1 8 Italy and the Visconti 



dition that he engaged to return to their service whenever called 

 upon. Meanwhile, these captains, with their soldiers, overran, plun- 

 dered, and exhausted Italy, during the intervals of peace; reducing 

 the country to such a state as to be incapable of resisting any new 

 attack. All the Ghibelines, all the nobles who had preserved their 

 independence in the Apennines, were allied to the Visconti. The 

 march of these usurpers was slow, but it seemed sure. The moment 

 was foreseen to approach when Tuscany would be theirs, as well as 

 Lombardy; particularly as Florence had no aid to expect either from 

 Genoa or Venice. . . . 



Urban V, on his arrival in Italy, endeavored also to oppose the 

 usurpations of the Visconti, who had just taken possession of San 

 Miniato, in Tuscany, and who, even in the states of the church, were 

 rendering themselves more powerful than the Pope himself. Of the 

 two brothers, Barnabas Visconti was more troublesome to him by 

 his intrigues. Urban had recourse to a bull of excommunication, and 

 sent two legates to bear it to him; but Barnabas forced these two 

 legates to eat, in his presence, the parchment on which the bull was 

 written, together with the leaden seals and silken strings.^ . . . 



*The story here told (from R. I. S. 17. 160, 162) is assigned to a quite 

 different period by R. I. S. 16. 800-801, according to which the Pope 

 was Innocent VI, and Urban was one of the two legates; cf. Rosmini 



2. 104, note 2; Leo 3. 310. Giulini (5. 465-6) would date the occurrence 

 in 1361. For a story still more scandalous, see R. I. S. 15. 911. 



The long list of Bernabo's crimes and cruelties may be found in R. I. S. 

 16. 794-801. See also R. I. S. 16. 397, 399-400, 735-6, 742-3; Corio, pp. 

 486-7; Matteo Villani (in R. I. S., Vol. 14) 6. 28; 7. 48; 9- 5o; cf. 

 Muratori 8. 413; Giulini 5. 550, 559, 653; Rosmini 2. 115, 153-4- A few 

 particulars may be mentioned: his notorious edict concerning the main- 

 tenance of his 5,000 hunting dogs (R. I. S. 16. 794; Rosmini 2. 115; Leo 



3. 312) ; he hanged those who caught partridges (R. I. S. 16. 794, 795) ; 

 burned to death four nuns (ib., p. 795) ; had his jugglers or buffoons 

 burn to death in an iron cage an Augustinian monk (p. 795) ; would 

 frequently ask those about him, 'Do you not know that I am God on 

 earth?' (p. 795) ; ordered that no official should receive his salary till 

 he had caused one or more poachers of partridges to be beheaded (p. 

 796) ; had a wife burned to death by her own husband (p. 796) ; had 

 a man's eyes put out, because he was found on Bernabo's private street 

 (p. 796) ; had a man hanged because he had not fully paid a woman 

 for two capons (p. 796) ; had two of his chancellors shut up in an 

 iron cage with a wild boar till they died (p. 796) ; had a country fellow 

 killed because he crossed a street with a dog (p. 796) ; in December, 

 1384, had a boy's eye put out, and his hand cut off, because he had 

 dreamed that he had taken and burned a wild boar belonging to Bernabo 

 (P- 797) >' caused a Doctor of Laws, an excellent man, who had declined 

 to obey an unjust order of his, to be beaten severely with rods, then 



