Dante's Inferno

By Dante Alighieri

Immerse yourself into the timeless masterpiece of Dante's Inferno, a journey through the depths of Hell that has captivated readers for centuries. Join the intrepid poet Dante Alighieri as he embarks on a harrowing odyssey through the nine circles of the infernal realm, each one more treacherous and forebodi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Happy Hour Books
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9789358480696

Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet. Born in Florence, Dante was raised in a family loyal to the Guelphs, a political faction in support of the Pope and embroiled in violent conflict with the opposing Ghibellines, who supported the Holy Roman Emperor. Promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati at the age of 12, Dante had already fallen in love with Beatrice Portinari, whom he would represent as a divine figure and muse in much of his poetry. After fighting with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289, Dante returned to Florence to serve as a public figure while raising his four young children. By this time, Dante had met the poets Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and Brunetto Latini, all of whom contributed to the burgeoning aesthetic movement known as the dolce stil novo, or “sweet new style.” The New Life (1294) is a book composed of prose and verse in which Dante explores the relationship between romantic love and divine love through the lens of his own infatuation with Beatrice. Written in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, The New Life was influential in establishing a standardized Italian language. In 1302, following the violent fragmentation of the Guelph faction into the White and Black Guelphs, Dante was permanently exiled from Florence. Over the next two decades, he composed The Divine Comedy (1320), a lengthy narrative poem that would bring him enduring fame as Italy’s most important literary figure.

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Dante’s Inferno

                                       Dante Alighieri

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Title :  Dante's Inferno

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Contents

Dante’s Inferno

FLORENCE AND DANTE

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

THE INFERNO.

CANTO I.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO II.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO III.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO IV.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO V.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO VI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO VII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO VIII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO IX.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO X.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XIII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XIV.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XV.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XVI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XVII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XVIII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XIX.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XX.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXIII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXIV.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXV.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXVI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXVII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXVIII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXIX.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXX.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXXI.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXXII.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXXIII.

NOTE ON THE COUNT UGOLINO.

FOOTNOTES:

CANTO XXXIV.

FOOTNOTES:

FLORENCE AND DANTE

Dante is himself the hero of the Divine Comedy, and ere many stages of the Infernohave been passed the reader feels that all his steps are being taken in a familiarcompanionship. When every allowance has been made for what the exigencies of artrequired him to heighten or suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is revealing himself much as he really was—in some of his weakness as well as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for the features of his face. The onelikeness answers marvellously to the other; and, together, they have helped the worldto recognise in him the great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his feelingsasmuchashewinsouradmirationbythewealthofhisfancy,andbytheclearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree confirm the impression of Dante’s character to beobtained from the Comedy. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studyingasawholeallthatislefttousofhim,wecangainageneralnotionofthenatureof his career—when he was born and what was his condition in life; his early loves andfriendships; his studies, military service, and political aims; his hopes and illusions,and the weary purgatory of his exile.

To the knowledge of Dante’s life and character which is thus to be acquired, theformal biographies of him have but little to add that is both trustworthy and of value.Something of course there is in the traditional story of his life that has come downfrom his time with the seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertainedbycarefulresearchamongFlorentineandotherdocuments.Butwhenallthatold and modern Lives have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts regarding himare found to be but few; such at least as are beyond dispute. Boccaccio, his earliestbiographer, swells out his Life, as the earlier commentators on the Comedy do theirnotes, with what are plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante’s own words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite pains in littlebeyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what was the order of publication of the poet’s works, where he may have travelled to, and when and for how long a timehe may have had this or that great lord for a patron.

A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante’s life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch must contain some account—more or less full—ofFlorentine affairs before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be found many of the persons of the Comedy. In reading the poem we are never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can doagainst him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the Comedy is welldescribed as the work of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even whenhis words are bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he was baptized andthe streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her stones; and with her towers andpalaces Florence stands for the unchanging background to the changing scenes of hismystical pilgrimage.

The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries agrees in generaloutline with that of most of its neighbours. At the beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own affairs, and wassubject to its feudal superior almost as completely as was ever any German villageplanted in the shadow of a castle. To Florence, as to many a city of Northern andCentral Italy, the first opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between EmperorandPopeinthetimeofHildebrand.InthisquarreltheChurchfoundits best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then another of her rights in Florence,generally by way of a pious gift—an endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the bishop—these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and Pope, and only studious to complete a virtualindependence of both. Florence had been Matilda’s favourite place of residence; and, benefitinglargelyasitdidbyhereasyrule,itisnowonderthathernameshould have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a household word.[1] Nor isthe greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe of the Empire though she was, he onlyremembers her piety; and it is by Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2]

It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side rather with the Popethan with the Emperor in the long-continued struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for overlord they would at least have a master who was anItalian, and one who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and would have seen new estates carvedout of her fertile soil for members of the German garrison. The danger was broughthome to many of the youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of FrederickBarbarossa (1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, thatmonarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was confirmed bytheslavishdoctrineofsomeofthenewcivilians.Accordingtothesetherecould be only one master in the world; as far as regarded the things of time, but one sourceof authority in Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor’s that hechose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the cities of theLombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, and especially Florence,bent before the blast, temporising as long as they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay between submission and open revolt. Even Florence,it is true, strong in her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact beyond what couldnotbehelped.Inherpursuitofadvantages,skilfullyusingeveryopportunity,and steadfast of aim even when most she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual Florentine.

The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the obstinate patriotism ofLombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it was as a master justly displeasedwith servants who, while they had not openly rebelled against him, had yet provedeminently unprofitable, and whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. Onthe complaint of the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had beenplundered by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands andcastles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a narrow belt aroundthe walls. Villani even says that for the four years during which Frederick still livedthe Commonwealth was wholly landless. And here, rather than lose ourselves amongthe endless treaties, leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine society, andespecially at the place held in it by the class which found its protector in Barbarossa.

Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it was beginning to extend itscommerce and increase its industry. Starting somewhat late on the career on whichVenice,Genoa,andPisawerealreadyfaradvanced,Florencewasasifstrenuous tomakeupforlosttime,andsoondisplayedararecomprehensionofthenatureof the enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, there has beenanywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that public wellbeing is the sum ofprivate prosperity, or such an enlightened perception of what tends to economicalprogress. Florence had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, nosea-port of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. Shecould therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free wayout and in for her merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received throughthat port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of Europe. At a somewhat later periodthe Florentines were to give as strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of exchange,and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and sold—even in countries where the very name ofFlorence was unknown.[3]

In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural that a greatplace should be filled by merchants. These were divided into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was only the wealthier citizens—the members, we mayassume, of these guilds—who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body of the people;all,thatis,ofservileconditionorengagedinthemeanerkindsofbusiness.Fromone

point of view, the liberties of the citizens were only their privileges. But although thelabourers and humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were nottherefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two thousand citizenswho shared with the patricians the control of public affairs.

There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she awoke tolife—those within the walls, and those settled in the neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the noble citizens—a boast indulged in by Dante—that they were descended from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A saferboast would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not altogether of it, being distinguished fromthe other citizens, if not always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in war and hold civil offices out of all proportion totheir numbers.

Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally subject to theMarquis of Tuscany. After Matilda’s death they claimed to hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, tooktoll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for acouple of generations the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly organised city militia was mustered, war wasdeclared against some specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already citizens, while the country neighbours of the victimlooked on with indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the ground, or was restored totheowneronconditionofhisyieldingservicetotheRepublic.And,bothbyway of securing a hold upon an unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and somestrong arms to the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in Florence for a great part of every year.

With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, ready, when need was, to impose itswill upon its neighbours, or to join with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, was neverso well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at the summons of the war-bell, had to armfor the field; but at the best they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid ofprofessionalmen-at-arms,theymusthavefailedmorefrequentlyintheirenterprises, or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we will, Florence surely lostmore than it gained by compelling the crowd of idle gentlemen to come within itswalls. In the course of time some of them indeed condescended to engage in trade—sank, as the phrase went, into the ranks of the Popolani, or mere wealthy citizens; but the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely increased invalue in consequence of the general prosperity, held themselves haughtily aloof fromhonest industry in every form. Each family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards intothe air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a certain distance from the ground.

It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the troubles andrevolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Suchquarrels and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source oftroublewasthepresencewithinthecityofapowerfulidleclass,constantlyeager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure itself by every available means,including that of outside help, in the possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed tothe general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the Florentines. On the occasion of thecelebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), some of the nobles definitely went over to theside of the people, either because they judged it likely[Pg xxviii] to win in the long-run, or impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide ambitiousmen into two camps, and in one form or another develop party strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the noble parties held the same end in sight—control of theCommonwealth; and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it.The faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong Emperor, who shoulddepute to them his rights over the money-getting, low-born crowd.

II.

The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the Hohenstaufen Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, ascended the throne, and still more when, on attaining full age, he claimed the whole of the Peninsula as his family inheritance. Other Emperors had withstood the Papal claims, but none had ever proved an antagonist like Frederick. His quarrel seemed indeed to be with the Church itself, with its doctrines and moralsas well as with the ambition of churchmen; and he offered the strange spectacle of aRoman Emperor—one of the twin lights in the Christian firmament—whose favourwas less easily won by Christian piety, however eminent, than by the learning of theArab or the Jew. When compelled at last to fulfil a promise extorted from him ofconducting a crusade to the Holy Land, he scandalised Christendom by making friends of the Sultan, and by using his presence in the East, not for the deliverance of theSepulchre, but for the furtherance of learning and commerce. Thrice excommunicated, he had his revenge by proving with how little concern the heaviest anathemas of theChurch could be met by one who was armed in unbelief. Literature, art, and mannerswere sedulously cultivated in his Sicilian court, and among the able ministers whomhe selected or formed, the modern idea of the State may be said to have had its birth.Free thinkerandfree liver,poet, warrior, andstatesman, he stood forwardagainstthe sombre background of the Middle Ages a figure in every respect so brilliant andoriginal as well to earn from his contemporaries the title of the Wonder of the World.

On the goodwill of Italians Frederick had the claim of being the most Italian of all the Emperors since the revival of the Western Empire, and the only one of them whosethronewaspermanentlysetonItaliansoil.Yetheneverwonthepopularheart.To the common mind he always appeared as something outlandish and terrible—as theman who had driven a profitable but impious trade in the Sultan’s land. Dante, in hischildhood, must have heard many a tale of him; and we find him keenly interested inthecharacteroftheEmperorwhocamenearesttounitingItalyintoagreatnation, in whose court there had been a welcome for every man of intellect, and in whom agreat original poet would have found a willing and munificent patron. In the Inferno,bythemouthofPierdelleVigne,theImperialChancellor,hepronouncesFrederick to have been worthy of all honour;[5] yet justice requires him to lodge this flower ofkings in the burning tomb of the Epicureans, as having been guilty of the arch-heresy ofdenyingthemoralgovernmentoftheworld,andholdingthatwiththedeathof the body all is ended.[6] It was a heresy fostered by the lives of many churchmen,high and low; but the example of Frederick encouraged the profession of it by noblesandlearnedlaymen.OnFrederick’scharactertherewasastilldarkerstainthanthis of religious indifference—that of cold-blooded cruelty. Even in an age which hadproduced Ezzelino Romano, the Emperor’s cloaks of lead were renowned as thehighest refinement in torture.[7] But, with all his genius, and his want of scruple in the choice of means, he built nothing politically that was not ere his death crumbling todust. His enduring work was that of an intellectual reformer under whose protectionand with whose personal help his native language was refined, Europe was enrichedwith a learning new to it or long forgotten, and the minds of men, as they lost theirblind reverence for Rome, were prepared for a freer treatment of all the questions with which religion deals. He was thus in some respects a precursor of Dante.

More than once in the course of Frederick’s career it seemed as if he might becomemaster of Tuscany in fact as well as in name, had Florence only been as well affected tohimaswereSienaandPisa.Butalready,ashasbeensaid,thepopularinterest had been strengthened by accessions from among the nobles. Others of them, without descending into the ranks of the citizens, had set their hopes on being the first in acommonwealth rather than privates in the Imperial garrison. These men, with theirrestless and narrow ambitions, were as dangerous to have for allies as for foes, but by throwing their weight into the popular scale they at least served to hold the Imperialist magnatesincheck,andestablishedsomethinglikeabalanceinthefightingpower ofFlorence;andso,asinthedaysofBarbarossa,thecitywaspreservedfromtaking asidetoostrongly.TheheartsoftheFlorentinetraderswereintheirownaffairs— in extending their commerce and increasing their territory and influence in landwardTuscany. As regarded the general politics of Italy, their sympathy was still with theRoman See; but it was a sympathy without devotion or gratitude. For refusing to join in the crusade of 1238 the town was placed under interdict by Gregory IX. The Emperor meanwhile was acknowledged as its lawful overlord, and his vicar received something more than nominal obedience, the choice of the chief magistrates being made subjectto his approval. Yet with all this, and although his party was powerful in the city, it was but a grudging service that was yielded to Frederick. More than once fines were levied on the Florentines; and worse punishments were threatened for their persevering andactive enmity to Siena, now dominated by its nobles and held in the Imperial interest. Volunteers from Florence might join the Emperor in his Lombard campaigns; but they were left equally free by the Commonwealth to join the other side. At last, when hewas growing old, and when like his grandfather he had been foiled by the stubbornLombards, he turned on the Florentines as an easier prey, and sent word to the nobles of his party to seize the city. For months the streets were filled with battle. In January 1248, Frederick of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor, entered Florence withsome squadrons of men-at-arms, and a few days later the nobles that had fought on the popular side were driven into banishment. This is known in the Florentine annals asthe first dispersion of the Guelfs.

Long before they were adopted in Italy, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline had beenemployed in Germany to mark the partisans of the Bavarian Welf and of the Hohenstaufen lords of Waiblingen. On Italian soil they received an extended meaning: GhibelinestoodforImperialist;Guelfforanti-Imperialist,Papalist,orsimplyNationalist.When the names began to be freely used in Florence, which was towards the close ofFrederick’s reign and about a century after their first invention, they denoted no newstart in politics, but only supplied a nomenclature for parties already in existence. Asfar as Florence was concerned, the designations were the more convenient that theywere not too closely descriptive. The Ghibeline was the Emperor’s man, when it served his purpose to be so; while the Guelf, constant only in his enmity to the Ghibelines,was free to think of the Pope as he chose, and to serve him no more than he wished or needed to. Ultimately, indeed, all Florence may be said to have become Guelf. To[Pg xxxiii] begin with, the name distinguished the nobles who sought alliance with thecitizens, from the nobles who looked on these as they might have done on serfs newly thriven into wealth. Each party was to come up in turn. Within a period of twenty years each was twice driven into banishment, a measure always accompanied with decreesof confiscation and the levelling of private strongholds in Florence. The exiles keptwell together, retreating, as it were in the order of war, to camps of observation theyfound ready prepared for them in the nearest cities and fortresses held by those of their own way of thinking. All their wits were then bent on how, by dint of some fightingand much diplomacy, they might shake the strength and undermine the credit of theirsuccessful rivals in the city, and secure their own return in triumph. It was an art they were proud to be adepts in.[8]

Inarapidsketchlikethisitwouldbeimpossibletotellhalfthechangesmadeon theconstitutionofFlorenceduringthesecondpartofthethirteenthcentury.Dante in a well-known passage reproaches Florence with the political restlessness whichafflicted her like a disease. Laws, he says, made in October were fallen into desuetude eremid-November.[9]Andyetitmaybethatinthisconstantreadinesstochange, lies the best proof of the political capacity of the Florentines. It was to meet newnecessities that they made provision of new laws. Especial watchfulness was called for against the encroachments of the grandees, whose constant tendency—whatever their partyname—wastoweakenlegalauthority,andplaythepartoflordsandmasters ofthecitizens.Butthesewerenomereweaversandquill-driverstobeplundered at will. Even before the return of the Guelfs, banished in 1248, the citizens, takingadvantage of a check suffered in the field by the dominant Ghibelines, had begun torecast the constitution in a popular sense, and to organise the townsmen as a militia on a permanent footing. When, on the death of Frederick in 1250, the Imperialist nobleswere left without foreign aid, there began a period of ten years, favourably known inFlorentine history as the Government of the Primo Popolo or Popolo Vecchio; that is, of the true body of the citizens, commoners possessed of franchises, as distinguishedfrom the nobles above them and the multitude below. For it is never to be forgottenthatFlorence,likeAthens,andliketheotherItalianRepublics,wasfarfrombeing a true democracy. The time was yet to come, and it was not far distant, when theranks of citizenship were to be more widely opened than now to those below, andmorecloselyshuttothoseabove.Inthemeantimethecomparativelysmallnumber of wealthy citizens who legally composed the ‘People’ made good use of their tenyears of breathing-time, entering on commercial treaties and widening the possessions of the Commonwealth, now by war, and now by shrewd bargains with great barons.To balance the influence of the Podesta, who had hitherto been the one great officerof State—criminal judge, civil governor, and commander-in-chief all in one—theycreated the office of Captain of the People. The office of Podesta was not peculiar toFlorence. There, as in other cities, in order to secure his impartiality, it was providedthat he should be a foreigner, and hold office only for six months. But he was alsorequired to be of gentle birth; and his councils were so composed that, like his own,their sympathies were usually with the nobles. The Captain of the People was therefore created partly as a tribune for the protection of the popular rights, and partly to act aspermanent head of the popular forces. Like the Podesta, he had two councils assigned to him; but these were strictly representative of the citizens, and sat to control hisconduct as well as to lend to his action the weight of public opinion.

Such of the Ghibelines as had not been banished from Florence on the death of Frederick, lived there on sufferance, as it were, and under a rigid supervision. Once more theywere to find a patron and ally in a member of the great house of Hohenstaufen; and withhis aid they were again for a few years to become supreme in Florence, and to provebytheirabuseofpowerhowwelljustifiedwasthemistrustthepeoplehadofthem. In many ways Manfred, one of Frederick’s bastards, was a worthy son of his father.Like him he was endowed with great personal charm, and was enamoured of all thatopenednewregionstointellectualcuriosityorgaverefinementtosensualpleasure. In his public as well as in his private behaviour, he was reckless of what the Churchand its doctrines might promise or threaten; and equally so, his enemies declared, ofthe dictates of common humanity. Hostile eyes detected in the green clothes whichwere his favourite dress a secret attachment to Islam; and hostile tongues charged him with the murder of a father and of a brother, and the attempted murder of a nephew.His ambition did not aim at the Empire, but only at being King of Sicily and Naples,lands which the Hohenstaufens claimed as their own through the Norman mother ofFrederick. Of these kingdoms he was actual ruler, even while his legitimate brotherConradlived.OnthedeathofthatprincehebrushedasidetheclaimsofConradin, hisnephew,andbidboldlyforrecognitionbythePope,whoclaimedtobeoverlord of the southern kingdoms—a recognition refused, or given only to be immediatelywithdrawn. In the eyes of Rome he was no more than Prince of Tarentum, but by arms and policy he won what seemed a firm footing in the South; and eight years after therule of the Popolo Vecchio began in Florence he was the acknowledged patron of allin Italy who had been Imperialist—for the Imperial throne was now practically vacant. And Manfred was trusted all the more that he cared nothing for Germany, and stoodout even more purely an Italian monarch than his father had ever been. The Ghibelines of Florence looked to him to free them of the yoke under which they groaned.

When it was discovered that they were treating with Manfred, there was an outburstof popular wrath against the disaffected nobles. Some of them were seized and put todeath,afatesharedbytheAbbotofVallombrosa,whomneitherhispriestlyoffice nor his rank as Papal Legate availed to save from torture and[Pg xxxvii] a shamefulend.[10] Well accustomed as was the age to violence and cruelty, it was shocked atthis free disposal of a great ecclesiastic by a mercantile community; and even to theGuelf chronicler Villani the terrible defeat of Montaperti seemed no more than a justvengeance taken by Heaven upon a crime so heinous.[11] In the meantime the city was laid under interdict, and those concerned in the Abbot’s death were excommunicated; while the Ghibelines, taking refuge in Siena, began to plot and scheme with the greater spirit against foes who, in the very face of a grave peril, had offended in the Pope their strongest natural ally.

The leader of the exiles was Farinata, one of the Uberti, a family which, so long agoas 1180, had raised a civil war to force their way into the consulship. Ever since, they had been