Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/207

 CHAPTEE lY. ITALY. In France we have seen the stubbornness of heresy in alliance with'feudahsm resisting the encroachments of monarchy. In Italy we meet with different and more compHcated conditions which gave additional stimulus to antagonism against the estab- lished Church, and rendered its suppression a work of much greater detail. Here heresy and politics are so inextricablv intermingled ^ that at times differentiation becomes virtually impossible, and the fate of heretics depends more on political vicissitudes than even on the zeal of men hke St. Peter Martyr, or Eainerio Saccone. For centuries the normal condition of Italy was not far re- moved from anarchy. Spasmodic attempts of the empire to make good Its traditional claim to overlordship were met by the steady policy of the papacy to extend its temporal power over the Penin- sula. During the century occupied by the reigns of the Hohen- staufens (1152-1254), when the empire seemed nearest to accom- phshmg Its ends, the popes sought to erect a rampart by stimulating the attempts of the cities to establish their independence and form self -govermng republics, and it thus created for itself a party in all of them. North of the Patrimony of St. Peter the soil of Italy thus became fractioned into petty states under institutions more or less democratic. For the most part they were torn with savage internal feuds between factions which, as Guelf or Ghibelline hoisted the banner of pope or kaiser as an excuse for tearing each other to pieces. As a rule, they were involved in constant war with each other. Occasionally, indeed, some overmastering neces- sity might bring about a temporary union, as when the Lombard League, m 1177, broke the Barbarossa's power on the field of Legnano, but, m general, the chronicles of that dismal period are a confused mass of murderous strife inside and outside the ^ates oi every town. °