[1322-1327 A.D.]
The Lombard Ghibellines, seeing so formidable a display of Guelfic power together with the more intimate union between the church and Naples, in spite of Castruccio’s success could not help feeling that their cause was in jeopardy, and therefore determined to support it by the imperial power; Parma and Bologna had already given themselves to Rome, the bishop of Arezzo was excommunicated and deposed; and besides Florence and Siena, San Miniato, Colle, San Gimignato, and Prato had made Charles their lord, the last even in perpetuity. This great extension of power gave the house of Anjou command over the greater part of Italy, and therefore no time was lost in despatching an embassy to implore the “Bavarian” (as Ludwig was called by those who did not wish to be anathematised) to meet the Italian Ghibellines or their ambassadors at Trent for the purpose of considering the best means of exalting the imperial dignity.
A Florentine of the Upper Classes, Fourteenth Century
Until the year 1322 Ludwig of Bavaria had been so occupied in struggling for the crown with his rival Frederick of Austria that he had no leisure to meddle with the peninsula; but the decisive battle of Mühldorf, in which four thousand men-at-arms were killed in repeated charges on the field, and Frederick of Austria was made prisoner, left him at liberty to employ himself in foreign politics and turn his attention towards Italy. Pope John XXII, whom he informed of the victory at Mühldorf, not having before decided on the candidate he meant to support, received the letter of Ludwig as his friend, and promised to aid him in the consummation of peace; but when the pontiff heard of the assistance afforded to his worst enemy, the excommunicated Galeazzo Visconti, in 1323, and of the Bavarian’s having compelled Raymond of Cardona, the papal general, to raise the siege of Milan, his anger exceeded all bounds. He insisted that as pope he was the only legitimate ruler of the empire during a vacancy, the only judge between two competitors; and until his decision was known no king of the Romans could exist; it was, he said, a grave offence against God, and a palpable contempt of the church to have exercised the powers of royalty without its sanction, and protected its enemies, especially Galeazzo Visconti and his brothers who had been declared heretics by the definitive sentence of a competent tribunal. Ludwig was therefore excommunicated, and again more solemnly in March, 1324, when he was also declared incapable of ever ascending the imperial throne. Frederick while in prison had been visited by Ludwig and treated with so much and such unusual generosity that he acknowledged him as emperor and was immediately liberated, ever after remaining his ally and intimate friend. Germany was then pacified, the pope’s intrigues there were all baffled, and the emperor prepared to visit Italy, to confirm his imperial dignity by a public coronation, and revenge himself on the pontiff.
In this disposition an invitation from the Italian Ghibellines was peculiarly well-timed, especially as Ludwig, weakened by long wars, remained without money, and Italy was always considered as an inexhaustible mine of treasure by transalpine nations. He therefore repaired to Trent about the middle of February where he was met by Azzo and Marco Visconti of Milan, Cane della Scala of Verona, Passerino Buonacossi of Mantua, Renaldo marquis of Este, the bishop of Arezzo, and ambassadors from Frederick of Sicily, Castruccio Castracani, the exiles of Genoa and all the other Ghibellines. Here the pope was declared heretical by a considerable body of the clergy and solemnly excommunicated, ridiculed, and defied; the imputation was not new, for this ambitious and mercenary pontiff was a zealous asserter of his own infallibility, wished to dictate absolutely to the church, and had made enemies of large bodies of the clergy—amongst others, of the Franciscan or minor friars, who insisted on Christ’s poverty and therefore, following his example, condemned all property in churchmen as preposterous and unbecoming. These monks had been bold enough to denounce John as heretical and excommunicated, upon which he burned some of them and deprived others of the little they possessed conforming to their own maxims; other causes had made other enemies amongst the secular clergy; so that Ludwig found himself zealously supported by a powerful body even in the church, and it was unanimously declared that as Christ had no property all priests who had were enemies to his sacred poverty.
SUCCESSES OF COUNT NOVELLO
A conspiracy against the life of Castruccio failing in its purpose, another excommunication of Ludwig and Castruccio, with all their adherents, was solemnly pronounced on the great festival of the patron saint of Florence by Cardinal Orsini; and immediately afterwards a noble army of twenty-five hundred horse and twelve thousand infantry under Count Novello encamped at Signa for three days on purpose to perplex the enemy; but suddenly quitting this, they moved on Fucecchio and, crossing the Gusciana by a bridge of boats previously prepared, appeared before Santa Maria a Monte.
This was the strongest fortress in Tuscany, but at that time somewhat weakened, because Castruccio had withdrawn a part of its garrison to strengthen Carmignano, the supposed object of attack, and had left but five hundred veterans with the people’s aid to defend it. Novello stormed and took this fortress and gave its people over to indiscriminate slaughter. He then attacked Artimino, which Castruccio had fortified so strongly as to apprehend no danger in that quarter. But flushed with his late victory, Novello at once gave the assault which was renewed for three days successively, the last battle continuing without intermission from noon until night-fall; when, all the palisades and one of the gates being burned, the garrison, with the fate of Santa Maria before their eyes, surrendered on the 27th of August. Count Novello wished to proceed and carry Tizzano and Carmignano in the same manner, but Ludwig being now close to Pontremoli, he and his troops were ordered back to Florence.
It was now about thirteen months since the duke of Calabria had entered that city with the finest army that its vast resources had ever produced, and 500,000 florins had been expended on him by the community; yet, saving the capture of Santa Maria and Artimino, nothing had been done; wherefore the people became justly discontented, though compelled to suppress their ill-humour from a sense of present danger and the threatening progress of the emperor.