END of GUELF-GHIBELLINE STRUGGLE
1260 BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI: Ghibelline victory
GUELF
ALLIANCE: Papacy, France, Guelf city states
Pope calls on Charles
of Anjou (French)
1266
BATTLE OF BENEVENTO:
Guelf victory
over Imperial troops,
death of Manfred in battle
GUELF
noble regime in Florence
exile of Ghibellines:
houses razed, property divided
Rise of the Popolo: merchants, artisans
GUILD
REGIME in FLORENCE 1282-1434
new office
of priors: elected for 2 month terms
1293 Ordinances of Justice:
exclude nobility,
only
guild members eligible for office
1295 amendment: lesser nobility
if they join guild
Dante
joins Guild of Physicians & Apothecaries
Offices held 1295-1301: Council of the Popolo, Prior,
1301:
Ambassador to Rome
Factional
split within Guelf party:
Black Guelfs: older Guelf aristocracy allied with Papacy
leader Corso Donati: Dante’s brother-in-law
White Guelfs: leader Guido Cavalcanti = Dante’s best friend
newer families,
banking and trade: Vieri dei Cerchi
1301
POPE BONIFACE VIII --
sends in military force
under French Charles of Valois
Blacks take power;
Whites exiled as Ghibellines
Dante condemned in absentia,
exile in Verona, Ravenna
Boniface:
canon lawyer, powerful Pope, begins tradition of Jubilee
1300 as Jubilee year (this is year in which Dante sets poem)
pilgrims
to Rome get indulgences from Pope: spiritual merit
indulgence
= remission of temporal punishment for sin
= time off in Purgatory (not stressed by Dante)
POPE BONIFACE VIII vs KING PHILLIP IV of France
1302
UNAM SANCTAM: Boniface’s decree of Papal supremacy
Dante abhors idea of
papal political power,
also hates France for
its role in Italy (espec 1301)
1303 Anagni: Pope taken prisoner by French, dies shortly after
1305-1378
AVIGNON PAPACY
Popes in southern France, supported
by French King
Popes don’t live in
Rome again until 1420 (return to Italy 1378)