and sonnets were originally in a mixture of 
 Sicilian and Provencal and were Tuscanized in order to be intro- 
 duced into Northern Italy ? 3 Or were Tuscan writers invited to 
 Frederick's court, and did they bring with them their Tuscan 
 poetical dialect ? Or did the early Tuscan poets accept this 
 Sicilian poetry as their model and adopt this Sicilian lingua 
 cortegiana as their language, and was therefore Sicily the 
 native home of that dolce stil nuovo and that lingua Toscana 
 which are the glory of early Italian literature ? If the last 
 supposition is right, then Italy owes her greatest literature to 
 the semi-Oriental Sicilian court of a German Emperor — a fact 
 that would be still more startling than the Apulian origin of the 
 great Tuscan school of sculpture. 
 
 (4) However that may be, it seems certain that the Sicilian 
 school did to some extent affect North Italy. We have already 
 
 1 Frederick II is credited with at least two extant Canzoni (De la mia 
 dezianza . . . and Dolze mio drudo . . .), Enzio with a couple, Piero delle 
 Vigne with about eight and a sonnet (Perd ch' Amove non si pud vedere). 
 
 2 As Frederick held court much in Apulia these bards doubtless flourished 
 also there, and there is a good deal of Apulian verse extant, but of uncertain 
 date. 
 
 3 Sometimes the rimes in the extant version of Sicilian poetry are im- 
 perfect unless the words are restored to the Sicilian dialect. A strophe by 
 Enzio exists in pure Sicilian, though his other poems are quite Tuscan-like. 
 
 549 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 seen how in this part of Italy there existed from early days a 
 vigorous native literature, and how the advent of Provencal 
 bards occasioned a great deal of imitative Provencal poetry 
 and also influenced the writers of Italian prose and verse. 
 We now, about 1260 — that is, ten years after the death of 
 Frederick II and not long before the death of Manfred and 
 the overthrow of the Hohenstaufen dynasty by Charles of 
 Anjou — find Tuscan poets who are professedly followers of 
 the Sicilian school. 
 
 Of these poets one of the first was Guittone of Arezzo, a 
 member of the Order of Frati Godenti (Jovial Friars). In 
 later years he abandoned the erotic Sicilian mode and took 
 up more serious subjects. His disciple, Guido Guincelli of 
 Bologna, also wrote at first in the Sicilian style, but afterwards 
 affected poetry of a mystic and symbolic character with a 
 tendency towards Platonic idealism and intellectual profun- 
 dity. It was doubtless his later poetry which caused Dante 
 to call him, when he met him in Purgatory, ' the father of me 
 and of my betters who have ever practised the sweet and 
 gracious rimes of love.' 
 
 (5) But a new race of poets was now to arise. This Pro- 
 vencal and Sicilian verse, though it showed some vigour in its 
 satirical and political Sirventes, and though its form and its 
 music were often exquisite, was on the whole very empty and 
 wearisome, and its attitude towards woman was almost 
 contemptible. In the healthier atmosphere of North Italy 
 ' chivalrous love,' as Symonds says, ' was treated in a more 
 masculine way and with far more intellectual depth of mean- 
 ing.' In order to realize this fully one has only to read a few 
 ditties of these Provencal or Sicilian rimesters, or a few 
 effusions of some of their Italian imitators, and then turn to 
 the sonnets and Canzoni of Dante's Vita Nuova. 
 
 The younger Italian poets, who had begun to cast off the 
 trammels of a false style, poured much contempt on the old- 
 fashioned imitators of the Sicilian mode. Here are some 
 verses, possibly by Davanzati, a follower of Guittone's later 
 style, addressed to some plagiarist of this genus, whom he 
 
 55° 
 
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 accuses of decking himself out in the gay feathers of the 
 Notary Giacomo da I^entini, Frederick's chancellor : 
 
 Per te lo dico, nuovo canzonero, 
 Che ti vesti le penne del Notaro, 
 E va' furando lo detto stranero : 
 Siccom' gli uccelli la corniglia spogliaro 
 Spogliere' ti per ] 'also menzonero, 
 Se fosse vivo, Giacomo Notaro. 
 
 Nor did the older verse-writers fail to respond — as we see from 
 the contemptuous reception by some of his contemporaries 
 of Dante's first sonnet. 
 
 It was round Dante that the younger poets grouped them- 
 selves. Among these we should note x especially Guido Caval- 
 canti and that I^apo Gianni who is mentioned in Dante's early 
 sonnet beginning with the words : 
 
 Guido, vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io . . . 
 
 Guido Cavalcanti is well known to all who have read the 
 Inferno, for there is no more pathetic episode in that poem than 
 where Dante meets in hell the father of his great friend ; and 
 this friend was also doubtless that Guido who in another well- 
 known passage is said by Dante 2 to have ' taken from the other 
 Guido [Guincelli] the glory of the Italian tongue ' : 
 
 Cosi ha tolto I'uno all' altro Guido 
 La gloria delta lingua . . . 
 
 ' And perhaps,' adds Dante, with a consciousness of his own 
 supreme power, ' he is already born who shall chase both the 
 one and the other from his nest ' : 
 
 e forse i nato, 
 Chi I'uno e V altro cacciera di nido. 
 
 A touching confession of this supremacy (not the less 
 touching because put into the speaker's mouth by Dante 
 
 ' One should also mention Cino of Pistoia, the Ghibelline mourner of the 
 death of Henry VII and the writer of some very beautiful sonnets in a style 
 afterwards brought to exquisite perfection by Petrarca. But Cino, although a 
 contemporary and friend of Dante, stood somewhat apart and did not accept 
 fully the new school. 
 
 * Purg. xi (the passage in which Giotto is said to have outri vailed Cimabne). 
 
 5Si 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 himself) is given by a poet of I<ucca called Buonagiunta, whom 
 
 Dante meets in Purgatory. This Buonagiunta, a writer of 
 
 the earlier school, speaks with admiration and wonder of 
 
 one of Dante's Canzoni, and when Dante thus explains the 
 
 new inspiration : 
 
 One am I who, whenever 
 Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure 
 Which he dictates within me singing go, 
 
 he answers : 
 
 O brother, now I see the knot which held 
 
 Me and the Notary and Fra Guittone 
 
 Back from the sweet new style which now I hear. 
 
 The explanation of the mystery which Dante offers is that 
 his poetry is dictated by love. A like answer might perhaps 
 have been given by any Provencal singer. But how totally 
 different is Dante's conception of love from that of 
 Troubadours and Sicilian rimesters, or even from that of 
 Petrarca himself ! This difference is intimated by the last 
 words of his Vita Nuova, which tell us of his determination to 
 write of his I^ady Beatrice ' that which hath never yet been 
 sung by any man.' And the record of his great sorrow is 
 closed by the prayer that his spirit ' might go hence to 
 behold the glory of its I^ady, who gloriously gazeth on the 
 face of Him who is through all ages blessed.' 
 
 552 
 
INDEX 
 
 Only a few references are made to genealogical tables, lists of 
 monarchs and Popes, and the I,ist of Illustrations, for in these 
 cases what is needed can be easily found. For buildings see under 
 ' Churches ' and ' Palaces.' The names of modern writers to whom 
 I am indebted are mentioned in the Preface. 
 
 A bbacimento, 16, 227, 289 
 Abelard, 364, 367 
 Acacius, Patriarch, 124, 131, 132 
 Adalbert, s. of Berengar II, 337-9 
 St. Adalbert of Prag, 343 
 Adda, battle on, 127 
 Adelaida of Monteferrato, 406 
 Adelchis, 241, 242 
 Adelheid, m. Otto I, 335, 341 
 Adelwald, 221, 255 
 Aeacid idols, 70 n. 
 Aemona, 127 
 
 Aetius, 12-13 I rival of Boniface, 89 ; 
 defeats Burgundians, 90 ; death, 
 
 13. i°4 
 Africa, Central, 106 n. 
 Agapetus I, Pope, 198 
 Agapetus II, 335 
 Agathias, 182 n. 
 Agesilaus, 105 
 Agiltrud, 326, 394 
 Agilulf, 218 sg., 255 
 Agnani (Alagna), 482, 486-7 
 Agnellus of Ravenna, 156 «., 167, 
 
 169, 173 
 Agnes, wife of Henry III, 353, 355 
 Alans, 32, 34, 86, 93 
 Alaric, 9, 10, 64 ; def. by Stilicho, 
 
 76 sg. ; takes Rome, 81 ; dies, 83 
 Alaric II, 130 
 St. Alban, 38, 69 
 Alberich, 332 ; his son, 333 sg. 
 Albert of Habsburg, 486 «., 497 
 Albigenses, 457, 5°3 sg. 
 Albinus, 133, 175 
 Alboin, 150, 208 sg. ; death, 212 
 Alcwin, 245, 387 
 Alemanni, 153 
 Alessandria, 373-5 
 
 Alexander III, Pope, 372 ; at Venice, 
 
 374 
 Alexander IV, 469 
 Alexandrinum, opus, 526 n. 
 Alfred, king ; transl. of Boethius, 
 
 179 ; at Rome, 318 ». ; expels 
 
 Danes, 400 n. 
 Aligern, 151 
 Altinum, 285, 288 n. 
 Amal, Amala, 126, 159 n. 
 Amalafrida, 130, 135, 137 n. 
 Amalaric, 130 
 Amalasuntha, 132, 134, 162 ; death, 
 
 136 
 Amalfi, 414 n. 
 St. Ambrose, 8, 57, 59, 66, 174 ; 
 
 defies Theodosius, 59-62 ; Am- 
 
 brosian music, 59 ; church, 426 
 Amidei, 433 
 Ammianus, 51, 174 
 Ammifaglio — al Emir, 408 
 Ampullae, yin., 277 
 Anacletus, Antipope, 364, 407 
 Anafesto, Doge, 289 
 Anastasius, E. Emp., 124, 129, 130 
 Anchorets, 72, 186 
 Anecdota, 183, 195 
 S. Angelo, Castel, 253 
 Angevin kings, 477, 480 «. 
 Angles, 10, 69, 217 n., 254 
 Anno, Archbp. of Coin, 353 
 Ansprand, 226 
 Antelami, 532 
 Anthemius, Emp., 15 
 Antioch, 51, 58M., 144 
 Antonina, wife of Belisarius, 144, 
 
 145 n., 148 
 Antony of Thebai's, 72 
 St. Apollinaris, 92,' 169 n. 
 
 553 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Aquae Sextiae, 28 
 
 Aquileia, 13, 57 ; destroyed by 
 
 Attila, 101 n., 285 sq. 
 Aquinas, Thomas, 179 »., 190, 508 
 Aquinum, 190 
 Arabian learning, 389-90 
 Arbogast, 8, 62-4 
 Arcadius, Emp., 9, 11, 74 
 Arduin of Ivrea, 345 
 Arengo, 288 sq. 
 Areopagus, 163 
 Arians, 4, 44, 45, 46 
 Arian churches closed, 132 
 Arian cross, 168 
 Aribert I, 224 
 Aribert II, 226 
 Aribert, Archbp. of Milan, 348-50, 
 
 426 
 Ariovistus, 28 
 Arius, his death, 45, 134 
 Ariwald, 222 
 Aries, 130 
 Arminius, 28 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, 367-70 
 Arnulf of Carinthia, Emp. 324-6, 
 
 394 
 Arii (Florentine), 431, 478, 515 
 Aryans, 27, 29, 33 
 Asceticism, 48, 70-72 
 Aspar, 15, 107 
 Asti, 370 
 
 Astulf, 234 sq., 305 
 Athalaric, 134 ; coin, 118 
 Athanasius, 6, 45 ; and Egyptian 
 
 ascetics, 72 
 Athaulf, xi, 84-6 
 Athenai's = Eudocia 
 Athesis (Adige), 127 
 Atrium, 263 
 
 Attalus, ' mock-Emperor,' 83, 86 
 Attila, 13, 93-104 ; def. by Aetius at 
 
 Chalons, 99 ; meeting with I,eo, 
 
 1 01 ; personal appearance, 96 ; 
 
 his stronghold, 96-7 ; death, 103 
 Audefleda, wife of Theoderic, 130 
 Audoin, 150 
 St. Augustine, 12, 25 ; his writings, 
 
 107, 174 ; dies at Hippo, 12, 107 ; 
 
 tomb, 280 and Fig. 52 ; Augustine 
 
 Order, 187 n. 
 St. Augustine (the younger), 69, 254 
 Augustus, Emp., 22, 28 
 Aurelian, Emp., 30 ; walls, 139, 148 
 Aurelius, Marcus, Emp., 208 ; his 
 
 equestrian statue, 338, 341, 366 n. 
 Ausonius, 8, 53 «., 174 
 Autharis, 214-8 
 
 554 
 
 Avalon, 69, 73 
 
 Avars, 34, 103 «., 149, 209, 221 
 Aversa, 352, 401 
 Avienus, 101 
 Avignon, 489, 512 
 Avitus, Emp., 14-15 
 Azzo of Tuscany, great-grandfather 
 of Countess Matilda, 335 n., 349 n. 
 
 ' Babylonian Captivity,' 489, 497 
 
 Baduela (Baduila), see: Totila 
 
 Baldwin, k. of Jerusalem, 406 
 
 Baldwin of Flanders, E. Emp., 309, 
 456 n. 
 
 Baldwin II, 309 474 
 
 Balearic Isles, 106, 431 
 
 Bangor, 69, 73 
 
 Bardanes = Philippicus 
 
 St. Bartholomew, 343 
 
 Basel (Bale), 49 
 
 St. Basil, 53, 73, 174 
 
 Basilicas, 262 sq. 
 
 Basiliscus, 126 n. 
 
 Beatrice, mother of Countess Matilda, 
 353 ; tomb, 533-4 
 
 Beatrice, Portinari, 552 
 
 Becket (Beichan ?), 373 »., 406 
 
 Bede, 252, 386 
 
 Belisarius, takes Carthage, no, 112, 
 137 sq. ; name, 137 n. ; besieged in 
 Rome, 139 ; joins Narses and 
 quarrels, 141 ; takes Ravenna, 
 143 ; in disfavour, 144 ; again in 
 Italy, 145-8 ; second recall and 
 death, 148-9 
 
 Bells, 283 
 
 Senacus = Lago di Garda 
 
 St. Benedict, 37, 186-93 1 fa Dante's 
 Paradiso, 191 
 
 Benedict III, Pope, 319 
 
 Benedict VI and VII, 341 
 
 Benedict IX, 345 n., 349-51 
 
 Benedict X, 355 
 
 Benedict XI, 488 
 
 Benedictines, 334 n. ; English, 189 
 
 Benevento, 352, 404; duchy, 211, 
 220, 225, 240 n. ; battle, 471 
 
 Berengar I, 325-8 
 
 Berengar II, 334 
 
 Bernard, K. of Italy, 314, 323 
 
 St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 364, 367, 
 407, 502 
 
 Berno of Cluny, 334 
 
 Bertha of England, 254 
 
 Bertha, dt. of Waldrada, 330 
 
 Bertharid (Berthe), wife of Pipin, 
 235. 238 
 
INDEX 
 
 Bertharis, 225 
 
 Bessa, 146 
 
 Black Forest, 50 
 
 Bleda, br. of Attila, 93 
 
 Boccaccio, at Mte. Cassino, 192 ; 
 
 Decamerone, 485 «., 547 
 Boethius, 133, 175 sq. ; death, 176; 
 
 tomb, 177 ; portrait, Pig. 14 
 Boheinund (Boemond), 360, 405, 410 
 Bologna, 417 n. 
 
 Boniface, rival of Aetius, 12 ; invites 
 Vandals, 12, 89, log ; death, 89, 
 107 
 St. Boniface (English Apostle of 
 Germany), 57, 234, 305, 393 ; 
 crowns Pipin, 234 
 Boniface of Tuscany, father of 
 
 Countess Matilda, 349, 350, 351 
 Boniface VII, Pope, 341 
 Boniface VIII, 476 «., 479-88 ; 
 
 portraits, Fig. 50 
 Borgo, 297, 318 
 Boson of Provence, 322 n., 327 
 Bourbon, Constable, 83 
 Brancaleone, Podesta at Rome, 469 
 Branded, 71 n., 390 
 Breakspear, see Hadrian IV. 
 Britain, 8, 10, 56 ; early Church, 69, 
 
 1 86 ; monasteries, 73 
 Brunetto, see Latini 
 Bulgarians, 33 
 Buonagiunta di Lucca, 552 
 Buondelmonte, 429, 433 
 Burgundians, massacre of, 90 ; help 
 Odovacar, 127 ; conquered by 
 Clovis, 130 ; with Franks sack 
 Milan, 142 
 Busento, river, 10, 84 
 Byrsa (Carthage), 107 
 Byzantium, see Constantinople 
 Byzantine, supremacy in Italy, 152 ; 
 architecture, 265 sq. ; mosaics, 
 170, 268, 273, 446 ; painting, 274, 
 446, 537 ; later Empire, 308 
 
 Cacciagtjida, 368, 430 
 Caesar, C Julius, 28, 65 
 Calixtus, Antipope, 37-, 
 Calixtus II, Pope, 362 
 Caltabellotta, Peace of, 480, 486 
 Camaldolenses, 187 «., 191 n., 343, 
 
 355. 39 2 
 Campaldino, battle, 517 
 Campanili, at Ravenna, 80, 171, 282, 
 
 439 ; Roman, 388 «., 439 
 Candlestick, seven-branched, no 
 Canossa, 335 «., 351, 353. 357 
 
 Capitol, Roman' 366 
 Carlmann, br. of Pipin, 234 
 Carlmann, br. of Charles the Great, 
 
 237 
 Carolingians, 312 sq. 
 
 Carroccio, 371, 426, 464, 514 
 
 Carthage, taken by Vandals, 12, 108 ; 
 taken by Belisarius, no, 138 ; 
 Roman Carthage, 107 n. 
 
 Cassino, Monte, 189-92 
 
 Cassiodorus, historian, 96, 99, 180 sq. ; 
 Hist. Getarum, 181 
 
 Catalaunian plains, 99 
 
 Catharoi, 502 
 
 ' Catholics,' 43, 46 
 
 Cato's figs, 109 
 
 Catullus, villa of, 102 
 
 Cavallini, 525, 527 
 
 Celestine II, Pope, 366 
 
 Celestine III, 412, 453 
 
 Celestine IV, 465 
 
 Celestine V, 481-3 
 
 Celibacy of clergy, 351 n. 
 
 Celts, 27 
 
 Chains of St. Peter, 113 
 
 Chains of Pisan harbour, 416 n., 431 
 
 Chalons, battle, 13, 99 
 
 Charles Martel, 232, 250, 317 
 
 Charles the Great (Charlemagne), 
 first notice, 235 ; succeeds, 237 ; 
 captures Desiderius, 239 ; his 
 Empire, 240 ; in Spain, 241 ; at 
 Rome, 241 sq. and 293 sq. ; Dona- 
 tions, 301 sq. ; appearance, 297 ; 
 lineage, 250; death, 312 ; tomb at 
 Aachen, 91 ; coin, 450 
 
 Charles the Bald, 315, 321-3 
 
 Charles the Fat, 321-4 
 
 Charles of Anjou, 470 sq., 477, Fig. 
 48 ; coins, 450 
 
 Charles Martel of Hungary, 475, 477, 
 479 and «., 482, 485 n. 
 
 Charles the I^ame (lo Zoppo), 479 sq. 
 
 Charles of Valois, 477, 486 sq. 
 
 Chaucer, translates Boethius, 180 
 his Confessio Amantis, 303 
 
 Childebert, 215 
 
 Chosroes, Persian king, 142, 144 
 
 Christmas, 42 
 
 Chronology in error, 228 n. 
 
 Chrysaphios, 98 
 
 St. Chrysostom, 64, 68, 75, 174 
 
 Churches (see also List of Illustra- 
 tions) : 
 Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), 242, 282, 
 343 
 
 555 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Amalfl. Duomo, 444 
 
 Aquila. 5. M. di Collemaggio, 444, 
 482, Pig. 49 
 
 Assisi. S. M. degli Angeli, 507. 
 S. Francesco, 538 
 
 Ban, 444 
 
 Benevento. Duomo, 443-4 
 
 Bethlehem. Church of the Nativity, 
 39 
 
 Bologna. Gothic churches, 531. 
 S. Domenico, 536 and Fig. 52 
 
 Brescia. S. Salvatore, 231, 279 
 
 Canosa. S. Sabino, 444 
 
 Mte. Cassino. Badia, 192 
 
 Ceialu. Duomo, 445, 448 
 
 Cividale. S. Jtf. oetfa Valle, 280 
 
 Como. S. Abbondio and S. Fedele, 
 280, 440 
 
 Constantinople. Constantine's 
 
 churches, 46 ». SS. Apostoli, 
 203. S. Sofia, 202, 266, 274 «. 
 
 Fetrara. Duomo, 440 
 
 Florence. SS. Apostoli, 429. 
 Badia, 429. Baptistery, 78. S. 
 Croce, 529-31. S. Lorenzo, 198 ». 
 S. Maria del Fiore (Duomo), 529, 
 531. S. Afan'a Novella, 529, 
 531. S. Miniaio, 299, 429, 436, 
 442, 528 
 
 S. Gimignano. Collegiata, 443 
 
 Grado. Duomo. See List of Illus- 
 trations, Fig. 28 
 
 Jerusalem. Anastasis (Church of 
 the Resurrection), 39, 111. Dome 
 of the Rock, 39. Ho/y Sepulchre, 
 39, 262. Solomon's Temple, 
 268 «. Spoils of Temple, no. 
 Julian tries to rebuild Temple, 50 
 
 Lucca. S. Frediano, 280, 442 «., 
 528. S. Giusfo, 280. S. Mar- 
 tina (Duomo), 280, 442, 532, 
 536. S. Michele, 442 
 
 Milan. S. Ambrogio, 58, 142 n. , 290, 
 425, 440. Basilica Porziana, 
 61 ». S. Lorenzo, 142.W., 266 »., 
 425. Romanesque churches, 425 «. 
 
 Hodena. Duomo, 440 
 
 Monreale. Duomo, 445, 448 
 
 Monza. Duomo, 71 «., 221 »., 255 
 sj., 277, 279 
 
 Murano. Duomo, 435 «. 
 
 Orvieto. Duomo, 530-1 
 
 Palermo. Cappella Palatina, 446, 
 448. S. Cataldo, 445. Duomo, 
 see Fig. 36. S. Giovanni degli 
 Eremiti, 445. JWartora»»a, 407, 
 445, 448. S. Spirito, 445 
 
 556 
 
 Parma. .Dmojho, 440. Baptistery, 
 528 
 
 Pavia. Its 165 churches, 176. 
 S. Giovanni, 222. S. Michele, 
 279, 440. S. Pietro in Ciel 
 d'oro, 177, 231, 280, 440 
 
 Pisa. Baptistery, 441, 533. Cam- 
 panile, 439, 441, 442 «. Campo 
 Santo, 431, 493, 516, 533 ». 
 Duomo, 441, 526 M. S. MaWa 
 delta Spina, 529. Other Roman- 
 esque churches, 441 
 
 Ravenna. (See also under Campanili 
 and Mosaics.) S. Agata, 92. S. 
 Apollinare in Classe, 169, 204, 
 273, 282. S. Apollinare Nuovo, 
 168-71, 272, 282. Baptistery of 
 Arians, 168, 272. Baptistery of 
 Orthodox, 80, 92, 271. Basilica 
 Ursiana, 80. S. Croce, 92. S. 
 Giovanni Battista, 92. S. Gio- 
 vanni Evangelista, 92. S. 
 Teodoro (Spirito Santo), 92, 168. 
 S. Vitale, 203, 242, 266 
 
 Rome. (See Mosaics.) S. Agnese, 
 273. Ancient basilicas, 67 n., 
 264 «. Aracoeli, 527 w. S. 
 Bartolomeo, 343 n., 392. S. 
 Clemente, 264, 359. SS. Cosma e 
 Damiano, 525. S. Costaraa, 260, 
 262, 269. S. Giorgio, 299, 300. 
 SS. Gioi/aM»t e Paolo, 439. S. 
 Gregorio Magno, 251. S. Maria 
 Antiqua, 263. S. M. ^usm/jjio, 
 334. S. JW. in Cosmedin, 439. 
 Lateran Baptistery, 264 n. 
 Lateran Basilica, 264 n., 296, 395. 
 S. JW. Maggiore, 67, 264, 296, 
 527. S. M. sopra Minerva, 527, 
 531. S. M. in Trastevere, 439, 
 527. S. Paolo fuori, 58, 83, 264. 
 Pantheon, 67, 261 n.,. S. Pietro 
 (old basilica), 67, 83, 295 sj. S. 
 Pietro in Vincoli, 113. S. Pras- 
 sede, 391 »., 525. S. Pudenziana, 
 269, 525. S. Stefano Rotondo, 
 266 
 
 Salerno. Duomo, 444 
 
 Siena. Duomo, 529, 531 
 
 Spoleto. Duomo, 443 
 
 Torcello, 283, 435 n. 
 
 Toscanella. S. M. Maggiore and S. 
 Pietro, 231, 276 n., 278, 280 sj. 
 
 Venice. Frari and S. Gtou. e 
 Paolo, 532. S. Giacomo, 419. 
 S. Mara>, 62, 203, 288, 374, 419, 
 422, 434 n., 523 «. S. Teodoro, 
 
INDEX 
 
 287, 419. S. Zaccaria, 419, 
 
 435 n. 
 Vercelli. S. Andrea, 529, 531 
 Verona. S. Anastasia, 531. SS. 
 
 Siro e Libera, 328 n. S. Zeno, 
 
 43°. 44° 
 Viterbo. S. Pietro and 5. Lorenzo, 
 
 233 
 Volterra. Duomo and Baptistery, 443 
 
 Cicero, cited, 104 n. 
 
 Cimabue, 537-8 
 
 Cimbrians, 27 
 
 Cino da Pistoia, 551 n. 
 
 Classe, port of Ravenna, 92 ; mosaic 
 
 of, 169 
 Claudian, poet, 9, 56, 75, 81 ; his 
 
 writings, 77-8 
 Claudius II, limp., 30 
 Clefi (Kleph), 212 
 Clement II, Pope, 350 
 Clement, Antipope, 358-9 
 Clement III, 453 
 Clement IV, 470 
 Clement V, 476 n., 489, 512 
 Clodion, K. of Franks, 98 
 Clothar (Lothar), K. of Franks, 219 
 Clovis (Chlodwig, Louis), 130, 209 n. 
 Clovis II, 222 ' 
 Cluny, reformers of, 334, 501 
 Codex Carolinus, 232, 238 
 Colonna family, 484-9 
 St, Columba, 255 n. 
 St. Columbanus, 255 n. 
 Comacina, Isola, 214, 220, 277 
 Comacine masters, 231, 278 
 Como and the League, 371 «., 372 n. 
 Concordat of Worms, 362 
 ' Confessio,' 71 n., 236 n., 246, 300-1 
 ' Conob,' 117 
 
 Conrad I, see under Otto I, 379 
 Conrad II, 346-50 
 Conrad, s. of Henry IV, 354 
 Conrad III, 365 sq. 
 Conrad, s. of Frederick II, 464, 468 
 Conradino, 468, 472 sq., 484 n. 
 Constance (Costanza), m. Henry VI, 
 
 375. 412, 454 
 Constance of Aragon, m. Frederick II, 
 
 460 
 Constance, dt. of Manfred, m. Peter 
 
 of Aragon, 472, 477, 478, 480 
 Constans, Ernp., 4, 19 
 Constantia (Costanza), dt. of Con- 
 
 stantine the Great, 260, 262, 269 
 Constantina, 5, 19 
 Constantine I, the Great, 1-4 ; birth. 
 
 39 ; def. Maxentius, 3, 40, Fig. 2 
 baptism, 3, 4, 41 ; death, 4 ; rela- 
 tions with Christianity, 38 sq. ; his 
 churches, 39, 46 n. ; his arch, 260 ; 
 his ' Donation,' 41, 303 sq. 
 
 Constantine, usurper, 10, 80 
 
 Constantine II, Emp., 4 
 
 Constantine VI, E. Emp., 244, 449 
 
 Constantine I, Pope, 228 
 
 Constantine II, Pope, 237 
 
 Constantinople, named, 4 ; the Burnt 
 Pillar, 43 ; Golden Gate, 62 ; 
 plundered by Crusaders, 83, no, 
 309, 456 n. ; taken by Turks, 309, 
 
 494 
 Constantius I (Chlorus), Emp., 1, 18 
 Constantius II, 4, 5, 48-50 
 Constantius III (m. G. Placidia), n, 
 
 85.87 
 Constanz, Treaty of, 375 
 Cortenova, battle, 464 
 Cosenza, 10, 84 
 Cosmati, the, 526-7 
 Costanza, see Constance 
 Courtnays of Byzantium, 309 n., 474 
 Crema, 372, 375 
 Crescentius and the Crescenzi, 341, 
 
 365. 397-8 
 
 Cretan shrines, 70 n. 
 
 Crispus, s. of Constantine I, 4 
 
 Cross, the, 39, 71, 222 
 
 Crusades : 1st (1095-9), 360, 423 ; 
 Ilnd (1 147-9), 368, 423; Illrd 
 (1189-93), 375, 411 ; IVth (1202- 
 4), 83, no, 309, 424, 456 n. ; 
 Vth (1217-21), 459 ; Vlth (1228-9), 
 461 ; VHth (1248-54) ; VIHth 
 (1270-90) 
 
 Cumae, 151, 153 
 
 Cunibert, 226 
 
 Cunimund, 209, 212 n. 
 
 Dacia, 22, 30 ; Ostrogoths in, 129 
 
 Dalmatia, 16, 124, 129, 405 
 
 Damasus II, Pope, 350 
 
 Damiano, Pietro, 355 
 
 Dandolo, Enrico, Doge, 424 
 
 Dante, as poet, 493, 547 ; exile, etc., 
 486, 491, 518 ; at Campaldino, 
 517 ; at Verona, 519 ; De Mon- 
 orchia, 495 ; De Vulg. Eloquio, 
 545 ; Vita Nuova, 550, 552 ; Div. 
 Comniedia, quoted passim, but not 
 discussed in this volume, 544 
 
 Dark Age, 385 sq. 
 
 Davanzati, 550 
 
 De Aedificiis Justmiani, 183, 201 
 
 557 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Decius, Emp., 29, 30 
 
 Desiderata, 238-9, 294 
 
 Desiderius, last Lombard king,236 sq., 
 
 294 
 Deutsch, 159 «., 342 n. 
 Dietrich, see Theoderic, 90, 159 n. 
 Diocletian, 1, 18 ; character, 38 ; villa, 
 
 38, 260, 262 
 Doge, first, 288 
 Domenic, 355 »., 504-7; tomb, 536 
 
 and Fig. 52 
 Donati, 433, 490 ; and Cerchi, 518 
 Donations, 296, 301 sq. 
 Donatists, 105 n. 
 Duccio of Siena, 538 
 
 EcctESius of Ravenna, 133, 203 
 Ecthesis (of Heraclius), 223 
 Edda, the, 160 
 Edeco, 16, 17, 96 
 Eginard (Einhart), 247, 297, 387 
 Electors (Kurfursten), 379, 380 
 Emilia (Lai. Aemilia), 144, el al. he. 
 Enzio (Enzo), son of Frederick II, 
 
 466-7 
 Ermengard of Tuscany and Ivrea, 
 
 Ethelbert of England, 254 
 
 Etzel = Attila, go, 95 n. 
 
 Etzelnburg, 96 
 
 Eucherius, s. of Stilicho, 80, 81 
 
 Eudocia (1), wife of Theodosius II, 
 
 orig. Athenais, 95M., 113 
 Eudocia (2), her granddaughter, m. 
 
 Hunneric, 14, in, 112 
 Eudoxia, dt. of Eudocia (1), wife of 
 
 Valentinian III, 14, 95, 109, in, 
 
 «3 
 Eugenius, usurper, 8, 62, 64, 65 
 Eugenius III, Pope, 366, 368-70 
 Eusebia, 5 
 
 Eusebius (of Caesarea), 38, 173 
 Eusebius (of Nicomedia), 41, 48 
 Eutharic, 132, 134 
 Exarchate, 143, 211 ; revolts against 
 
 E. Empire, 228, 230 ; Byzantine 
 
 Ex. extinguished, 234 
 Exarchs, 143 «., 154, 211 »., 219 
 Ezzelino, 464, 466-9, 518 
 
 Famine in N. Italy, 144 ; in Spain 
 
 87. 144 
 Farinata (Uberti), 432, 514-15 
 Fausta, dt. of Maximian and wife of 
 
 Constantine I, 1-4 ; death, 43 n. 
 Felix II, Pope, 125 
 Felix III (or IV), 134 
 
 558 
 
 Ferrara, 417 n., and see under 
 Churches 
 
 Fiesole, 76, 78, 142, 428, 432 
 
 Flagellants, 509 
 
 ' Flavius,' 118 
 
 Florence, founded, 78 ; besieged by 
 Radegast, 78-9 ; taken by Totila, 
 but not by Attila, 101 n. ; history 
 down to c. 1200, 427 sq. ; history 
 c. 1200-1320, 513 sq. See under 
 Churches 
 
 Folquet of Toulouse, 504, 548 n. 
 
 Formosus, Pope, 326, 330 ; his corpse 
 summoned before a Synod, 394 sq. 
 
 Francesca of Rimini, 519 n. 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi, 355 «., 506-8 ; 
 portrait at Subiaco, 189 ; his 
 Cantico, 545 ; the Fioretti, 545 
 
 Franconian Emperors, 346, 380 
 
 Franks, early history, 98 ; help 
 Vitiges to sack Milan, 142 ; over- 
 run all Italy and def. by Narses, 
 153 ; relations to Lombards, 213 sq. 
 See also under Charles Martel, Pipin, 
 Charles the Great, and Frank 
 kings, 250 
 
 Frederick of Staufen, 357, 363 
 
 Frederick I (Barbarossa), 368 sq. 
 and Arnold of Brescia, 370 ; razes 
 Milan, 372 ; def. at Legnano and 
 meets Pope Alexander at Venice, 
 374 ; signs compact of Constanz, 
 375 ; drowned in Salef, 375 ; 
 portrait, 451 
 
 Frederick II, 412, 454 sq. ; crowned 
 king, 458 ; visits Rome, 459 ; 
 m. Iolanthe de Brienne, 460 ; 
 his Crusade, 461 ; and Pope 
 Gregory IX, 460 sq. ; death, 467 ; 
 character, 467-8 n. ; his poetry, 
 548 ; tomb. Fig. 47 ; coin, 450 
 
 Frederick, Viceroy and then King of 
 Sicily, 480 
 
 Frigidus, river, 9, 63 
 
 Friuli, 325 n. 
 
 Furlo, pass, 141 n., 210 
 
 GaETani, see Boniface VIII 
 
 Gaidulf, 220 
 
 Gaiseric (Genseric), 12 ; treatment 
 of Theoderic's daughter, 99 ; con- 
 quest of Africa, Sicily, etc., 105-9 ; 
 takes Rome, 14, 33, 109-1 1 ; met 
 by Pope Leo I, 109 ; death, in ; 
 coin and name, 117 
 
 Galbaio, Doge, 289 
 
 Galerius, Emp., 1-2 
 
INDEX 
 
 Galla, m. Theodosius I, 8, 57, 62 
 
 Galla Flacidia, see Placidia 
 
 St. Gallen, 255 n., 386 
 
 Gallic Church, 390 
 
 Gallus, br. of Julian, 4 
 
 Gelasius, Pope, 126 
 
 Gelasius II, 362 
 
 Gelimer, Vandal king, 112, 138 
 
 Genoa, under Lombards, 222 ; its 
 
 sea-power, 415 ; history c. 1200 to 
 
 1320, 521 
 Genseric, see Gaiseric and p. 117 
 George of Ravenna, 228 n. 
 Gepidae, 29, 93, 208 
 ' German,' 28 ». 
 
 German ' Empire ' (modern), 23 n. 
 Germanicus, 28 
 Ghibelline, 361 n. 
 Ghiberti, 431, 526 n. 
 S. Gimignano, 417, 432 n., 517 
 Giordano, 366 
 Giotto, 536, 538, Fig. 50 
 Gisela, Empress, 348 
 Gladiatorial shows abolished, 77 
 Glycerius, Emp., 15, 16 
 Godebert, 225 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, 357 
 Godfrey of Lothringen, m. Beatrice 
 
 of Tuscany, 353, 355. (His former 
 
 son, Godfrey the Hunchback, m. 
 
 the dt. of Beatrice and Boniface, 
 
 Countess Matilda) 
 Gothic architecture, 437, 446, 528-32 ; 
 
 Gothic church in Rome, 527 «., 
 
 531 ; Venetian Gothic, 523 
 Gothic War, 137 sq. 
 Goths, origin and history, 29-32 
 Grado, 13, 101, 285, 288 
 Gratian, Emp., 53, 54, 65, 
 Greek architecture, 261 
 St. Gregory of Tours, 299 «. 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen, 48 n., 51, 64, 
 
 *74 
 
 Gregory I, Pope, 188, 214, 215 ; and 
 Theodelinda, 220, 255 ; life, writ- 
 ings, etc., 251 sq. ; his music, 258 
 
 Gregory II, 228 
 
 Gregory III, 230 sq. 
 
 Gregory V (Bruno), 342, 397 
 
 Gregory VI, 350 
 
 Gregory VII (Hildebrand), 350, 351, 
 355. 356 sq., 403-5 
 
 Gregory IX, 460 sq. 
 
 Gregory X, 475, 481 «. 
 
 Grimwald, 226 
 
 Gruamons, 532 
 
 Guaimar of Salerno, 400-1 
 
 Guelf (Welf) of Bavaria, 361 
 
 Guelf and Ghib. feud, 236, 361 »., 
 
 and passim 
 Guido of Spoleto, Emp., 325 
 Guido of Tuscany, m. Marozia, 332 
 Guido Novello, 470, 515 
 Guido di Como and Guidetto, 532 
 Guido Cavalcanti, 551 
 Guittone d'Arezzo, 550 
 Gundeberga, wife of Rotharis, 222 
 Gundobald, 15 
 
 Hadrian I, Pope, 239, 242, 293 sq. 
 Hadrian IV (Breakspear), 370-72 
 Hadrianople, battle, 7, 22 
 Hadrian's Mole, 253 
 Helena, mother of Constantine I, 
 
 1, 38-40 
 Helena, wife of Julian, 5 
 Helmechis, 212 
 Henotikon, 124, 131, 132 
 Henry II, Emp., 344-6 
 Henry III, 350 sq. 
 
 Henry IV, 353-60 ; at Canossa, 357 
 Henry V, 354, 360 sq. 
 Henry the Proud, 365 
 Henry VI, 453 sq. 
 Henry the Lion, 453, 454 »., 457 
 Henry, s. of Frederick II, 459, 463, 
 
 468 n. 
 Henry III of England, 468 »., 470, 
 
 476 n. 
 Henry of Cornwall, 475 
 Henry VII (of Luxemburg), 488-97 ; 
 
 death, 493 ; tomb, Fig. 51 ; coin, 
 
 451 
 Heraclea, 288 
 Heraclian coin, 449 
 Heraclius, 221 n., 222-4 
 Hermanric, 30, 35, 159 
 St. Hermenegild, 46 
 Hilarion, hermit, 72 
 St. Hilary of Poitiers, 54 «., 73 
 Hildebrand (Hildebrandslied), 160 
 Hildebrand, see Gregory VII 
 Hildebrand, Lombard king, 234, 
 
 249 
 Hilderic, Vandal king, 137 n. 
 Hippo, 106, 108 
 
 Hohenstaufen Emperors, 363 sq., 383 
 ' Holy Roman Empire,' 328, 336, 
 
 379, 493, et al. he. 
 Hohenstaufer, 361 «., 383 
 Homo-ousia, 44 
 Honoria, dt. of G. Placidia, 87 ; 
 
 romantic connexion with Attila, 
 
 94, .95, 101 
 
 559 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Honorius, Emp., 9-11, 74 sq. ; death, 
 
 87 
 Honorius III, Pope, 460, 505 
 Honorius IV, 481 
 Horace, 188, 190 n. 
 Hormidas, Pope, 132-3 
 Hugo of Provence, 330-5 ; m. 
 
 Marozia, 332 
 Hugo of Tuscany, see Ugo 
 Humphry the Norman, 402 
 Hungarians, 34 n. 
 Hunneric, 14, 112 
 Huns, origins, 33 sq. ; under Attila, 
 
 93-102 ; their Empire breaks up, 
 
 103 
 Hypatia, 46 n. 
 
 Iconoclastic feud, 229 sq. 
 
 Icons, 274 
 
 Ildico, 103 
 
 Innocent II, Pope, 364-6 
 
 Innocent III, 455 sq., 504 sq. 
 
 Innocent IV, 465 sq. 
 
 Inquisition, 56, 506, 508 
 
 Interdictions, 229 n. 
 
 Institutions of Justinian, 198 
 
 Investitures, War of, 353-62 
 
 Irene, E. Empress, vi, 230, 244 ; coin, 
 
 449 
 Iron Crown, 256 #., 314 n., 321, 325, 
 
 328, 490. See Pig. 19 
 Isidore Decretals, 320 
 Islam, 125 
 
 JACOPONE of Todi, 546 
 
 James, K. of Sicily and Aragon, 480 
 
 St. Jerome, 64, 174 
 
 Jerusalem, churches at, 39 (and see 
 under Churches) ; Temple, 50 ; 
 spoils from, no; capture by 
 Turks (c. 1066), 400 ; taken by 
 Crusaders (1099) ; and recaptured 
 by Turks (1187), 375, 411 ; reoc- 
 cupiedby Frederick II (1229), 461 
 
 Joan, Pope, 392 sq. 
 
 Joan, sister of Richard Coeur-de- 
 Lion, 409, 410, 445 n. 
 
 Johannes (general), 140, 146, 148, 150 
 
 ' Johannipolis,' 321 n. 
 
 John of Ravenna (usurper), n, 88 
 
 John the Hermit, 63 
 
 John I, Pope, 133 
 
 John III, 156 
 
 John VIII, 321, 325 
 
 John IX, 327 
 
 John X, 327, 330-2 
 
 John XI, 332 
 
 560 
 
 John XII (Octavian), 335 sq., 541 
 
 John XIII, 338 
 
 John XIV and XV, 341 
 
 John XVI (Antipope), 343 ; his fate, 
 396 sq. 
 
 John, King of England, 456 »., 458 n. 
 
 John of Procida, 478 
 
 Jordanes and his Gelica, 34, 96, 134, 
 181, and often. See Cassiodorus 
 
 Josephus, no 
 
 Jovian, Emp., 5, 52 
 
 Jubilee of I300 f 485 
 
 Julian, Emp. (' Apostate '), 5, 48-52 ; 
 his writings, 51 
 
 Jupiter, degraded, 66 ; his statue, 
 104, 229 n. ; Capitoline temple, 111 
 
 Justin I, Emp., 131 
 
 Justin II, 155 
 
 Justina, 7, 8, 57, 58, 60 
 
 Justinian, Emp., 131, 137 sq., 194- 
 205 ; attacked by plague, 145 ; 
 doctrinal ambitions, 148 ; legisla- 
 tion, 197 sq. ; in Dante's Paradiso, 
 197 ; coin, 119 
 
 Justinian II, 227 sq., 284 
 
 Juvenal (Satires), 26, 133, 190, 197 n. 
 
 Kaiseraxjgst, 28 m. 
 
 Labarum, 6, 40 
 
 Lactantius, 173 
 
 Lago di Garda, 101, 102 
 
 Lambert of Spoleto, 325 
 
 Lambert, his grandson, 326, 394 
 
 Laiifundia, 125, 147 n., 224 
 
 Latin, degraded, 257, 540-2 
 
 Latini, Ser Brunetto, 547 
 
 Laude, 546 
 
 League of Lombard cities, 371 n., 
 
 372. 417 , 
 Legnano, battle, 374 
 Lentini, Giac, 551 
 Leo I, Pope, 13, 101-4 
 Leo I, E. Emp. ('Thracian'), 15, in 
 Leo III, E. Emp. (' Isaurian ' or 
 
 ' Iconoclast '), 228 sq. 
 Leo III, Pope, 242 sq. 
 Leo IV and Civitas Leonina, 297 n. , 3 1 8 
 Leo VIII, 337 
 Leo IX, 351-2, 402 
 Levanto, 222 
 Libanius, 51, 68, 173 
 Liber Pontificalis, 156 n., 236 n., 245, 
 
 305, and often 
 Licinius, Emp., 2 
 Lilybaeum, last Vandal possession in 
 
 Sicily, I30». 
 
INDEX 
 
 Lingua corlegiana, 549 
 
 Lingua volgare, 540-4 
 
 Liudprand, bishop, 336 n., 338, 541 n. 
 
 Liutprand, Lombardking, 227, 230 sq. 
 
 Lombards, 46, 150, 208 sq. ; govern- 
 ment, character, and appearance, 
 216 sq. 
 
 Lombard League, see League 
 
 Longinus (Ravenna), 156, 210, 212 
 
 Loria, admiral, 479-80 
 
 Lothair, Emp., 314 sq. 
 
 Lothair, br. of Louis II, 320 
 
 Lothair of Saxony, Emp., 364 
 
 Lotharingia (Lorraine), 316 
 
 Louis I (le Dgbonnaire), 313, 323 ; 
 coin, 450 
 
 Louis II, 319-21 ; captured by Duke 
 of Benevento, 316 n., 541 
 
 Louis III, S. of Boson, 323 7327 
 
 Louis le B£gue, 322, 323 
 
 Louis the German, 316, 321, 323 
 
 Louis IX of Prance, 470, 474 
 
 Lucca, besieged by Byzantines, 152 ; 
 coin, 449 
 
 St. Lupus of Troyes, 99 
 
 Lutetia = Paris 
 
 ST. MacariuS, 187 «., 191 
 
 Magic, 52 
 
 Magnehtius, 4 
 
 Magyars, 34, 103 n., 327 
 
 Malamocco, 289 n. 
 
 Manfred, 468 sq. 
 
 Marcellino Conte, 98 n., 130 
 
 Marcian, E. Emp-, 11, 98 
 
 Marcomanni, 22 
 
 Marco Polo, 521 
 
 Maria, wife of Honorius, 76, 80 n. 
 
 Marius, Caius, 24, 27, 114 
 
 Marjorian, Emp., 15 
 
 St. Mark's body, 419, 422 
 
 Marozia, 331-3 
 
 Mars, statue at Florence, 78, 428 
 
 St. Martin of Tours, 54 n., 68, 73 
 
 Martin I, Pope, 225, 248 
 
 Martin IV, 478 
 
 Matilda, Countess (dt. of Boniface 
 and Beatrice ; m. first her step- 
 brother, Godfrey the Hunchback 
 of Lothringen, and then Guelf of 
 Bavaria), 355, 361, 364 ; lineage, 
 430 
 
 Matilda, or Maud, English princess, 
 m. Henry V, 361 
 
 Maurice, E. Emp., 213, 220, 258 
 
 Maxentius, Emp-, 2-3, 40 
 
 Maximian, Emp., 1-2 
 
 Maximin, Emp., 1-2 
 
 Maximus (usurper), 8, 56-8 ; and 
 another usurper, 85 
 
 Maximus, Petronius, Emp., 13, 109 
 
 Melo of Bari, 346, 401 
 
 Meloria, battle, 516, 521 
 
 Mentana, 245 
 
 Meroveus (Merowig), 98 
 
 Merovings, 234, 250 
 
 Metz, sacked by Attila, 99 
 
 Mezzabarba, 430 
 
 Michelangelo, 113, 366 n. 
 
 Michieli, Doge, 423 
 
 ' Middle Age,' 494 
 
 Milan, residence of Emperors, 4, 8, 
 9 ; St. Ambrose and Theodosius, 
 59-62 ; burnt by Franks, 142 ; 
 opposes Frederick I, 369 ; razed 
 by Frederick, 372 ; rebuilt, 373 ; 
 history, 425 si[. ; heads Guelf 
 cities, 464 ; history c. 1200 to 
 I 3 I 3. 519-20 ; coin, 519. See also 
 under Churches 
 
 Milton, 241, 304 «., 305 n. 
 
 Milvian Bridge, 3, 40, 245, 295 
 
 Minervina, first wife of Constantine I, 
 2 
 
 Misopogon, Julian's, 51 n. 
 
 Mithras, 42, 66 
 
 Mohammedans, 223. See Saracens 
 
 Monastic Orders, 53, 187 
 
 Monasticism, 72, 186 sq. 
 
 Monograms of kings, 161 
 
 Monophysites, 124 
 
 Montaperti [or -to), battle, 470, 512, 
 
 514 
 
 Montfort, Simon de, 475, 504, 548 n. 
 
 Montfort, Guy de, 475 
 
 Monza, see under Churches 
 
 Mosaics : Ancient Roman, 268, 
 Byzantine, 170, 268, 273, 446. 
 Christian Roman, 170, 268, 447. 
 S. Costanza, 269, 524. S. Fuden- 
 ziana, 269, 525. S. Paolo fuori, 
 2 7°» 525. S. Prassede, 525. S. 
 Clemente, 448 »., 525. S. M. in 
 Trastevere, 448 »., 525, 527. 
 S. M. Maggiore, 270, 525. SS. 
 Cosma e Damiano, 271, 525. Of 
 Otto II[Grotte), 340,388 n. Navicella, 
 525. Sicilian, 274, 446-8, 527-8. 
 Ravenna, S. Apollinare Nuovo, 
 170, 272. S. Ap. in Classe, 273. 
 S. Vitale, 203-4, 272. Maus. of 
 G. Placidia, 271. Triclinium mo- 
 saic at Lateran, 243, 271. Venice, 
 274 
 
 2 N 
 
 56l 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Moses, statue of, 113 
 Moslems, see Saracens 
 
 Napi,ES, taken by Belisarius, 138 ; 
 early history, 291-2 
 
 Narses, 141 ; recalled, 142 ; reap- 
 pointed, 150 ; dictator, 154 ; again 
 recalled, refuses to obey and in- 
 vites Lombards, and dies, 156 
 
 Neoplatonism, 47, 72 
 
 Nepos, Emp., 15, 124 
 
 Nero's Circus, 298 
 
 Nibelungenlied, 90, 95%., 96, 159M., 160 
 
 Nicaea, 4, 6 ; second Council, 275 
 
 Niccoli Pisano, 533-6 
 
 Nicene Creed, 4, 43 
 
 Nicholas I, Pope, 320 
 
 Nicholas II, 355, 402 
 
 Nicholas III, 476, 489 n. 
 
 Nika tumult, 197 
 
 St. Nilus, 342 
 
 Nocera dei Pagani, 460 
 
 Noricum, 116, 126, 129 
 
 Normans, first arrival, 346 ; settle 
 near Capua, 349, 401 ; early 
 history, 352, 399 ; supreme in 
 Sicily, 399 sq., 412 ; language, 
 400 n., 407 «., 540 n. ; coin, 450 
 
 Norman architecture, 437-46 
 
 Novellae of Justinian, 198 
 
 Obei.ERIo, Doge, 290 
 Octavian, s. of Alberich, 334 sq. 
 Odovacar (Odoacer), 16, 17 ; earlier 
 
 life, 115 ; reign, 122 sq. ; death, 
 
 128 ; coin, 118 
 Offamilio (Of a Mill), 408, 409, 412, 
 
 445 n., 453 
 Olybrius, Emp., 15, 112 
 Orestes, 16, 17, 96, 123 
 Orientation of churches, 264 n. 
 Orlando, 241, 294 n. 
 Orlando Furioso, 304 
 Orosius, historian, 79, 84, 106 
 Orseolo, Pietro, Doge, 343, 419 
 Orseolo II, 420 
 
 Orsini and Colonna, 476, 481, 484 sq. 
 Orso, Doge, 289 
 Osimo, 143 
 Ostrogotha, 130 
 Ostrogoths, 30, 31. See Theoderic 
 
 the Great, Baduela, Theia, etc. 
 Otto I, Emp., 337-9 
 Otto II, 339 ; tomb in St. Peter's, 340 
 Otto III, 340 sq. ; at Ravenna and 
 
 Venice, 420 
 Otto of Brunswick, Emp., 457 
 
 562 
 
 Pachomius, coenobite, 72 
 Paganism, Part I, chs. iii and iv. 
 Painting : Byzantine, 274, 446, 
 
 537-8 ;• Tuscan, 536-9 ; German, 
 
 537 »• 
 
 PALACES and other secular buildings : 
 Apamea. Temple of Zeus, 68 
 Constantinople. Burnt Pillar, 43. 
 
 Golden Gate, 62 
 Monza. Theoderic's Palace, 167, 216, 
 
 277 
 Pa via. Theoderic's Palace, 167 
 Ravenna. Mausoleum of Galla 
 
 Placidia, 260 (and see Mosaics). 
 
 Palace of Theoderic, 168, 242. 
 
 Mausoleum of Theoderic, 165, 
 
 260 
 Rome. Castel S. Angelo, 253. 
 
 Constantine's Arch, 260 
 Serapeum, 69. 
 
 Siena. Palazzo Pubblico, Fig. 64 
 Spalato. Diocletian's Villa, 38 
 Venice. Doges' Palace, 419, 434 n. 
 
 Romanesque Palaces, 435 n. and 
 
 Fig. 56 
 Verona. Theoderic's Palace, 167 
 
 Palacologus, Michael, E. Emp., 309, 
 
 474 
 Palaeologus, Constantine, 309 
 Palermo, captured by Normans, 404. 
 
 See under Churches 
 Palestrina, destroyed by Boniface 
 
 VIII, 484 
 Pandects of Justinian, 198 
 Pandulf, Senator of Rome, 481 
 Pannonia, 30, 129, and often 
 Papal States, 51 1-2 
 Papia = Pavia 
 Paris, in age of Julian, 49 ; saved by 
 
 St. GeneviSve, 99 
 Partecipazio, Doge, 291, 419 
 Paschal I, Pope, 314 
 Paschal II, 360 sq. 
 Paschal, Antipope, 373 
 Patarini, 462, 503 
 ' Patrician ' (title), 123 
 St. Patrick, 69, 255 n. 
 Paul the Deacon, 156, 207, 241, 387 n., 
 
 and cited often 
 Paul I, Pope, 236 
 Pazzi, ceremony, 430 
 ' Peace of the Church,' 3, 41 
 Pelagius I, Pope, 147, 200 
 Pelagius II, 213 ; d. of plague, 215 
 Pendentives, 267, 434 n. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Pentapolis, 211, 284 
 Persecutions (of Christians), 37 
 Persians, see Julian, Belisarius, Sas- 
 
 sanidae, and p. 222 
 Peter of Aragon and Sicily, 476 n., 
 
 477-80 ; coin, 450 
 Petra pertusa, 141 n., 210 
 Pheidias, 68 n. 
 Philippicus, E. Emp., 228 
 Philip, Antipope, 237 
 Philip, br. of Henry VI, 454 
 Philip IV (the Pair) of France, 477, 
 
 486 sq. 
 Phocas, E. Emp., 6yn., 214 n., 220, 258 
 Phocas, Nicephorus, E- Emp., 338 
 Pier delle Vigne, 464 and n., 467 
 Pilgrimages, 391 n. 
 Pine-cone in Vatican, 264 n., 299 
 Pipin the Short, 234 sq. ; his Dona- 
 tion, 236, 301 sq. 
 Pipin, bastard son of Charles the 
 
 Great, 242 
 Pipin (at first called Carlmann), son of 
 
 Charles the Great, 245, 290, 313 
 Pisa, its sea-power, 415 and n., 416 n. ; 
 
 and Florence, 431 ; ' shame of 
 
 Italy,' 454 ; Pisan pulpit, 533, 
 
 Fig. 61. See under Churches 
 Pisan Romanesque, 441 
 Placidia, Galla, 11, 12 ; birth, 63 ; 
 
 m. Athaulf, 85 ; m. Constantius, 
 
 87 ; tomb at Ravenna, 91, 271 ; 
 
 coin, 117 
 Placidia, dt. of Valentinian III, 14 n., 
 
 in, 112 
 Plague, described by Procopius, 184 
 Plato, 47-8, 177 
 Pliny, 125 
 Plotinus, 47 
 
 Poitiers (or Tours), battle, 232 
 Polybius, 140, 182 
 Porphyry, 47 
 Pragmatic Sanction, 154 
 Priscus, writer, 96, 97 
 Privilegium Ottonis, 337 
 Procopius, usurper, 6 
 Procopius, historian, 105 n. ', with 
 
 Belisarius, 140 ; life and works, 
 
 183-5, ana " cited often 
 Provencal poets, 548 
 Prudentius, poet, 64, 76 
 Pulcheria, n, 87 ; m. Marcian, 98 ; 
 
 coin, 117 
 Pulvino, 265, 268 
 Pythagoras, 47 
 
 Quadi, 22 n. 
 
 Rabenschlacht, 128 n., 160 
 
 Radegast, 9, 32, 76, 79 
 
 Raffael, 42, 43, 102, 298, 302 n, 303, 
 318 n., 319 
 
 Ratchis, Lombard king, 234, 236 
 
 Ravello pulpit, 535, Fig. 62 
 
 Ravenna, becomes capital, 9 ; Stilicho 
 murdered at, 80 ; taken by Theo- 
 deric, 128 ; taken by Belisarius, 
 143 ; sacked by Justinian II, 227 ; 
 captured by Liutprand and recap- 
 tured by Venice, 231 ; captured 
 by Astulf, 234. See Churches and 
 Mosaics 
 
 Reims, sacked by Attila, 99 
 
 ' Relics,' 70-1, 390 sq. 
 
 Republics, rise of, 413 sq. ; the 
 Republics and Signories, 511 sq, 
 
 Richard Coeur-de-l4on, 375, 409; 
 captured, 454 n., 457 
 
 Richard of Cornwall, 469, 497 
 
 Ricimer, 15, 16 ; defeats Vandal 
 fleet, 112 
 
 Rimini, occupied by Byzantines, 141 
 
 Rivoalto (Rialto), 286, 290 sq., 418 
 
 Robert Guiscard, 352, 403-5 ; sacks 
 Rome, 353, 358-9 
 
 Robert of Calabria, 477, 479 «., 
 490 sq. ; coin, 451 
 
 Rodwald, 224 
 
 Rois faineants, 234 
 
 Roger I, Count of Sicily, 404, 406 
 
 Roger Borsa, 405 
 
 Roger II, King of Sicily, 364, 406-8 ; 
 his mosaic, 448 ; coin, 450 
 
 ' Roman,' title of contempt, 162 
 
 Roman architecture, 261 
 
 Roman-Lombard architecture, 275 sq. 
 
 Romanesque architecture, 259 sq., 
 265 n., 434 sq. ; English, French, 
 and German Romanesque, 437-8 ; 
 Venetian, 434 n„ 523, Fig. 56 
 
 Roman Empire, see Preface and Part I, 
 ch. i ; also pp. 194, 244 n., and 
 Holy R. Empire 
 
 Roman mosaics, 170, 268 
 
 Rome, taken by Alaric, 10, 83 ; 
 taken by Gaiseric, 14, 109 ; plun- 
 dered by Ricimer, 15, 113 ; be- 
 sieged by Vitiges, 139 ; taken by 
 Baduela, 146 ; totally empty of 
 inhabitants, 148 ; story in Middle 
 Ages, 225 «.; republic, see Alberich 
 and Arnold of Brescia, and pp. 
 366-368 ; plundered by Robert 
 Guiscard, 359, 405,; later attempts 
 to found republic, 416, 462 sq., 469 
 
 563 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 St. Romuald, 191, 342, 344, 355, 392, 
 
 419 
 Romulus Augustulus, Emp., 16 ; his 
 
 end, 113, 123 ; coin, 117 
 Romwald of Benevento, 225 
 Roncaglia, assembly at, 369, 371 
 Roncesvalles, 241 
 Rosamund, 209, 212 
 Rotharis, reign, 222-4 '• Edict, 207, 
 
 224 
 Rubeus, senator, 465 
 Rucellai Madonna, 538 
 Rudolf of Burgundy, 328 
 Rudolf of Habsburg, 475-6, 512 
 Rudolf of Suabia, 353, 357 
 Rufinus, 9, 74 
 Rugi, the, 126, 208 
 Rugilas, King of Huns, 89, 93 
 Rumanians, 30 
 Runic script, 31 
 
 SawjST, prefect, 5, 6 
 
 Sapor, Persian king, 5, 52 
 
 Saracens, at Monte Cassino, 192 ; 
 name, 223 n. ; in Sicily, 225, 317 ; 
 at Ostia and Rome, 318, 321 ; defeat 
 Otto II near Cotrone, 340 ; con- 
 quered by Pisans and Normans, 319 
 
 Sarmatians, 4, 33 
 
 Sassanidae, 52, 219 
 
 Savoy, House of, 520 
 
 Saxa Rubra, battle, 3, 40 
 
 Saxon Emperors, 337 sa. 
 
 Scaligers (Can Grande), 519 
 
 Scholae at Rome, 245, 263, 276, 366, 
 416 
 
 S. Scholastica, 191 
 
 Scipio, 107, 138, 140, 182 
 
 Sculpture, Tuscan, 532-6 
 
 Selvo, Doge, 404-5, 421-2 
 
 Senate, Roman, end of, 151 
 
 Serbia, 97 
 
 Serena, wife of Stilicho, 76, 81 
 
 Sergius I, Pope, 227 
 
 Sergius III, 331, 396 n. 
 
 Sestri, 222 
 
 St. Severinus, 115, 116, 126 
 
 Severus, Emp., 1 
 
 Severus, I«ibius, Emp., 15 
 
 Sibilla, 410 «., 454 
 
 Sibylline Books, 42 n. 
 
 Sicily, taken by Vandals, 106 ; 
 retaken by" Odovacar, 122 ; en- 
 tirely occupied by Ostrogoths, 
 130 ; taken by Belisarius, 138 ; 
 overrun by Goths under Totila 
 (Baduela), 149 ; conquered by 
 
 Saracens, 225, 317; conquered by 
 Normans, 402, 404. For Sicilian 
 architecture and mosaics see under 
 Normans and Mosaics 
 Siegfried, 160 
 
 Siena, Ghibelline but has Consul*, 
 417, 514 ; changes to Guelf, 517 ; 
 a signoria under Pandulf, 517, 
 Pig. 64 
 Sigismund, 130 
 Silverius, Pope, 139 
 Silvester I, Bishop of Rome, 4, 41, 3°3 
 Silvester II, Pope, 344 
 Silvester III, 350 
 Simplicius, Pope, 124 
 Singeric, 86 
 Sirmium, 50, 129 
 Sirventes, 548, 550 
 Smaragdus, Exarch, 214, Pig. 21 
 Sontius (Isonto), 127 
 Sophia, Empress, 155 
 S. Sophia, 202, and see under 
 
 Churches 
 Sordello, 548 
 Spain, invaded by Vandals, 33, by 
 
 Visigoths, 86 
 Spain and orthodoxy, 67 
 Spaniard, first heretic martyr, 56 «. 
 Speyer, cathedral, 354, 437 
 Spoleto, duchy, 210, 213 n. 220, 
 
 et al. he, 
 Stephen II, Pope, 234 n., 235 
 Stephen III, 234 n., 237 
 Stephen IV, 313 
 Stephen V, 325 
 Stephen VI, 330, 394 
 Stephen IX, 355 
 
 Stihcho, 9, 10 ; defends Italy against 
 Alaric and Radegast, 74-80 ; death, 
 80 ; tomb (?), Pig. 6 
 Stoicism, 25 
 
 Stuart tombs in St. Peter's, 340 
 Subiaco, 188, Fig. 15 
 Suevi, 32, 86, 93, 105 
 Sun-god and Sun-day, 42 
 Symmachus, orator, 65 
 Symmachus, senator, 133, 177 
 
 Tacitus (Germania), 26, 28 n. 
 Tagina, or Tadino, battle, 150 
 Tagliacozzo, battle, 473 
 Tancred d'Hauteville, 352, 402, 403, 
 
 410 
 Tancred di Lecce, 410 n., 453-4 
 Tartars, 34 
 
 Telemachus, monk, 77 
 Temples destroyed, 66-8 
 
 564 
 
INDEX 
 
 Theia, elected king, 151 ; dies, 152 ; 
 
 coin, 119 
 Theodahad, reign, 135-8 ; coin, 118 
 Theodelinda, 71 n. ; m. Autharis, 
 215 ; m. Agilulf, 215 ; reign, 
 218-22 ; churches and friendship 
 with Gregory the Great, 221, 255-6 
 
 Theodemir, 160 
 
 Theoderic, Visigoth king, 14 ; per- 
 haps son of Attila, 99 ; slain at 
 battle near Chalons, 100, 160 
 
 Theoderic the Great, 90 ; early days, 
 126 ; takes Ravenna and kills 
 Odovacar, 128 ; reign, 128-34 and 
 Part II, ch. i; name, 159 ; legisla- 
 tion, 162 ; legendary account of 
 death, 165 ; mausoleum, churches, 
 mosaics, 165-171 ; coin, 118, 163 
 
 Theodora, dt. of Maximian, 163 
 
 Theodora, wife of Justinian, origin, 
 etc., 195 sq. ; favours Belisarius, 
 141; and Antonina, 145; death, 1 48 n. 
 
 Theodora, mother of Marozia, 331 
 
 Theodoret, writer, 77 
 
 Theodosius I, Emp., 8-9 ; reign, 
 55 sq. ; visits hermit John, 63 ; 
 character, 64 
 
 Theodosius II, n, 87 ; character and 
 court, 94-5 ; dies, 98 
 
 Theophano, m. Otto II, 339-40 
 
 Theophilus, patriarch, 68 
 
 Theophylact, 331 
 
 Therapeutae, 71 
 
 Thermantia,wifeofHonorius,8oM.,8iM. 
 
 Thessalonica, 55, 57 ; massacre, 61 
 
 Theudebald, Frank king, 153 
 
 Theudebert I, Frank king, 142 
 
 Theudebert II, 221 
 
 Theudegotha, 130 
 
 Thrasamund, 130, 135 
 
 Thrasamund (Spoleto), 231 
 
 Three Clauses, 200 
 
 Thucydides, 182, 184 
 
 Tiara, papal, 483, Fig. 50. See List 
 of Illustrations and Preface, p. x 
 
 Tiberius II, E. Emp., 213 
 
 Ticinum (Pavia), 127 
 
 Torcello, 285, 286 n., and under 
 Churches 
 
 Torismund, 209 
 
 Tortona, 370 
 
 Toscanella, 280, 308, and under 
 Churches 
 
 Totila (Baduela), elected, 145 ; his 
 devastations, 147 n. ; takes Rome, 
 146-149; visits St. Benedict, 192; 
 death, 150; coin, 119 
 
 Trajan, restored to life, 252 «., 257 
 
 Trebizond, Empire of, 309 
 
 Tribonian, 198 
 
 Trier, 263, 282 n. 
 
 Troubadours, 548 sq. 
 
 Troyes, saved from Attila by St. 
 
 Lupus, 99 
 Turks, Seljukian and Ottoman, 34; 
 
 take Constantinople, 309, 494 
 Tusculum, Counts of, 345, 355, 365 ; 
 
 destroyed, 453 n. 
 
 UBERTi, 432-3, 470, 514 
 
 Ugo, il gran barone, grandfather of 
 
 Matilda of Tuscany, 429 
 Ulfilas, 31, 52 
 Urban II, Pope, 359 
 Urban IV, 470 
 St. Ursula, 56 
 
 Vai,ens, E. Emp., 6, 7, 22, 52-3 
 
 Valentinian I, 6, 7, 52 
 
 Valentinian II, 7, 8, 53 sq. ; death, 62 
 
 Valentinian III, n-13, 87, 88, 104 
 
 Vandals, origin and history, 32 sq., 
 see Gaiseric ; African Empire, 
 105-12 ; take Rome, 14, 109 
 
 ' Vandalism,' 106, 113 
 
 Varus, 28 
 
 Venice, early traditions, 13, 101 ; 
 early history, 284 sq. ; Barbarossa 
 at, 374, 424 ; history from 806 to 
 1200, 418 sq. ; its constitution, 
 421, 424 ; visited by Henry IV, 
 423 ; and the Crusades, 423 ; 
 history from 1200 to 1320, 521 sq. 
 
 Verina, Empress, 15, 126 n. 
 
 Vespers, Sicilian, 474-7 
 
 Vesuvius, battle, 152 
 
 Victory, statue of, 65 
 
 Victor II, Pope, 352, 354 
 
 Victor, Antipope, 372 
 
 Vigilius, Pope, 140, 155 n., 200 
 
 Vigne, Pier delle, see Pier 
 
 Villani, Giov., 485, 547 
 
 Virgil, his 4th Eclogue, 25, 42 n. ; 
 Mantuan country, 102 
 
 Visigoths, 30, 33 ; settle in Moesia, 
 35, 56 ; first invasions of Italy 
 under Alaric, 75 ; take Rome, 81 ; 
 found kingdom in South Gaul, 85 ; 
 attack Spain, 86 ; help Aetius 
 against Attila, 99, 100 ; help 
 Theoderic the Great, 127 
 
 Vitiges, 138 sq. ; besieges Belisarius 
 in Rome, 139 ; is captured in 
 Ravenna, 143 
 
 Visconti, 477, 490, 520 
 
 565 
 
MEDIEVAL ITALY 
 
 Waibmnger, 361 n. 
 
 Waldenses, 503 
 
 Waldrada, 320 
 
 Wallia, 86 
 
 Warnefrid = Paul the Deacon 
 
 Wenden and wendisch, 32 
 
 William the Conqueror, 363 »., 438 
 
 William of the Iron Arm, 402 
 
 William, son of Roger Borsa, 406 
 
 William I (the Bad), 408 
 
 William II (the Good) 409-10 
 
 William III, 410 n., 454 
 Witchcraft, 52 
 Witigis = Vitiges 
 
 Zacharias, Pope, 233-4, 3°5 
 
 Zalmoxis, 181 
 
 Zeno, B. Emp., 123, 124-6, 129 
 
 St. Zenobius, 429 
 
 Zimisces, John, 339 
 
 Zosimus, historian, 64, 82 «., 174 
 

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