ARNOLD, or ARNALD, of BREsciA, was a native of that t., and was distinguished by the success with which lie contended against the corruptions of the clergy in the early part of the 12th century. He was educated in France under Abelard, and adopted the monastic life. By his preaching, the people of his native place were exasperated against their bishop, and the fermentation and insurrectionary spirit spread over a great part of the country, when lie was cited before the second Lateran council, and banished from Italy. He retired to France, but experienced the bitter hostility of; St. Bernard, who denounced him as a violent enemy to the church. He thereupon took refuge in Zurich, where he settled for several years. Meanwhile his doctrines exerted a powerful influ ence in Rome, which ended in a general insurrection against the government, whereupon A. repaired thither, and endeavored to lead and direct the movement. He exhorted the people to organize a government similar to the ancient Roman republic, with its consuls, tribunes, and equestrian order. But they, provoked by the treachery and opposition of
the papal party, and disunited among themselves, gave way to the grossest excesses. The city, indeed, continued for 10 years a state of agitation and disorder. Lucius II. was killed by the populace in an insurrection in 1145, and Eugenius III., to escape a similar fate, fled into France. These violent struggles were subdued by pope Hadrian IV., who, feeling the weakness of his temporal authority, turned to the spiritual, and resorted to the extreme measure of laying the city under excommunication, when A., whose party became discouraged and fell to pieces, took refuge with certain influential friends in Campania. On the arrival of the emperor, Frederick I., for his coronation, in 1155, A. was arrested, brought to Rome, tried, hanged, his body burned, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber.