The institution of the priori did not prevent the town being distracted by factions as before, as those magistrates often availed themselves of their brief term of office to favour their friends and court favour with the wealthier citizens. To remedy this, the popular party, led by Giano della Bells, in 1293 elected a new officer, called Gonfalouiere di Giustizia, who was to enforce order and justice, and gave him a guard of 1000 soldiers; they also excluded for ever thirty-three families of the grandi, or nobles, from political office. But a conspiracy of the wealthy families drove away Giano della Bella and his adherents in 1294, and the town again fell a prey to factions. Two powerful families, the Donati and the Cerchi, were at the head of the contending parties, and affrays between their respective partisans occurred repeat edly in the streets of Florence. Both were Guelphs, but the Cerchi were suspected of a bias in favour of the Ghibeliues, because they were less rigorous in enforcing the penal laws against the latter; and they had also for them the friends of the unjustly-expelled Giano della Bella. The pope, Boniface VIII., favoured the Douati as being zealous Guelphs. About this time the town of Pistoia was likewise divided between two factious, called Bianchi and Neri, which originated with two branches of the family of Canoellieri. The Floreutiues being applied to as arbitrators, several of the more violent partisans were exiled from Pistois, and came to Florence, where the Bianchi became connected with the Cerchi and the Neri with the Donati, and from these connections the two Florentine parties assumed the respective names of Biauchi and Neri. Both, as we have said• above, were branches of the great Guelph party thee predominant at Florence; but after wards the Bianchi in their reverses joined the Ghibeliues, with whom they have been often confounded by subsequent writers. It is necessary to bear these things iu mind, in order to understand the history and the political sentiments of Dante. Dante was a Guelph, and conueoted by marriage with the Donati, the leaders of the Neri. But he was also conuectei by persoual friendship, and perhaps also by a feeling of equity, with the Bianchi, who appear to have shown themselves from the first less overbearing and violent than their antagonists, and to have been in fact the injured party. Dante being made one of the priori in June of the year 1300, proposed and carried a law by which tho chiefs of both parties were exiled for a time out of the territory of the republic. 'The Bianchi were sent to Sarzana, and the Neri to Castel della Pieve. Some of the Bianchi however soon after returned to Florence, and Dante was accused of having connived at it, chiefly out of friendship for Guido Cavalcanti, who had suffered from the unwholesome climate of Sarzana, and died soon after his return. The Neri, by their agents at Rome, represented to Boniface VIII. that the Bianchi kept up a commuoication with the Ghibelines of Arezzo, Pisa, and other places, and that if they obtained the pre ponderance in Florence, they would make common cause with the Colonna, the pope's personal enemies. [Boxteeoe VIII.] Through aided by bribes distributed by the Neri at the Roman court, as Dino says, Boniface was induced to give his support to the fferi, and ho sent them Charles de Valois, brother of Philippe le Bel, under the plausible title of peace-maker. Charles entered Florence in November 1301, followed by 1200 armed men. Affecting impartiality at first, he let all the Neri return to Florence, followed by the armed peasantry; new priori were made, all favourable to the Neri, and the Bianchi began to be openly attacked in the streets. The Medici, who were already an influential family among the people, killed one of the Bianchi, and no notice was taken of the murder. A general proscription of the Bianchi now began, connived at by the peace-maker, Charles de Valois. "People were murdered in the streets ; others were dragged into the houses of their enemies, where they were put to the torture in order to extort money from them, their houses were plundered and burnt, their daughters were carried away by force; and when some large house was soeu in dames, Charles used to ask, What fire is that and those around him ar.swered him that it was some wretched hovel, whilst in reality it was a Hob palace!' (Dino, 'Cronica,' lib. ii.) The house of Dante was one of those that were plundered. Dante was at the time at Rome, whither he had been sent by the Bianchi to counteract, if possible, the suggestions of their antagonists. On hearing the news of the proscription he hastily left Rome, and joined his fugitive friends at Arezzo. In January 1302, a sentence was passed con demning him to two years' exile and a fine of 8000 florins, and in case of non-payment his property to be sequestrated. By a second sentence, dated March of the same year, he and others were con demned, as barattieri, or guilty of malversation, peculation, and usury, to be burnt alive. The sentence was grounded merely on the public report of his guilt, "fame publien," which in this case meant the report of his enemies. This curious document was found in the archives of Irlorouce iu the last century, and has been transcribed by Timbosebi, 'Storia della Letteratura,' tom. v., part 2, cap. 2. Dante
now began his wanderings, renouncing his Guelph connections, and intent upon exciting the Ghibelines of Italy against his enemies and the oppressors of his country. He appears to have repaired first to Verona, which was then ruled by the family of La Scala, powerful leaders among the Ghibelines. But he aeon after returned to Tuscany, where the Bianchi and Ohibelines now united were gathering their strength in the neighbourhood of Arezzo.
Tho death of Boniface VIII. in September 1303 inspired them with flesh hopes. Benedict XI., the new pope, a man of a mild and concili atory spirit, sent Cardinal de Prato to endeavour to restore peace in Tuscany, but the cardinal was opposed by the ruling faction at Flo rence, R ho frightened him ont of the town. Florence was left a prey to anarchy, during which a fire broke out which destroyed 1900 houses in Juno 1304. The Bianchi and Ohibelinea thought of availing them selves of the confusion to surprise the town ; and some of them actually entered one of the gates, but they were badly supported by those outside, and the attempt totally failed. Dante (` Purgatorio,' xvii.) censures the want of prudence and concord in the leaders on that occasion. He seems soon after to have left them in disgust, deter mined to regulate himself in future according to his own judgment. lie says himself that "it was difficult to say which of the two contend ing parties was most in the wrong." (' Paradise,' vi. 102.) Dante appears to have been at Padua about 130G, and in the following year with the Malaspina, the lords of Lunigiana ; he was also at times in the valleys of and iu the mountains near Arezzo ; some say he went afterwards to Paris, and remained there some years; others believe that he did not go to France until after the death of Henry VII. its 1313. But his visit to Paris is very doubtful ; though in canto x. of the ' Pamdiso,' ho speaks of a certain Sigieri, professor of that university, and designates the street in which ho lived.
Dante made also an attempt to obtain the revocation of his own sentence by writing to his countrymen a pathetic letter beginning with the words—" Popule mee, quid feci tibi 7" but all to no purpose. The family of who had taken possession of his property, opposed his return. Accordingly, in canto xvi. of the 'Paradise,' he has launched a violent invective against them.
The election of Henry of Luxemburg, or Henry VII., to the crown of Germany, revived the hopes of Dante, as Henry was preparing to come to Italy in order to assert the long-neglected rights of his pi ede ceseora as kings of the Romans. The Ghibeline leaders were ready to support his claims as imperial vicars, and the Ghibelino cities, such as Pisa, were likewise in his favour. In order to strengthen their zeal, Dante, about 1310, addressed a circular letter "to the kiuge dukes, marquises, counts, the senators of Rome, and all the people Of Italy, congratulating them on the prospect of happiness for Italy through the ministry of the pious Henry, who will punish the felons who opposed him and bestow mercy on the repentant," &c. It was about this time that he wrote his book 'do Monet-cilia,' which may be con sidered as a profession of Ghibelino political faith : it asserts the rights of the emperors, as successors of the Caesars, to the supreme temporal power, entirely independent of the popes, who are the spiritual beads of the church. This creed was in opposition to the assumed rights of Gregory VII., Innocent III., and other pontiffs, who pretended to be above all crowuod heads, and to have the disposal of thrones and principalities, an assumption which the Guelphs favoured in Italy in order to keep themselves free of the imperial authority. Both parties in fact acknowledged an external superior, although both wished to rule in their respective communities with as little sub serviency as possible to the nominal supremacy of either pope or emperor. But there was this difference, that the imperial, or Chiba line party, was mostly supported by the nobles, especially of North Italy, who styled themselves vicars of the emperor, and was therefore more aristocratic in its spirit, while the Guelphs of Tuscany looked upon the pope chiefly as an auxiliary in time of need, whose temporal interference was less direct., and could be more easily evaded than that of the emperor, so as to admit of a more popular or democratic spirit in their institutions. Such at least was the theory of the two parties, for in reality the Guelph or popular families formed an aristocracy of wealth as much as the Glubelines were an aristocracy of birth and rank. Daute, in bps book, 'de Monarchic,' is no servile advocate for despotism, for ho maintains that sovereigns are made to promote the good of their subjects, and not subjects to serve the ambitious pleasure of their sovereigns. The latter are to rule so as to soothe the way ward 14111i0U1 of men, in order that all may live in peace and brotherly feeling. But still he derives their authority from God, and he quotes in support of his system, Aristotle, the scriptures, and the Roman Illatory, agreeably to the scholastic logic of his times. This book 'de Monarchist* was burnt at Bologna by order of the papal legate after Dante's death.