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Rh it was not through any lack on his part of energy or courage. He certainly inspired his family and his friends with a devotion that shrank from no sacrifice. To the lay magnates he was their champion against the domination of the prelates, some few of whom also, free from German sympathies, were on his side. But it was chiefly the smaller nobles, the secundi milites or lesser vavassors, holding their lands at the will of episcopal or secular overlords, and with nothing to hope for from a foreign sovereign, who turned naturally to a native king whose domestic enemies were their own. Beside them stood many of the secular clergy, equally impatient of episcopal control; while lower down were the serfs, the voiceless tillers of church lands, many of whom had obtained their freedom, but all of whom it was now sought to reduce to perpetual bondage. In this endeavour the two bishops of Vercelli, Peter and Leo, had been especially active; and it was the latter who, but a short while before, had drafted the terrible decree of Otto III that no serf of the Church should ever be allowed to issue from his servitude. And to Ardoin therefore these freedmen and bondmen now looked as their only possible saviour.

The revolt, if primarily social, was so far national that it was directed against those elements of authority which leaned on foreign support. The German interest in Lombardy was still strong. Some prelates, the Archbishop of Ravenna and the bishops of Modena, Verona, and Vercelli, were openly hostile to Ardoin from the first; and in agreement with them was the Marquess Tedald, holder of the five counties of Reggio, Modena, Mantua, Brescia, and Ferrara, whose family had risen to eminence by service to the Ottos. But the real soul of the opposition was Leo of Vercelli, a German by birth, whose energetic character, strong intellect, and immense acquirements made him a dangerous enemy. For he was at once an accomplished man of letters, an able lawyer, and a practised man of affairs. Worldly-minded, though zealous for good order in the Church, he was ever eager to advance his material interests; and the disappearance of the imperial system would mean his own utter ruin. His whole energies, therefore, were bent to the overthrow of the national king.

A progress through Lombardy secured Ardoin general acknowledgment, and the administration went on without break. The hostile magnates were helpless; while the rest, whatever their secret inclinations, gave outward obedience to the monarch in possession. But Ardoin's insolent bearing enraged his opponents, and so both sides looked abroad for help. Ardoin sent an envoy to France to obtain a promise of armed support from King Robert; Leo of Vercelli in person, backed by the prayers of other Italian magnates, besought Henry, now recognised as king in Germany, to intervene in Italy. Accordingly, Henry in December 1002 dispatched a moderate force under Duke Otto of Carinthia, in whose hands was the March of Verona, to the aid of his Italian adherents. The latter, headed by Archbishop Frederick of Ravenna and the Marquess