Villani's Chronicle Part 24

[Sidenote: Purg. vi. 103-105.]

In the said year 1291, King Rudolf of Germany died, but he never attained to the honours of the Empire, because he was always intent upon increasing his state and lords.h.i.+p in Germany, leaving the enterprises of Italy that he might increase land and possessions for his sons; who, by his energy and valour, from a small count rose to be Emperor, and gained for himself the duchy of Austria, and a great part of the duchy of Suabia.

-- 147.--_How King Philip of France caused all the Italians to be taken prisoner, and then ransomed._ -- 148.--_How the Pisans recaptured the fortress of Pontadera._

-- 149.--_How the city of Forl in Romagna was taken by Maghinardo da Susinana._

[Sidenote: 1291 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. xxvii. 49-51.]

In the said year all the county of Romagna, being obedient to Holy Church, and under the care of the bishop of Arezzo, which was count thereof for the Pope, Maghinardo da Susinana, with certain n.o.bles and great men of Romagna, took the city of Forl by theft, and in it they took the Count Aghinolfo of Romena with his sons, which was brother to the said count bishop of Arezzo; and they besieged the said count bishop in Cesena; whence arose great war in Romagna. The said Maghinardo was a great and wise tyrant, holding many castles between Casentino and Romagna, and having many followers; and he was wise in war and very fortunate in many battles, and in his time did great things. He was a Ghibelline by race and by his works, but with the Florentines he was a Guelf and the enemy of all their enemies, whether they were Guelfs or Ghibellines; and in every expedition and battle which the Florentines undertook, whilst he was alive, he was with his people in their service as a captain; and this was because, when his father died, which was called Piero Pagano, a great n.o.bleman, leaving the said Maghinardo, a young child and with many enemies, to wit, the Counts Guidi and the Ubaldini and other lords of Romagna, this said father left him to the care and tutelage of the people and commonwealth of Florence, him and his lands; by the which commonwealth his patrimony was benignly increased and guarded and improved, and for this cause he was grateful and very faithful to the commonwealth of Florence in all its needs.

[Sidenote: 1292 A.D.]

-- 150.--_How the Florentines took the castle of Ampinana._ -- 151.--_How Pope Nicholas, of Ascoli, died._ -- 152.--_How the whole city of Noyon, in France, was burnt._ -- 153.--_How Adolf was elected king of the Romans._ -- 154.--_How the Florentines marched upon the city of Pisa._ -- 155.--_Of the miracles which were manifested in Florence by S. Maria d'Orto San Michele._

END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK VII.

BOOK VIII.

_Here begins the Eighth Book. It tells how the second Popolo arose in the city of Florence, and of many great changes which by reason thereof came afterwards to pa.s.s in Florence, following on with the other events of those times._

[Sidenote: 1292 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 131, 132.]

-- 1.--In the year of Christ 1292, on the 1st day of February, the city of Florence being in great and powerful state, and prosperous in all things, and the citizens thereof waxing fat and rich, and by reason of excessive tranquillity, which naturally engenders pride and novelties, being envious and arrogant among themselves, many murders, and wounds, and outrages were done by one citizen upon another; and above all the n.o.bles known as magnates and potentates, alike in the country and in the city, wrought upon the people who might not resist them, force and violence both against person and goods, taking possession thereof. For the which thing certain good men, artificers and merchants of Florence, which desired good life, considered how to set a remedy and defence against the said plague, and one of the leaders therein, among others, was a man of worth, an ancient and n.o.ble citizen, being one of the popolani, rich and powerful, whose name was Giano della Bella, of the people of S. Martin, with the following and counsel of other wise and powerful popolani. And inst.i.tuting in Florence an order of judges to correct the statutes and our laws, as by our ordinances the custom was of old to do, they ordained certain laws and statutes, very strong and weighty, against such magnates and men of power as should do wrong or violence against the people; increasing the common penalties in divers ways, and enacting that one member of a family of magnates should be held answerable for the others; and two bearing witness to public fame and report should be held to prove such crimes; and the public accounts should be revised. And these laws they called the Ordinances of Justice. And to the intent they might be maintained and put into execution, it was decreed that beyond the number of six Priors which governed the city, there should be a gonfalonier of justice appointed by the several sesti in succession, changing every two months, as do the Priors. And when the bells were set tolling, the people were to rally to the church of San Piero Scheraggio and give out the banner of justice, which before was not the custom. And they decreed that not one of the Priors should be of the n.o.ble houses called magnates; for before this good and true merchants had often been made Priors, albeit they chanced to be of some great and n.o.ble house. And the ensign and standard of the said Popolo was decreed to be a white field with a red cross; and there were chosen 1000 citizens, divided according to the sesti, with certain standard-bearers for each region, with fifty footmen to each standard, which were to be armed, each one with hauberk and s.h.i.+eld marked with the cross; and they were to a.s.semble at every tumult or summons of the gonfalonier, at the house or at the palace of the Priors, to do execution against the magnates; and afterwards the number of the chosen footmen increased to 2,000, and then to 4,000. And a like order of men-at-arms for the people, with the said ensign, was enrolled in each country and district of Florence, and they were called the Leagues of the People.

And the first of the said gonfaloniers was one Baldo de' Ruffoli of the Porte del Duomo; and in his time the standard sallied forth with armed men to destroy the goods of a family named Galli of Porta S.

Marie, by reason of a murder which one of them had committed in the kingdom of France on the person of a popolano. This new decree of the people, and change in the State was of much importance to the city of Florence, and had afterwards many and divers consequences both ill and good to our commonwealth, as hereafter in due time we shall make mention. And in this new thing and beginning of the Popolo, the popolani would have been hindered by the power of the magnates but that in those times the said magnates of Florence were in greater broils and discords among themselves than ever before since the Guelfs returned to Florence; and there was great war between the Adimari and the Tosinghi, and between the Rossi and the Tornaquinci, and between the Bardi and the Mozzi, and between the Gherardini and the Manieri, and between the Cavalcanti and the Bondelmonti, and between certain of the Bondelmonti and the Giandonati, and between the Visdomini and the Falconieri, and between the Bostichi and the Foraboschi, and between the Foraboschi and the Malispini, and among the Frescobaldi themselves, and among the family of the Donati themselves, and many other n.o.ble houses. [And therefore let not the reader marvel because we have put this event at the head of our book, forasmuch as the most strange events arose from this beginning, and not only to our city of Florence, but to all the region of Italy.]

[Sidenote: 1293 A.D.]

-- 2.--_How the people of Florence made peace with the Pisans, and many other notable things._ -- 3.--_Of a great fire which broke out in Florence in the district of Torcicoda._ -- 4.--_How the war began between the king of France and the king of England._

-- 5.--_How Celestine V. was elected and made Pope, and how he renounced the papacy._

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. iii. 58-60; xxvii. 104, 105.]

[Sidenote: Par. xxvii. 41.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. iii. 59, 60.]

In the year of Christ 1294, in the month of July, the Church of Rome had been vacant after the death of Pope Nicholas d'Ascoli for more than two years, by reason of the discord of the cardinals, which were divided, each party desiring to make one of themselves Pope. And the cardinals being in Perugia and straitly constrained by the Perugians to elect a Pope, as it pleased G.o.d they were agreed not to name one of their own college, and they elected a holy man which was called Brother Peter of Morrone in Abruzzi. This man was a hermit, and of austere life and penitence, and in order to abandon the vanity of the world, after he had ordained many holy monasteries of his Order, he departed as a penitent into the mountain of Morrone, which is above Sermona. He, being elected and brought and crowned Pope, made in the following September, for the reformation of the Church, twelve cardinals, for the most part from beyond the mountains, by the pet.i.tion and after the counsel of King Charles, king of Sicily and of Apulia. And this done, he departed with the court to Naples, and by King Charles was graciously received and with great honour; but because he was simple and knew no letters, and did not occupy himself willingly with the pomps of the world, the cardinals held him in small esteem, and it seemed to them that they had made an ill choice for the well-being and estate of the Church. The said holy father perceiving this, and not feeling himself sufficient for the government of the Church, as one who more loved the service of G.o.d and the weal of his soul than worldly honour, sought every way how he might renounce the papacy. Now, among the other cardinals of the court was one M.

Benedetto Guatani d'Alagna, very learned in books, and in the things of the world much practised and sagacious, which had a great desire to attain to the papal dignity; and he had laid plans seeking and striving to obtain it by the aid of King Charles and the cardinals, and already had the promise from them, which afterwards was fulfilled to him. He put it before the holy father, hearing that he was desirous to renounce the papacy, that he should make a new decretal, that for the good of his soul any Pope might renounce the papacy, showing him the example of S. Clement, whom, when S. Peter came to die, he desired should be Pope after him; but he, for the good of his soul, would not have it so, and in his room first S. Linus and then S. Cletus was Pope. And even as the said cardinal gave counsel, Pope Celestine made the said decretal; and this done, the day of S. Lucy in the following December, in a consistory of all the cardinals, in their presence he took off the crown and papal mantle, and renounced the papacy, and departed from the court, and returned to his hermit life, and to do his penance. And thus Pope Celestine reigned in the papacy five months and nine days. But afterwards it is said, and was true, that his successor, M. Benedetto Guatani aforesaid (who was afterwards Pope Boniface), caused him to be taken prisoner in the mountains of S.

Angiolo in Apulia above Bastia, whither he had withdrawn to do penance; and some say that he would fain have gone into Slavonia, but the other secretly held him in the fortress of Fummone in Campagna in honourable confinement, to the intent that so long as he lived none should be set up as a rival to his own election, forasmuch as many Christians held Celestine to be the right and true Pope, notwithstanding his renunciation, maintaining that such a dignity as was the papacy by no decretal could be renounced; and albeit S.

Clement refused the papacy at the first, the faithful nevertheless held him to be father, and it behoved him to be Pope after S. Cletus.

But Celestine being held prisoner, as we have said, in Fummone, lived but a short time in the said place; and dying there, he was buried poorly in a little church without Fummone pertaining to the order of his brethren, and put underground more than ten cubits deep, to the end his body might not be found. But during his life, and after his death, G.o.d wrought many miracles by him, whence many people held him in great reverence; and a certain time afterwards by the Church of Rome, and by Pope John XXII., he was canonised, and called S. Peter of Morrone, as hereafter in due time we shall make mention.

-- 6.--_How Boniface VIII. was elected and made Pope._

[Sidenote: Inf. vi. 69. xix. 52-57, 76-81. xxvii. 70, 85-111.]

[Sidenote: Purg. xx. 86-90. Par. ix. 136-142. xii. 90. xvii. 49-51.

xviii. 118-136. xxvii. 22-27. x.x.x. 148.]

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

In the said year 1294, Cardinal Benedetto Guatani, having by his wit and sagacity so wrought that Pope Celestine had renounced the papacy, as before in the last chapter we have made mention, followed up his enterprise, and wrought upon the cardinals and the support of King Charles, which had the friends.h.i.+p of many cardinals, specially of the twelve newly elected by Celestine. And while he was pursuing this quest, one evening by night he went secretly with but few companions to King Charles, and said to him: "King, thy Pope Celestine had the will and the means to serve thee in thy Sicilian war, but he had not the knowledge. Now, if thou wilt work with thy friends the cardinals that I may be elected Pope, I shall know, and I shall will, and I shall be able," promising him by his faith and oath to put thereto all the power of the Church. Then the king, trusting in him, promised him and agreed with his twelve cardinals that they should give him their votes; and there being at the election M. Matteo Rosso and M. Jacopo della Colonna, which were the heads of factions among the cardinals, they perceived what was toward, and straightway they too gave him their votes, but the first to do it was M. Matteo Rosso Orsini. And on this wise he was elected Pope in the city of Naples, the vigil of the Nativity of Christ in the said year; and immediately when he was elected, he willed to depart from Naples with his court, and came to Rome, and there caused himself to be crowned with great solemnity and honour in the middle of January. And this done, the first act which he did, hearing that great war was begun between King Philip of France and King Edward of England on the question of Gascony, was to send beyond the mountains two cardinal legates, to the end they might reconcile them together; but they availed little, for the said lords continued in greater war than before. This Pope Boniface was of the city of Alagna, a very n.o.ble man of his city, son of M. Lifredi Guatani, a Ghibelline by race, and whilst he was cardinal he was their protector, specially of the Todini; but after he was made Pope he became a strong Guelf, and did much for King Charles in the war in Sicily, albeit it is said by many wise men that he broke up the Guelf party, under cover of showing himself a strong Guelf, as hereafter in his actions may be manifestly seen by him who observes closely. A man of large schemes was he and lordly, and sought for much honour, and well knew how to maintain and advance the rights of the Church, and by reason of his knowledge and power he was much redoubted and feared; he was very rich through making the Church great and his kinsfolk; making no scruple of gain, for he said all was lawfully his which was the Church's. And when he was made Pope he annulled all the a.s.signments of the revenues of vacant benefices made by Pope Celestine, except where one was in possession; and he had his nephew made count of Caserta by King Charles, and two sons of the said nephew, the one count of Fondi, and the other count of Palazzo. He bought the military fortress at Rome, which was the palace of Octavia.n.u.s the emperor, and caused it to be enlarged and rebuilt at great cost, and other strong and fine castles in Campagna and in Maremma. And always he abode in winter in Rome, and in summer and spring in Rieti or Orvieto, but afterwards the most in Alagna, to make his city great. We will now leave speaking of the said Pope, following from time to time the things which came to pa.s.s in other parts of the world, and above all those in Florence, whereof the matter increases much.

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

-- 7.--_When the foundation of the new church of Santa Croce was begun in Florence._

-- 8.--_How the great man of the people, Giano della Bella, was driven out of Florence._

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

In the said year 1294, in the month of January, when M. Giovanni da Lucino da Como had lately entered upon the office of Podesta of Florence, a cause came for trial before him accusing M. Corso de'

Donati, a n.o.ble and powerful citizen among the best in Florence, of having slain a popolano, a retainer of his a.s.sociate M. Simone Galastrone, in a scuffle and fray which they had together, and wherein that retainer was slain; for which M. Corso Donati refused to pay the fine and bade justice take its course, trusting in the favour of the said Podesta, to be granted at the prayers of friends and of the lords; whereas the people of Florence looked that the said Podesta should condemn him; and already the standard of justice had been brought forth to carry the sentence into execution; but he absolved him; for the which thing, when the said declaration of innocence was read from the palace of the Podesta, and M. Simone Galastrone was condemned for having inflicted wounds, the common people cried out: "Death to the Podesta," and sallied forth in haste from the palace, crying, "To arms! to arms! long live the people!" and a great number of the people flew to arms, and especially of the common people, and rushed to the house of Giano della Bella, their chief; and he, it is said, sent them with his brother to the palace of the Priors to follow the gonfalonier of justice; but this they did not do, but came only to the palace of the Podesta, and furiously a.s.saulted the said palace with arms and crossbows, and set fire to the gates and burnt them, and entered in, and seized and scornfully robbed the said Podesta and his staff. But M. Corso in fear of his life fled from the palace over the roofs, for then was it not so walled as it is now. And the tumult displeased the Priors which were very near to the palace of the Podesta, but by reason of the unbridled populace, they were not able to hinder it. But some days after, when the uproar had been quieted, the great men could not rest, in their desire to abase Giano della Bella, forasmuch as he had been among the chiefs and beginners of the Ordinances of Justice, and was moreover desirous further to abase the magnates by taking from the Captains of the Guelf Party the seal and the common fund of the Party (which fund was very great), and to give them to the commonwealth; not that he was not a Guelf and of Guelf stock, but he would fain diminish the power of the magnates. Wherefore the magnates, seeing themselves thus treated, created a faction together with the Council of the College of Judges and of Notaries, which held themselves to be oppressed by him, as we before made mention, and with other popolani gra.s.si, friends and kinsmen of the magnates, which loved not that Giano della Bella should be greater in the commonwealth than they. And they determined to elect a body of stalwart Priors. And this was done, and they were proclaimed earlier than the wonted time. And this done, when they were in office they conferred with the Captain of the People, and set forth a proclamation and inquisition against the said Giano della Bella and his other confederates and followers and those which had been leaders in setting fire to the gates of the Palace, charging them with having set the city in an uproar, and disturbed the peace of the State, and a.s.saulted the Podesta, against the Ordinances of Justice; for the which thing the common people was much disturbed, and went to the house of Giano della Bella, and offered to surround him with arms, to defend him or to attack the city. And his brother bore to Orto San Michele a standard with the arms of the people; but Giano was a wise man, albeit somewhat presumptuous, and when he saw himself betrayed and deceived by the very men which had been with him in making the Popolo, and saw that their force together with that of the magnates was very great, and that the Priors were already a.s.sembled under arms at their house, he would not hazard the chances of civil war; and to the end the city might not be ravaged, and for fear of his person, he would not face the court, but withdrew, and departed from Florence on the 5th day of March, hoping that the people might yet restore him to his state; wherefore by the said accusation or notification he was for contumacy condemned in person and banished, and he died in exile in France (for he had affairs to attend to there, and was a partner of the Pazzi); and all his goods were destroyed; and certain other popolani were accused with him; and he was a great loss to our city, and above all to the people, forasmuch as he was the most leal and upright popolano, and lover of the common good, of any man in Florence, and one who gave to the commonwealth and took nothing therefrom. He was presumptuous and desired to avenge his wrongs, and this he did somewhat against the Abati, his neighbours, with the arm of the commonwealth, and, perhaps for the said sins, he was by his own laws, wrongfully and without guilt, judged by the unjust. And note that this is a great example to those citizens which are to come, to beware of desiring to be lords over their fellow-citizens or too ambitious; but to be content with the common citizens.h.i.+p. For the very men which had aided him to rise, through envy betrayed him and plotted to abase him; and it has been seen and experienced truly in Florence in ancient and modern times, that whosoever has become leader of the people and of the ma.s.ses has been cast down; forasmuch as the ungrateful people never give men their due reward. From this event arose great disturbance and change amongst the people and in the city of Florence, and from that time forward the artificers and common people possessed little power in the commonwealth, but the government remained in the hands of the powerful popolani gra.s.si.

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

-- 9.--_When the building of the great church of Santa Reparata was begun._

-- 10.--_How M. Gianni di Celona came into Tuscany as Imperial Vicar._

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 23-120.]