POPE VERSUS EMPEROR Guelph and Ghibelline.—The cause of Frederick's son Con rad was sustained in Lower Italy by Manfred, one of his many natural children; and when Conrad died in 1254, Manfred still acted as vicegerent for the Swabians, who were now represented by a boy, Conradin. Innocent IV. and Alexander IV. continued to make head against the Ghibelline party. The most dramatic inci dent in this struggle was the crusade preached against Ezzelino. This tyrant had made himself justly odious; and he was hunted to death in 1259. While the Guelph faction gained in Lombardy by the massacre of Ezzelino, the Ghibellines revived in Tuscany after the battle of Montaperti, which in 126o placed Florence at their discretion. Manfred headed the Ghibellines, and there was no strong counterpoise against him. In this necessity Urban IV. and Clement IV. invited Charles of Anjou to enter Italy and take the Guelph command. They made him senator of Rome and vicar of Tuscany, and promised him the investiture of the regno pro vided he stipulated that it should not be held in combination with the empire. Charles accepted these terms, and was welcomed by the Guelph party as their chief throughout Italy. Manfred was defeated and killed in a battle near Benevento in 1266; and, when Conradin, aged 16, descended from Germany to make good his claims to the kingdom, he, too, was defeated at Tagliacozzo in 1267. Less lucky than his uncle, Conradin escaped with his life to die upon the scaffold at Naples. The popes had been successful though at a heavy cost ; but this first invitation to French princes brought with it incalculable evils.
Charles of Anjou, supported by Rome, and recognized as chief in Tuscany, was the most formidable of the Italian potentates. In his turn he now excited the jealousy of the popes. Gregory ini tiated the policy of establishing an equilibrium between the parties, which was carried out by his successor Nicholas III. Charles was forced to resign the senatorship of Rome and the overlordship of Lombardy and Tuscany. In 1282 he received a more decided check, when Sicily rose against him in the famous rebellion of the Vespers. He lost the island, which gave itself to Aragon ; and thus the kingdom of Sicily was severed from that of Naples, the dynasty in the one being Spanish and Ghibelline, in the other French and Guelph. Meanwhile a new emperor had been elected, the prudent Rudolf of Habsburg, who abstained from in terference with Italy, and who confirmed the territorial preten sions of the popes by solemn charter in 1278. Henceforth Emilia, Romagna, the March of Ancona, the patrimony of St. Peter and the Campagna of Rome held of the Holy See and not of the em pire. The imperial chancery made a deed of gift which placed the pope in the position of a temporal sovereign. The Guelph party now grew stronger than ever, through the crushing defeat of the Pisans by the Genoese at Meloria in 1284. She never held her head so high again after this victory. The Mediterranean was left to be fought for by Genoa and Venice, while Guelph Florence grew still more powerful in Tuscany. The Guelph party was held together by a less tight hand even in cities so consistent as Flor ence. Here in the year 1300 new factions, subdividing the old Guelphs into Neri and Bianchi, had acquired such force that Boni face VIII., a violently Guelph pope, called in Charles of Valois to pacify the republic and undertake the charge of Italian affairs. After quarrelling with the French king, Philip le Bel, Boniface fell into the hands of the Colonna family at Anagni, and died, either because of violence or of mortification, in Oct. 1303.
After the election to the papacy of a Frenchman, Clement V., the seat of the papacy was transferred to Avignon. Thus began that "Babylonian" exile of the popes which placed them in subjec tion to the French crown and ruined their prestige in Italy. This enfeeblement of the papal authority, coinciding as it did with the practical elimination of the empire from Italian affairs, gave a long period of comparative independence to the nation. This pe riod of Italian history is immortalized by Dante who sets forth the mighty struggle between pope and emperor. But the real con flict is a social one, between civic and feudal institutions, between commercial and military interests, between progress and conserv atism. Guelph democracy and industry idealize the pope. The banner of the Church waves above the camp of those who aim at positive prosperity and republican equality. Ghibelline aristoc racy and immobility idealize the emperor. The prestige of the em pire, based upon Roman law and feudal tradition, attracts imagi native patriots and systematic thinkers. The two ideals are counter posed and mutually exclusive. No city calls itself either Guelph or Ghibelline till it has expelled one-half of its inhabitants; for each party is resolved to constitute the state according to its own conception. The struggle is waged by two sets of men who equally love their city, but would rule it upon diametrically opposite prin ciples, and fight to the death for its possession. Meanwhile each party forms its own organization of chiefs, finance-officers and registrars at home, and sends ambassadors to foreign cities of the same complexion. A network of party policy embraces and dom inates the cities of Italy. The victory in the conflict practically falls to the hitherto unenfranchised plebeians. The elder noble families die out or lose their preponderance. New houses rise into importance; a new commercial aristocracy is formed. Burghers of all denominations are enrolled in one or other of the arts or gilds, and these trading companies furnish the material from which the government or signoria of the city is composed. Plebeian handicrafts assert their right to be represented on an equality with learned professions and wealthy corporations. The ancient classes are confounded and obliterated in a population more homogeneous, more adapted for democracy and despotism.
In addition to the parliament and the councils which have been already enumerated, we now find a council of the party estab lished within the city. The consuls are merged in ancients or priors, chosen from the arts. A new magistrate, the gonfalonier of justice, appears in some of the Guelph cities, with the special duty of keeping the insolence of the nobility in check. Mean while the podesta still subsists ; but he is no longer equal to the task of maintaining an equilibrium of forces. He sinks more and more into a judge, loses more and more the character of dictator. His ancient place is occupied by the captain of the people, acting as head of the ascendant Guelphs or Ghibellines who undertakes the responsibility of proscriptions, decides on questions of policy, forms alliances, declares war and is often little better than an autocrat.