104 LaCitadeSancta
ingly.^4 Rampant factionalism eventually forced the cities to experiment with
a single executive (podesta`), usually a foreigner chosen for a short term of six
months or a year. Bologna chose its first podesta in 1147 and made this
system permanent in 1175. The podesta served as sole city manager, in the
hope that his lack of local connections would isolate him from factionalism
and favoritism. Popular participation in government remained very re-
stricted until the so-called revolutions of the Popolo in the early 1200 s. These
brought a gradual expansion of participation through the inclusion of vari-
ous civic corporations in the government. North Italians had long formed
such corporations for both military and economic purposes. As a group, they
formed the Popolo, which, with its own assemblies, took a place beside the
city’s older organs of government. At Bologna, the corporations of the Po-
polo elected a ‘‘Captain of the People’’ to head them for the first time in
1223.^5 There, as elsewhere, this official took a place beside the podesta as a
kind of second executive. Like the commune itself, the corporations of the
Popolo had little or no precedent in earlier political structures.^6
Heaven and theEarlyCommunes
But let us begin at the beginning. When the Italian cities threw off imperial
control in the early 1100 s, some bishops, appointees of the German emper-
ors, resisted. But cities and bishops more commonly developed a working
relationship.^7 Some, like Bishop Ubaldo of Gubbio, we remember, happily
defended local freedom against ‘‘foreigners’’ like the emperor Frederick Bar-
barossa. The citizens of Gubbio expected their bishop, as a good citizen of
the commune, to raise his spiritual sword and defend their city. Once, during
a local conflict, Bishop Ubaldo refused to excommunicate the city’s enemies
at the commune’s request, and the city fathers organized a boycott. Finding
that he could not celebrate Mass, since no one came to serve him, the bishop,
‘‘with tranquil spirit,’’ removed his vestments, mounted the pulpit, and
preached a ‘‘hard sermon.’’^8 There was a limit to his identification with the
city; the citizens remained unimpressed. Such conflict between bishop and
commune could escalate into violence.^9 At Piacenza ecclesiastical and secu-
lar authorities clashed in 1204 , and the Piacentine clergy abandoned their
city for three years.^10 At Bologna in 1193 , where Bishop Girardo di Ghisello
Scannabecchi had been elected city executive, the four consuls of the com-
mune fell out with the bishop-podesta. A faction developed around the
- Milan,Gli atti del comune di Milano fino all’annomccxvi, ed. Cesare Mamaresi (Milan: Capriolo,
1919 ), doc. 139 ( 25 June 1183 ), pp. 198 – 206. - Girolamo de’ Borselli,Cronica Gestorum( 1223 ), 21.
- Something first noted by Vauchez,Laity in the Middle Ages, 110.
- On the cooperation between bishops and communes, see Webb,Patrons, 60 – 92.
- Giordano of Citta`di Castello,Vita Beati Ubaldi Eugubini Episcopi, 10. 6 ,p. 99.
- Pini,Citta`, comuni e corporazioni, 82 – 83.
- Giovanni de’ Mussi,Chronicon Placentinum( 1204 ),RIS 16 : 457.