THE ITALIAN CITIES 351 to setting free two neigh boring tow ns which she had con- quered, to pay an Jndemnity, to build Frederick a palace, and, most important of all, to relinquish to him the regalia. By this term were indicated his royal prerogatives, such as I the control over the dukes and counts, the levying of tolls •and customs, the taking of provender for his army, the right of coinage, and the enjoyment of various revenues from mills, fisheries, rivers, mines, and like sources. The Milanese were ' to be allowed to retain their consuls, but must submit their nominations to the emperor for approval. Frederick then proceeded to Roncaglia and held a great ! assembly where professors of Roman law from Bologna, assisted by two consuls from each of fourteen The Diet of I towns, decided what the emperor's powers and Ronca s lia J regalia were. The study of Roman law had recently been revived in Italy, and that law, of course, assumed the existence of an emperor with cen tralize d and absolute power. Therefore the jurists were inclined to decide every- thing in Frederick's favor and the consuls do not seem to i have ventured to oppose them. Where regalian rights had been formally granted to cities by the emperor, they were to be allowed to retain them; but few towns could prove any such grant, since most of them had simply usurped ! these rights. Made confident by this success, Frederick not only for- ! bade the communes to wage war or ally with one another, I but did not even leave them the independent The struggle management of their internal affairs under the renewed leadership of their consuls. Instead he set up a representa- tive of his own called a podestd (potestas in Latin, meaning I power") in each city as a chief judge and executive. This
- was going too far, and the Milanese regarded it as a viola-
tion of their treaty with the emperor by which he had assured them the continuance of their consuls. Therefore war broke out again between them and Frederick. At the same time the pope quarreled with him because he was extending his power over towns of central Italy which the pope regarded as possessions of the Holy See. The pope
