Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/273

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SPOLETO


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SPOLETO


foundations of another temple may be visited ; San Pietro Martire, with frescoes by Spagna; San Kilippo, with four rokunns of green porphyry taken from the temple of Clitumnus. Among the civic {ditices are: Palazzo Comunale, with a collection of paintings; the castle of Cardinal Albornoz; and near the cathedral Palazzo AiToui, which is believed to have been the palace of the dukes of Spoleto. The relics of an- tiquity include: Porta della Fuga; the ruins of an ampliitheatre, and of the Ponte Sanguinario (the bloody bridge); the arch of Drusus and Germanieus. Spoletium, a city of the Umbrians, received a Ro- man colon}' 241 B. c. In 217 Hannibal, after his victory at Lake Trasimenus, was repulsed from the walls of Spoleto. Here, in the Civil Wars, Pompey and Crassus (82 b. c.) conquered the troops of Marius, who, however, found refuge in the city, and were thus the cause of its punishment. Here ^J^milianus was proclaimed emperor (249), and killed three months later. In the Gothic war (5.37) the city surrendered to the Byzantine general, Constantine; but in 546 it was recovered by Totila, and it was not retaken by the Byzantines until 552, when Narses restored the fortifications. In 572 Spoleto became the seat of a Lombard duke, Faroald. He was succeeded by Ari- ulf, who made frequent expeditions against the Byzan- tine dominions (579-92 against Ravenna; 592 against Rome). Ariulf was suc- ceeded by Theu- delapius, son of Faroald, then came Atto (653), Transemund I (663), Faroald II (703), who ruled conjointly with his brother Wa- chilap. Faroald II li;i(l alreadv cap- iMivd Classe (the purl of Ravenna), when he was obliged by Luit- prand to restore it. He was de- posed by his son Transemund II (724), who also rebelled against King Luitprand and formed an alliance with Gregory III, with whom he found refuge in 738. Ilderic, who had replaced him as duke, was slain by Transemund in 740, but in 742 the latter was obliged to become a cleric by King Luitprand, and the duchy was con- ferred upon Agiprand (742), who was succeeded by Theodicius. Under Hildebrand the Duchy of Spo- leto was promised to the Holy See by the King of the Franks, and the duke himself was named by Pope Adrian (773), but the succeeding dukes were named by the Prankish emperors. Winigisus aided Pope Leo III against his enemies. Among the dukes of this epoch are the following: Sicco, who was expelled because of his hostility to the Franks, but was re- ceived and made duke at Beneventum; Guido I, who divided the duchy between his two sons Lambert and < iuido II, the latter receiving the Duchy of Camerino. Lambert distingui.shed himself in the wars against the Saracens, but disgraced himself by massacres at Rome in 867; he was afterwards deposed (871), then restored (876), but was a second time excommunicated by Pope John VIII. In 883 Guido II united under his Bway the entire dukedom, which from this time was called the Duchv of Spoleto and Camerino. After the death of Ch.arles III the Bald (888), Guido had him- self crowned Roman Emperor and King of Italy under


Pope Stephen V (891); Pope Formosus in 892 also crowned his son Lambert II, who succeeded his father in the dukedom, kingdom, and empire.

Alberico 1, Duke of Camerino (897), and afterwards of Spoleto, married the notorious Marozia; he was killed by the Romans in 924. His son Alberico II made himself also master of Rome and remained there until the election to the papacy of his son John XII. At this time the Emperor Otto I detached from the Duchy of Spoleto the so-called Sabina Langobardica, which was bestowed upon the Holy See. In 967 Otto II united the duchy with that of Capua and Benevento, which was then ruled by Pandolfo Testa di Ferro; but after the death of the latter he detached Sjjoleto, which was in 989 granted to Hugo, Duke of Tus- cany. The duchy was united with Tuscany a second time in 1057, when Godfrey of Lorraine espoused Beatrice, the widow of Boniface, Duke of Spoleto, and it remained so until the death of the Countess Matilda. During the conflict between the papacy and the Emperor Henry IV, the latter named other dukes of Spoleto. After this the dukedom was in the family of the Werners (Guarnieri) of Urslingen, Mar- graves of Ancona. In 1155 Frederick Barbarossa de- stroyed the city for having made a prisoner of his am- bassador to Apulia. In 1158 the emperor gave the duchy to Guelf VI of Este; Henry VI invested Conrad of Urslingen with it, upon whose death in 1198 it was ceded to Pope Innocent III, the cession being con- firmed by Otto of Brunswick. The latter, however, in 1209 occupied the duchy for himself, making Di- pold von Vohburg duke. In like manner Frederick II in his different treaties with the Holy See acknowl- edged its sovereignty over the duchy, but when at war with the papacy he occupied it for the empire, and was always joyfully received by the poijulace (1240). His son, Manfred, on the other hand, did not succeed in winning the people. The popes maintained at Spoleto a governor, who was often a cardinal. As early as the thirteenth century, and more frequently in the fourteenth, Spoleto was involved in wars with Perugia, Terni, and other cities; in 1324 it was almost destroyed by the Perugians. In 1319 the struggle be- tween the Guelphs and Ghibellines tore the city. Car- dinal Albornoz favoured the city for the services which it rendered in the restoration of the papal power, and made it independent of Perugia. At the beginning of the Great Schism, Pietro di Prato suc- ceeded in occupying Spoleto for the anti-pope Clem- ent VII, but was expelled by Boniface IX. Ladis- laus II, King of Naples, in 1414 endeavoured in vain to make him.self master of the city. Pope Eugenius IV named as g;overnor the Abbot of Monte Cassino, Piero TomaceUi, who was tyrannical to such an extent that the people besieged him in his castle, and in 1438 summoned the bands of Piccinino to free them. In 1480 Cardinal Vitelleschi ended the tyranny of Piero and of the Trinci of Foligno. The former perished in the Castle of Sant' Angelo. During the fifteenth cen- tury the city was often at war and in rebellion against the papal power. In the campaign of 1S60 in Um- bria, Spoleto was heroically defended by Colonel O'Reilly.

Spoleto venerates as its apostle St. Brictius, who is also venerated in other cities of Umbria and Tuscany. It is difficult to discuss the epoch in which he lived be- cause the legend of his life is so full of anachronisms. The names of other martyrs are also recorded at Spoleto, like St. Gregory the Priest; indeed, the name Ponte Sanguinario is said to record a great massacre of Christians. Another martjTcd bishop was St. Sa- turnius (270), and during the persecut ion of Diocletian the martvTdom of St. Savinus, Bishop of Assisi, took place at Spoleto. The first bishop of certain date is Ca-cilianus, to whom Pope Liberius wrote a letter in 354. There is record of Bishop Achilles, who during the conflict between Pope St. Boniface and the anti-