Charlemagne, urged by the entreaties of Adrian I., having come to Italy, defeated Desiderius, successor of Astolphus, and overthrew the kingdom of the Longoberds. He assumed the title of Patrician of the Romans, and he confirmed his father's donation, and gave to the See of Rome the rents and fees of extensive domains in the exarchate and Pentapolis and other provinces, but retained himself the regal rights. The temporal power of the popes in those times was very little, being restrained on one aide by the republican spirit of the people, and on the other by the imperial power, which regained the ascendancy whenever the emperor visited Rome. During the strug gle between Pope Gregory VII. and the emperor Henry IV., an important addition was made to the temporal claims of the see of Rome by the donation of the Countess Matilda, who added to her paternal fiefs in the Modenese, Parmesan, and Mantuan territories, the rich succession of Godfrey, marquis of Tuscany, second husband of her mother Beatrix. She twice made douation of her territories, first to Gregory VII. and afterwards to Pascal II., which last is in her will dated 1102. Henry V., in 1116, the year after Matilda's decease, took possession of the whole of her property ; but Matilda'a donation continned long after to furnish to the see of Rome claims over a considerable part of northern and central Italy.
Innocent III. on his accession found the -imperial power asserted over all Italy by Henry VI., in his double capacity of king of Loin barely and king of Sicily. The emperor had distributed the domains of Matilda as fiefs among his generals. But after the death of Henry in 1197, and of his wife Constance in the followiug year, their iufaut son Frederick was left to the guardianship of Innocent, who availed himself of the opportunity to assert the claims of his see founded upon the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne and of Matilda. He took possession of Spoleto and the Marches, and the towns of those pro-. vinces willingly opened their gates and swore allegiance to the see of Rome, their municipal franchises being guaranteed to them at the same time. These towns were Spoleto, Foligno, Nocera, Perugia, Todi, Rieti, Assisi, Citth di Costello, Ancona, Fermo, Cameriuo, Sinigaglia, Osimo, Fano, Jesi, and Pesaro.
Rome and its duchy were still governed as a republic ; but the people becoming tired of their senate abolished it, and substituted, after the example of other Italian cities, a foreign elective magistrate, whom they styled 'the Senator,' and to whom they gave the powers till then enjoyed by the senate. Innocent III. did not alter the form of the municipal institutions of Rome, but by the form of the oath which the senator took, that magistrate bound himself "to maintain the Pontiff in possession of his see and of the regal rights which should belong to St. Pete?, Church, &c.; and lastly to provide for the safety of the cardinals and their household in every part of Rome and its jurisdiction." Pope Nicholas III., after settling the disputes between Charles of Anjou and the emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, urged the latter to define by a charter the dominions of the Holy See, and to separate them for ever from those dependent on the empire, and he sent to Rudolph copies of the donations of former emperors. Rudolph, by letters
patent dated May, 1278, recognised the States of the Church as extending from Radicofaui to Ceperano, near the Liris, on the fron tiers of Naples, and as including the duchy of Spoleto, the march of Ancona, the exarehate of Ravenna, the county of Bertinoro, Bologna, and some other places. At the same time Rudolph released the people of all those places from their oath of allegiance to the empire giving up all rights over them which might still remain iu the imperial crown, and acknowledging the sovereignty of the same to belong to the we of Rome. This charter was confirmed by the electors and princes of the empire. (Baynaldus, 'Annales?) Several of the towns thus ceded, as Bologna, Pentgia, Ancona, had lone governed themselves se republics, and were possessed of considerable territories ; while others constituted hereditary principalities, and the transfer of alle giance from the empire to the church made no alteration in their political condition.
The removal of the papal see from Borne to Avignon, at the begin ning of the 11th century, where it remained for seventy years, tended greatly to weaken the loose bond between it and the provinces above named. Accordingly we find during that period a number of petty princes and tyrants settled in central Italy often at war either among themselves or against the Visconti of Milan. The distant popes from Avignon sent legates with some mercenary troops to support the Guelph party, and to awrt the authority of the papal see, but the towns and lords of Romagna stood their ground against them. At Rome, Menus put himself at the head of a popular movement, drove away the Colonna and other turbulent nobles, and proclaimed the republic, of which ho was Demo(' tribune by popular acclamation. He re-established order, exterminated the robbers, and obliged the neighbouring barons to swear to maintain the new order of things. But Rlenzo soon became intoxicated with vanity and pride, disgusted the people, offended the barons, and at last the pope sent a legate to supersede him. After seven months' power Cola di Rienzo wee obliged to run away from Rome, at the beginning of 1348. and being arrested was taken prisoner to Avignon. Innocent VI., in 1353, sent Cardinal Gil Albornoz, a Spanish noble, who had distinguished himself in the wars of Spain antinst the Moors, at the head of an expedition which had for its object the reconquest of the States of the Church, and gave him Cola di Rienzo to assist him by his influence with the Roman.'. Albornoa d.feated Orlelaffi of Forli, Malatesta of Rimini, Vieo of Viterbo, and other petty princes, and restored the Romagna, the Marches, and the Campagna to the allegiance of the papal Fee. Cola di Rienzo, whom the cardinal had aeut to Rome to second his views, was murdered there in a popular tumult in October 1354.