“He disturbed all the women with a ‘Constitution’ which he promulgated, to wit, that the women should wear short dresses reaching to the ground, and only so much more as a palm’s breadth. Formerly they wore trains, sweeping the earth for several feet (per brachium et dimidium). A rhymer dubs them:
‘Et drappi longhi, ke la polver menna.’
(‘The long cloaks that gather up the dust.’)
“And he had this to be proclaimed in the churches, and imposed it on the women by command; and ordered that no priest should absolve them unless they complied. The which was bitterer to the women than any kind of death! For as a woman said to me familiarly, that train was dearer to her than all the other clothes she wore. And further, Cardinal Latinus decreed that all women, girls and young ladies, matrons and widows, should wear veils. Which was again a horror for them. But they found a remedy for that tribulation, as they could not for their trains. For they made veils of linen and silk inwoven with gold, with which they looked ten times as well, and drew the eyes of men to lust all the more.”
Thus did the cardinal-legate, the Pope’s relative. And plenty of gossip has Salimbene to tell of such creatures of nepotism. “Flesh and blood had revealed” to the Pope that he should make cardinals of them; says he with a sort of giant sneer; “for he built up Zion in sanguinibus,” that is, through his blood-relatives! “There are a thousand brothers Minorites, more fit, on the score of knowledge and holiness, to be cardinals than they.” Had not another pope, Urban IV., made chief among the cardinals a relation whose only use as a student had been to fetch the other students’ meat from market?
It was a few years after this that Salimbene returned to his native town of Parma, near the time when that city passed from the side of the Emperor to that of the Pope. This was a fatal defection for Frederick, which he set about to repair, by laying siege to the turn-coat city. And the war went on with great devastation, and the wolves and other wild beasts increased and grew bold. Salimbene throws Eccelino da Romano on the scene, that regent of the emperor, and monster of cruelty, “who was feared more than the devil,” and had once burned to death “eleven thousand Paduans in Verona. The building holding them was set on fire; and while they burned, Eccelino and his knights held a tournament about them (circa eos).... I verily believe that as the Son of God desired to have one special friend, whom He made like to himself, to wit the blessed Francis, so the devil fashioned Eccelino in his likeness.”[638]
Salimbene tells of the siege of Parma at much length, and of the final defeat of the emperor, with the destruction of the stronghold which he had built to menace the city, and of all his curious treasures, with the imperial crown itself taken by the men of Parma and their allies. But before this, while the turmoil of the siege was at its height, in 1247, he received orders to leave Parma and set out for Lyons, where Innocent IV. at that time held his papal court, having fled from Italy, from the emperor, three years before. Setting out, he reached Lyons on All Saints Day.
“At once the Pope sent for me, and talked with me familiarly in his chamber. For since my leaving Parma he had received neither messenger nor letters. And he thanked me warmly and listened to my prayers, for he was a courtly and liberal man; ... and he absolved me from my sins and appointed me preacher!”
Our autobiographic chronicler was at this time twenty-six years old; his personality bespoke a kind reception everywhere. He soon left Lyons, and went on through the towns of Champagne to Troyes, where he found plenty of merchants from Lombardy and Tuscany, for there were markets there, lasting two months. So was it also in Provins, the next halting-place; from which Salimbene went on to Paris. There he stayed eight days and saw much which pleased him; and then, going back upon his tracks, he took up his journey to Sens, where he dwelt in the Franciscan convent, “and the French brethren entertained me gladly, because I was a friendly, cheerful youth, and spoke them fair.” From Sens he went south to Auxerre, the place which had been named as his destination when he left Parma. It was in the year 1248, and as he writes (how many years after?) there comes back to him the memory of the grand wines of Auxerre:
“I remember when at Cremona (in 1245) Brother Gabriel of that place, a Minorite, a great teacher and a man of holy life, told me that Auxerre had more vines and wine than Cremona and Parma and Reggio and Modena together. I wouldn’t believe him. But when I came to live at Auxerre, I saw that he spoke the truth. It is a large district, or bishopric, and the mountains, hills, and plains are covered with vines. There they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; but they send their wine by river to Paris, where they sell it nobly; and live and clothe themselves from the proceeds. Three times I went all about the district with one or another of the brothers: once with one who was preaching and affixing crosses for the Crusade of the French king (St. Louis); then with another who preached to the Cistercians in a most beautiful monastery; and the third time we spent Easter with a countess, who set before the whole company twelve courses of food, all different. And had the count been at home, there would have been a still greater abundance and variety. Now in four parts of France they drink beer, and in four, wine. And the three lands where the wine is most abundant are La Rochelle, Beaune, and Auxerre. In Auxerre the red wine is least regarded and is not as good as the Italian. But Auxerre has its white or golden wines, which are fragrant and comforting and good, and make every one drinking them feel happy. Some of the Auxerre wine is so strong that when put in a jug, drops appear on the outside (lacrymantur exterius). The French laugh and say that three b’s and seven f’s go with the best wine:
‘Le vin bon et bel et blanc,
Fort et fer et fin et franc,
Freit et fres et fourmijant.’