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Rh Suffice it to say that they were now lords of the whole of lower Latium, from Capo Circeo to Ninfa, from Ceprano to Subiaco. Thus Sciarra Colonna and a Frenchman named Nogaret were able to fall on the pope at Anagni, insult him, and take him prisoner. The people rising to his rescue, the conspirators were put to flight. But when Boniface returned to Rome with the escort and protection of the Orsini, who had made themselves masters of the city, he found that he was virtually a captive in their hands. He felt this so keenly that he died of rage and exhaustion on the 11th of October 1303. The brief pontificate of his successor Benedict XI. was followed by that of Clement V. (1305-14), a Frenchman, who, instead of coming to Rome, summoned the cardinals to France. This was the beginning of the church's so called exile in Avignon, which, although depriving Rome of a s c ource of wealth and influence, left the republic to pursue its own course. It employed this

freedom in trying to hold its own against the nobles, whose power was much lessened by the absence of the pope, and endeavoured to gain fresh strength by organizing the thirteen regions, which, as we have shown, were associations of a much firmer nature in Rome than the gilds. Accordingly, in 1305, a captain of the people was elected with thirteen elders and a senator, Paganino della Torre, who governed for one year. The pope was opposed to these changes at first, but in 1310 he issued a brief granting Rome full permission to select its own form of government. Thus, the first pope in Avignon restored the rights of the Romans. But the latter, even with church and empire so far removed, still considered Rome the Eternal City, the source of all law, and the only natural seat of the spiritual and temporal government of the world. To their republic, they thought, appertained a new and lofty destiny, nor could it ever be content to descend to the level of other Italian municipalities.

On the 6th of January 1309 Henry VII. was crowned king of the Romans at Aix-la-Chapelle; and so greatly were men's

minds changed in Italy that, throughout the land, he was hailed as a deliverer. He wished to restore the grandeur of the empire, and the Italians, above all Dante Alighieri, beheld in him the champion of the state against the church, who, after becoming the foe of communal liberty, had forsaken Italy and withdrawn to France. The Roman people shared these ideas, and awaited Henry with equal impatience, but the nobles rose in opposition. The Orsini, leaders of the Guelphs, and allied with Robert of Naples, took possession of the castle of St Angelo and the Trastevere. Hence, when Henry reached Rome in May 1312, after seizing the iron crown at Milan, he was obliged to act on the offensive. He took the Capitol by assault, but, failing in his attack on the castle of St Angelo, was pursued by its Neapolitan garrison. Forsaken by many discouraged adherents, he was forced to recognize the expediency of departure. First, however, he desired to be crowned at the Lateran, St Peter's being held by his foes. The cardinals refused his request, but were compelled to yield by the threats of the people, who, reasserting their ancient rights, insisted that the coronation should take place without delay. And the ceremony was performed on the 29th of June 1312. The emperor then resolved to depart in spite of the popular protest against his leaving the natural seat of the empire, and on the 20th of August started for Tuscany, where worse fortune awaited him.

Their differences settled, the nobles expelled the captain of the people left by Henry, and elected as senators Sciarra Colonna and Francesco Orsini. But this was the

signal for a popular revolt. The Capitol was attacked, the senators put to flight, and Jacopo Arlotti elected captain with a council of twenty-six worthies (buoni homini). The new leader instantly summoned the chief nobles before his tribunal, had them chained and cast into prison, and demolished many of their houses and strongholds. But, having thus humiliated their pride, Arlotti dared not put them to death, and, releasing them

from confinement, banished them to their estates, where they plunged into hostile preparations. Meanwhile the victorious people convoked a parliament and decreed that, the aristocracy being now overthrown, the tribunitia potestas alone should invite the emperor to make his triumphal entry into the Capitol, and receive his authority from the people of Rome. This conception of the Roman power will now be seen to become more and more definite until finding its last expression in Cola di Rienzi. Pope Clement, resigning himself to necessity, acknowledged the new government under the energetic rule of Arlotti. The latter now joined the Ghibellines of the Campagna against the Orsini and the Neapolitans, subdued Velletri, and gave it a podestà. But then the Gaetani, who were Guelphs, united with the Orsini and the Neapolitans, and, giving battle to the Ghibellines in the Campagna, routed them in such wise as to put an end to the popular government. The nobles forced their way into the city, attacked the Capitol, made Arlotti their prisoner, and re-elected the senators Sciarra Colonna and Francesco Orsini. Close upon these reverses came the death of Henry VII. (24th of August 1313) at Buonconvento near Siena, which put an end to the Ghibelline party in Italy. Thereupon King Robert of Naples, being named senator by the pope, immediately appointed a vicar in Rome. Clement likewise profited by the vacancy of the imperial throne to name the king imperial vicar in Tuscany. And he died on the 20th of April 1314, well content to have witnessed the triumphs of the Guelphs in Italy.

Affairs took a fresh turn under Pope John XXII. (1316-34). Rome was still ruled by the vicars of King Robert; but, owing to the continued absence of the popes, matters grew daily worse. Trade and industry declined, revenue diminished, the impoverished nobles were exceedingly turbulent, deeds of murder and violence occurred on all sides; even by day the streets of the city were unsafe. Hence there was universal discontent. Meanwhile Louis the Bavarian, who in 1314 had been crowned king of the Romans, having overcome his German enemies at Mühldorf in 1322, turned against the pope, one of his fiercest opponents. Louis was surrounded by Minorite friars, supporters of the poverty of the church, and consequently enemies to the temporal power. They were men of the stamp of William of Occam, Marsilio of Padua, Giovanni Janduno, and other philosophers favourable to the rights of the empire and the people. Accordingly the Italian Ghibellines hailed Louis as they had previously hailed Henry. Even the Roman people were roused to action, and, driving out the representatives and partisans of King Robert, in the spring of 1327, seized on the castle of St Angelo, and again established a democratic government. “Nearly all Italy was stirred to new deeds,” says G. Villani, “and the Romans rose to arms and organized the people” (bk. x. c. 20). Regardless of the

reproofs of the pope, they elected a haughty Ghibelline, Sciarra Colonna, captain of the people and general of the militia, with a council of fifty-two popolani, four to each region. Then, ranged under the standards of the militia, the Romans gave chase to the foes of the republic, and Sciarra, returning victorious, ascended to

the Capitol and invited Louis the Bavarian to Rome. Louis the The summons was obeyed; on the 7th of January 1328 the king was already encamped in the Neronian Fields with five thousand horse and a considerable number of foot soldiers, and, with better fortune than Henry VII., was able to enter the Vatican at once.

Encircled by a crowd of heretics, reformers and Minorite brethren, he convoked a parliament on the Capitol, asking that the imperial crown might be conferred upon him by the people, from whom alone he wished to receive it. And the people proclaimed him their captain, senator and emperor. On the 17th of January his coronation took place in St Peter's. But, as he had neither money nor practical sense, his method of taxation and the excesses committed by himself and his over-excited philosophers speedily aroused the popular discontent. His ecclesiastical vicar, Marsilio of Padua, and