i of
Agobbio, was charged with the administration of justice. The persecution
of the Bianchi was carried on with consistent thoroughness: many were
imprisoned, many fined, Charles sharing in the sums exacted from them.
On the 27th of January, 1302, a decree was issued by the Podesta
condemning five persons, one of whom was Dante, to fine and banishment
on account of crimes alleged to have been committed by them while
holding office as priors. "According to public report," said the decree,
"they committed barratry, sought illicit gains, and practiced unjust
extortions of money or goods." These general charges are set forth with
elaborate legal phraseology, and with much repetition of phrase, but
without statement of specific instances. The most important of them are
that the accused had spent money of the commune in opposing the Pope, in
resistance to the coming of Charles of Valois, and against the peace of
the city and the Guelf party; that they had promoted discord in the city
of Pistoia, and had caused the expulsion from that city of the Neri, the
faithful adherents of the Holy Roman Church; and that they had caused
Pistoia to break its union with Florence, and to refuse subjection to
the Church and to Charles the Pacificator of Tuscany. These being the
charges, the decree proceeded to declare that the accused, having been
summoned to appear within a fixed time before the Podesta and his court
to make their defense, under penalty for non-appearance of five thousand
florins each, and having failed to do so, were now condemned to pay this
sum and to restore their illicit gains; and if this were not done within
three days from the publication of this sentence against them, all their
possessions (_bona_) should be seized and destroyed; and should they
make the required payment, they were nevertheless to stand banished from
Tuscany for two years; and for perpetual memory of their misdeeds their
names were to be inscribed in the Statutes of the People, and as
swindlers and barrators they were never to hold office or benefice
within the city or district of Florence.

Six weeks later, on the 10th of March, another decree of the Podesta was
published, declaring the five citizens named in the preceding decree,
together with ten others, to have practically confessed their guilt by
their contumacy in non-appearance when summoned, and condemning them, if
at any time any one of them should come into the power of Florence, to
be bu