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pope, the papa angelico of St. Bernard's "De Consideratione" and the "Letters" of
St. Catherine of Siena.
This great conception can vaguely be discerned at the back of the nobler phases of
the Guelph and Ghibelline contests, but it was soon obscured by considerations and
conditions absolutely non-idealistic and material. Two main factors may be said to
have produced and kept alive these struggles: the antagonism between the papacy
and the empire, each endeavoring to extend its authority into the field of the other;
the mutual hostility between a territorial feudal nobility, of military instincts, and
of foreign descent, and a commercial and municipal democracy, clinging to the
traditions of Roman law, and ever increasing in wealth and power. Since the
coronation of Charlemagne (800), the relations of Church and State had been illdefined,
full of the seeds of future contentions, which afterwards bore fruit in the
prolonged "War of Investitures", begun by Pope Gregory VII and the Emperor
Henry IV (1075), and brought to a close by Callistus II and Henry V (1122). Neither
the Church nor the Empire was able to make itself politically supreme in Italy.
Throughout the eleventh century, the free Italian communes had arisen, owing a
nominal allegiance to the Empire as having succeeded to the power of ancient
Rome and as being the sole source of law and right, but looking for support,
politically as well as spiritually, to the papacy.
The names "Guelph" and "Ghibelline" appear to have originated in Germany, in the
rivalry between the house of Welf (Dukes of Bavaria) and the house of
Hohenstaufen (Dukes of Swabia), whose ancestral castle was Waiblingen in
Franconia. Agnes, daughter of Henry IV and sister of Henry V, married Duke
Frederick of Swabia. "Welf" and "Waiblingen" were first used as rallying cries at the
battle of Weinsberg (1140), where Frederick's son, Emperor Conrad III (1138-1152),
defeated Welf, the brother of the rebellious Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud.
Conrad's nephew and successor, Frederick I "Barbarossa" (1152-1190), attempted
to reassert the imperial authority over the Italian cities, and to exercise supremacy
over the papacy itself. He recognized an antipope, Victor, in opposition to the
legitimate sovereign pontiff, Alexander III (1159), and destroyed Milan (1162), but
was thoroughly defeated by the forces of the Lombard League at the battle of
Legnano (1176) and compelled to agree to the peace of Constance (1183), by which
the liberties of the Italian communes were secured. The mutual jealousies of the
Italian cities themselves, however, prevented the treaty from having permanent
results for the independence and unity of the nation. After the death of Frederick's
son and successor, Henry VI (1197), a struggle ensued in Germany and in Italy
between the rival claimants for the Empire, Henry's brother, Philip of Swabia (d.
1208), and Otto of Bavaria. According to the more probable theory, it was then that
the names of the factions were introduced into Italy. "Guelfo" and "Ghibellino"
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 24 of 200