Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/86

This page needs to be proofread.

GUERANGER


58


GUERANGER


self practically an Italian, was about to unite all Italy into a Ghibelline, anti-papal monarchy. Although in the north the Ghibelline supremacy was checked by the victory of the Marquis Azzo d'Este over Ezzelino at Cassano on the Adda (1259), in Tuscany even Flor- ence was lost to the Guelph cause by the sanguinary battle of Montaperti (4 Sept., 1260), celebrated in Dante's poem. Urban IV then offered Manfred's crown to Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis of France, f'harles came to Italy, and by the great vic- tory of Benevento (26 Feb., 1260), at which Manfred was killed, established a French dynasty upon the throne of Naples and Sicily. The defeat of Freder- ick's grandson, Conradin, at the battle of Tagliacozzo (1268), followed by his judicial murder at Naples by the command of Charles, marks the end of the strug- gle and the overthrow of the German imperial power in Italy for two and a half centuries.

Thus the struggle ended in the complete triumph of the Guelphs. Florence, once more free and demo- cratic, had established a special organization within the republic, known as the Parte Guelfa, to maintain Guelph principles and chastise supposed Ghibellines. Siena, hitherto the stronghold of Ghibellinism in Tus- cany, became Guelph after the battle of t'olle di Valdelsa (1269). The pontificate of the saintly and pacific Gregory X (1271-r27()) tended to dis.sociate the Church from the Guelph party, which now began to look more to the royal house of France. Although they lost Sicily by the "Vespers of Palermo" (1282), the Angevin kings of Naples remained the chief power in Italy, and the natural leaders of the Guelphs, with whose aiil they had won their crown. Adherence to Ghibelline principles was still maintained by the republics of Pisa and Arezzo, the Delia Scala family at Verona, and a few petty despots here and there in Romagna and elsewhere. No great ideals of any kind were by this time at stake. As Dante declares in the " Paradiso" (canto vi), one party opposed to the im- perial eagle the golden lilies, and the other appropri- ated the eagle to a faction, "so that it is hard to see which sinneth most". The intervention of Boniface VIII in the politics of Tuscany, when the predominant Guelphs of Florence split into two new factions, was the cause of Dante's exile (1301), and drove him for a while into the ranks of the Ghibellines. The next pope, Benedict XI (1.30;j-l.S04), made earnest Tit- tempts to reconcile all parties; but the "Babylonian Captivity" of his successors at Avignon augmented the divisions of Italy. From the death of Frederick II (12.50) to the election of Henry VII ( 1308), the im- perial throne was regarded by the Italians as vacant. Henry himself was a chivalrous and high minded idealist, who hated the very names of (iuelph and Ghibelline; his expedition to Italy (1310-1.3i;i) roused much temporary enthusiasm (reflected in the poetry of Dante and Cino da Pistoia), but he was successfully resisted by King Robert of Naples and the Floren- tines. After his death, imperial vicars made them- selves masters of various cities. Uguccione della Faggiuola (d. 1320), for a brief while lord of Pisa " in marvellous glory", defeated the allied forces of Naples and Florence at the battle of Montecatini (29 Aug., 1315), a famous Guelph overthrow that has left its traces in the popular poetry of the fourteenth century. Can Graiiile della Scala (d. 1339), Dante's friend and patron, upheld the Ghibelline cause with magnanimity inea.stern Lombardy ; while .Matteo Visconti (d. 1322) established a permanent tlynasty in Milan, which be- came a sort of Ghibelline counterbalance to the power of the Angevin Neapolitans in the south. Castruccio Interminelli (d. 1328), a soldier of fortune who be- came Duke of Lucca, attempted the like in central Italy; but his signory perished with him. Something of the old Guelph and Ghibelline spirit revived during the struggle between Ludwig of Bavaria and Pope John XXII; Ludwig .set up an antipopc, and was


crowned in Rome by a representative of the Roman people, but his conduct disgusted his own partisans. In the poetry of Fazio degli Uberti (d. after 1368), a new Ghibellinism makes itself heard; Rome declares that Italy can only enjoy peace when united beneath the sceptre of one Italian king.

Before the return of the popes from Avignon, "Guelph" and "Ghibelline" had lost all real signifi- cance. Men called themselves Guelph or Ghibelline, and even fought furiously under those names, simply because their forbears had adhered to one or other of the factions. In a city which had been officially Guelph in the past, any minority opposed to the gov- ernment of the day, or obnoxious to the party in power, would be branded as "Ghibelline". Thvis, in 1364, we find it enacted by the Republic of Florence that any one who appeals to the pope or his legate or the cardinals shall be declared a Ghibelline. "There are no more wicked nor more mad folk under the vault of heaven than the Guelphs and Ghibellines", says St. Bernardino of Siena in 1427. He gives an appalling picture of the atrocities still perpetrated, even by women, under these names, albeit by that time the primitive signification of the terms had been lo.st, and declares that the mere professing to belong to either party is in itself a mortal sin. As party catch- words they survived, still attended with bloody con- sequences, until the coming to Italy of Charles V (1529) finally re-established the imperial power, and opened a new epoch in the relations of pope and em- peror.

SiSMoxDl, Ilistoire drs Ripuhliques italicnncs du moyen dge; Balbo, SojJimario della i^torui d' Italia (Florence, I8.')6); Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire; Tout. The Empire and the Favacy (London, 1903); Lanzan:, Sloria dt-i comuni ilaliani dalle ori~ gini al 1313 (MiLan, IS81); Salzer, Uebcr die Anjange der »S"t- gnorie in Oberilnlien (Berlin, 1900); Butler, The Lombard Cnm- munes (London, 1906); Capponi. Gloria della Hepuhhliea di Fi- rf7i?c (Florence, ISSS); Villari. I primi due secoli della Storia di Firenze (new ed., Florence, 190.5; earlier ed. translated into EnR- lish by I.inda Villari); Douglas, .4 Hij<toryof Siena (^London. 1902); WiCKsTEED and Gardner, Dante and Giovanni del Vir- gilio (London. 1901); Ren'ier. Liri*:he edite ed inedile di Fazio degli Uberti (Florence. 18S;i); Schott, T1 W/cti ynd Gibeltjige in Zeit.ichrifl f. Geschirhlsvixxmschaft (1846). V, ;il7; Holder- Eggbr, Cronica Frairis Salimbene (Hanover, 1905-08).

Edmund G. Gardner.

Gu^ranger, Prosper Louis Pascal, Benedictine and polygraph; b. 4 April, 1805, at Sabl(5-sur-Sart he ; d. at Solesmes, 30 January, 1875. Ordained a priest 7 Octoter, 1827, he was administrator of the parish of the Missions Etranglres until near the close of 1830. He then left Paris and returned to Mans, where he be- gan to publish various historical works, such as "De la priere pour le Roi" (Oct., 1830) and " De I'dlection et lie la nomination des evccjues" (1831), their subject being inspired by the political and religious situation of the day. In 1831 the priory of Solesmes, which was about an hour's journey from Sabl6, was put up for sale and Pcre Gu^ranger now saw a means of realizing his desire to re-establish, in this monastery, religious life under the Rule of St. Benedict. His decision was made in June, 1831, and, in December, 1832, thanks to private donations, the monastery had become his property. The Bi.sliop of Mans now sanctioned the Constitutions by which the new .society was to te organized and fitted subseqviently to enter the Bene- dictine Order. On 11 July, 1833, five priests came together in the restored priory at Solesmes, and on 15 .\ugust, 1836, publicly declared their intention of con- secniting their lives to the re-establishment of the Order of St. Benedict. In a brief i.ssiied 1 September, 1837, Pope Gregory erecte<l the former priory of Solesmes into an abbey and constituted it head of the " Congr^-gation Frani^aise de I'Ordre de Saint Benoit ". Dom Gu^ranger was appointed .\bbot of Solesmes (Oct. 31) and Superior ficneral of the Benedictines of the " Congre^gation dp France", an<l those of the little society who had received the habit 15 August, 1836,