The Story of Assisi

by Lina Duff Gordon

In 545 Totila, on his march to Rome, arrived before the walls of Assisi which were gallantly defended for the Emperor Justinian by Siegfried the Goth, but unfortunately he being killed in a skirmish with the Huns, the disheartened citizens reluctantly opened their gates to the enemy. For the first time in her annals (the Roman occupation had been peaceful enough) a foreigner—a tyrant set foot in her streets as master. But the restless Totila soon began to scan the country round for other cities to attack. Becoming aware of the large and wealthy city of Perugia perched upon the western hill, he sallied forth to capture a bigger prey, and Assisi enjoyed a further spell of peace.

THE EASTERN SLOPE OF ASSISI WITH THE CASTLE, FROM THE PORTA CAPPUCCINI

In reading the long-winded chronicles it is often difficult to gather to which power the various small towns at this time belonged. One point is, however, clear, that during endless contentions between the Popes and the Greek, and later the German Emperors, the Umbrian cities were often left to manage their own affairs, and because of the periods of rest which they thus enjoyed and used in their individual ways, we are inclined to speak of them as republics. For a long time Assisi remained annexed to the Duchy of Spoleto, then under the rule of the Lombard Dukes whose advent had filled the different cities in the valley with Arian Christians, unfriendly to the Papacy. Assisi, together with other towns swerved from her allegiance to the Pope, and it is perhaps on this account that Charlemagne in 773 with his "terrible and fierce followers" came to besiege her. They laid the country waste, and made many attacks upon Assisi which met with stout resistance; but while prowling round the walls one night they found the main drain, and stealing through it they were able to discover the weakest part of the town. Next night they returned well armed, slew the guards who were keeping watch by the midnight fires, and before the citizens could rush to arms, the gates were opened to Charlemagne. The army passed in, her citizens were put to the sword, and the town razed to the ground.

"Thus," says a chronicler, "Assisi bereft of her inhabitants, found herself an unhappy widow. Then was the most clement emperor grieved, and ordering that the city should be rebuilt, he placed therein a new colony of Christians of the Roman faith, and the city was restored, and in it the Divine Worship."[4]

A small arched doorway ornamented with a delicate frieze of foliage still remains as a record of the rebuilding of the city by Charlemagne's Lombard workmen. The stone is blackened, the tracery worn away. Few find this dark corner in the Piazza delle Rose, and the people wonder at those who stop to look, for "it is ugly and very old," they say.

It was probably at this time, towards the end of the eighth century, that the Rocca d'Assisi was built. This made her a more important factor in Umbrian politics; and leaders of armies, who hitherto had paid her but a hurried visit, now vied with each other to possess a city with so fair a crown. The citizens had chosen for the site of the castle the part where the hill rises in a sudden peak above the town, looking to the north across a deep ravine towards the mountains of Gualdo and Nocera. Above the main building and the four crenelated towers soared the castle keep; from the ramparts started two lines of walls which, going east and west, gathered the town as it were within a nest. At intervals rose forts connected by a covered passage, and tall towers guarded the walls where they joined the city gates. The Rocca d'Assisi with this chain of walls bristling with iron spikes and towers, complete in strength and perfect in architecture, looked down upon the town like some guarding deity, and was the pride of every citizen. It was no gloomy stronghold such as the French kings erected in the woods of Tourraine, but built of the yellow Subasian stone it seemed more like a mighty palace with windows large and square, whence many a condottiere and many a noble prisoner leant out to look upon the splendid sweep of country from Perugia to Spoleto.

Proud as the citizens were of their new-born importance they soon regretted the calmer days of their obscurity. By the twelfth century they were torn between the Pope, the Emperor, and their own turbulent factions, for even in the smaller towns the cries of Guelph and Ghibelline were beginning to be heard. Whenever German potentates—"the abhorred Germans" as the chroniclers call them—had their hands well clenched upon an Umbrian town, the citizens turned imploring eyes towards Rome. The promise of municipal liberty was the bait which every pontiff knew well how to use for his own profit. The German, on the other hand, troubled not to use diplomacy as a means to gain his ends, but brought an army to storm the town, and took up his residence in the castle, whence he could hear the murmurings of the citizens below planning to drive him out of their gates. The first distinguished but unwelcome guest in the Rocca d'Assisi was Frederick Barbarossa. He was, however, too much occupied in his career of conquest to waste more than a few weeks in Umbria, and in 1195 we find Conrad of Suabia, who in the annals of the time is known by the nickname of "the whimsical one," in charge of the castle, with the title of Count of Assisi. Conrad was also Duke of Spoleto, but he preferred the fortress of Assisi as a residence and spent some two years there to the annoyance of the citizens, who were constrained to be more or less on their good behaviour. With him in those days was a small but important person, who, at the age of two, had been elected King of Germany and Italy. This was Frederick II, and the legend recounts how he was born in the Piazza Minerva beneath a tent hastily erected for the occasion, and in his third year was baptised in the Cathedral of San Rufino, amidst a throng of cardinals, bishops, Assisan priors and nobles. It would, indeed, be strange that he, who later was to prove a thorn in the side of many a Pope, should have been born and nurtured in the Seraphic City.

The Assisans soon wearied of the German yoke, but unaided they could not throw it off and it needed the timely intervention of Innocent III, to rid them of Conrad's presence. The Pope, who had been quietly waiting an opportunity to regain his lost Umbrian towns, felt himself powerful enough now that the Emperor Henry VI, was dead, to send haughty commands to Conrad. He was bidden to meet Innocent at Narni where he solemnly made over his possessions to the Church. Thus left to themselves, the Assisans, with cries of "Liberty and the Pope," rushed on the castle to tear it down. Built to be their safeguard, it proved their greatest danger, and they determined that no other tyrant should find shelter within its walls. While the Assisans were rejoicing in their freedom, and endeavouring to guard against the constant attacks of the Perugians, the big world outside was being torn and rent by a medley of events which was carrying men's thoughts forward in the swift current of a fresh era. Everywhere a new spirit was spreading—"the fraternising spirit" it has been called. In the cities men were joining together in guilds, heralding the commonwealths; while, in the country, bands of people, under the names of Patarins, Albergenses, Poor Men of Lyons, etc., raised the standard of revolt yet higher against their feudal and spiritual lords. A contemporary writer speaks of thirty-two heresies as being rampant in Italy at this time. Men were eager and full of energy, finding relief through many channels that set all Italy in a ferment. But amidst the confusion of wars and heresies the Papal power grew ever stronger, until, with the accession of Innocent III, the claims of a temporal ruler were blended with spiritual rights. The Marches of Ancona, Umbria, and the seven hills of Rome belonged alike to him, while he was powerful enough to excommunicate cities, kingdoms, and emperors at his pleasure, and rule all with a rod of iron. The magnificent designs planned by Hildebrand seemed to triumph under Innocent, and yet the papal horizon was not without its clouds.