128 LaCitadeSancta
bition of trial by battle in 1215 , the communes continued to practice it,
inviting divine intervention into their legal processes.^181 In a ritual book that
once belonged to the Benedictine nuns of Sant’Alessandro at Parma, the
Mass and rituals for trial by battle are pasted onto the flyleaf (fig. 44 ).^182 The
paste-in is thirteenth-century and well used. Litigants heard the Mass of the
Trinity and the litany of the saints. They confessed and received Com-
munion or blessed bread. Their shields and weapons were anointed in the
sign of the cross with the oil of the sick, as were the combatants’ heads and
hands. As in battle between cities, let God and the saints defend the right!
God and thePopolo
To this point I have spoken of the communes generally; I now focus more
narrowly on the later republican regime itself, the ‘‘popular’’ commune. The
popular communes provide a glimpse of grassroots civic life that the less-
documented earlier communes do not. The ‘‘revolutions of the Popolo’’ oc-
curred in the period from 1200 to 1230 , after approximately fifty years of
political instability. I do not intend to trace the political and economic events
that led to these revolutions, since others have treated them exhaustively.^183
I focus on one particular aspect of these new regimes, their heightened reli-
gious identity. The Popolo brought more men into communal government,
although this citizenship was exercised in a corporate, not individualistic,
manner.^184 The institutions of the new regimes rendered the commune more
clearly distinct from the bishopric.^185 Bishops did not become podestas after
the rise of the Popolo. The earliest popular regime was at Milan, where an
association called the Credenza di Sant’Ambrogio appeared alongside the
older communal organs in 1198. City statutes finally recognized the Creden-
za’s political dominance in 1216.^186 In having a single organ for popular
participation, Milan was unique. Nonetheless, the Credenza was similar to
the typical smaller corporations that made up the Popolo elsewhere. In all
cases, there were strong organizational and devotional similarities to the reli-
gious confraternities of the last chapter, although the Credenza (at least) did
not evolve directly out of an earlier religious association.
- Hyde,Society and Politics, 85 , records a traditional judicial duel in 1225 at Siena; on such practices,
see Robert Bartlett,Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986 ). - Parma, Biblioteca Palatina,msPar. 44 (paste-in isxiiicent.),Rituale delle monache benedettine di
Sant’Alessandro in Parma. - For bibliography in English, see Hyde,Society and Politics, 201 – 7 ; for major works in other lan-
guages, see ibid., 207 – 16 , and Jones,Italian City-State, 651 – 73. - Powell,Albertanus, 16 ; on the nonpassive nature of communal citizenship, see Pini,Citta`, comuni e
corporazioni, 148. - See Franc ̧ois Menant, ‘‘La transformation des institutions et de la vie politique milanaises au
dernier aˆge consulaire ( 1186 – 1216 ),’’Atti dell’ 11 oCongresso, 128 – 29 , and Gina Fasoli, ‘‘Ricerche sulla
legislazione antimagnatizia nei comuni dell’alta e media Italia,’’Rivista del diritto italiano 12 ( 1939 ): 88 – 90 ,
on the increasingly democratic nature of communal government in the early 1200 s. - The source for the origins of the Credenza is Galvano Fiamma,Cronica Maior, 745 – 46 ; on it, see
Menant, ‘‘Transformation,’’ 113 – 44 , esp. 116 – 17 ,