e dealers in
pelts from the north. Subsequently, men following the baser
arts--butchers, retailers of cloth, blacksmiths, bakers, shoemakers,
builders--were admitted to the circle of arts, until there were
twenty-one.

After having a general representative council, it was finally (1266)
determined that each of the seven greater arts should have a council of
its own. The next step in government was the appointment of a
_gonfalconier_ of justice by the companies of arts that had especial
command of citizens. But soon a struggle began between the commons and
the nobility, in which for a long time the former were successful.
Under the {337} leadership of Giano della Bella they enacted ordinances
of justice destroying the power of the nobles, making them ineligible
to the office of _prior_, and fining each noble 13,000 pounds for any
offense against the law. The testimony of two credible persons was
sufficient to convict a person if their testimony agreed; hence it
became easy to convict persons of noble blood. Yet the commons were in
the end obliged to succumb to the power of the nobility and
aristocracy, and the light of popular government went out.

_The Lombard League_.--The Lombard cities of the north of Italy were
established subsequent to the invasion of the Lombards, chiefly through
the peculiar settlement of the Lombard dukes over different territories
in a loose confederation. But the Lombards found cities already
existing, and became the feudal proprietors of these and the territory.
There were many attempts to unite these cities into a strong
confederation, but owing to the nature of the feudal system and the
general independence and selfishness of each separate city, they proved
futile. We find here the same desire for local self-government that
existed in the Greek cities, the indulgence of which was highly
detrimental to their interests in time of invasion or pressure from
external power. There were selfishness and rivalry between all these
cities, not only in the attempt to outdo each other in political power,
but by reason of commercial jealousy. "Venice first, Christians next,
and Italy afterward" was the celebrated maxim of Venice.

To the distressing causes which kept the towns apart, the strife
between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines increased the trouble. Nor had
the pope any desire to see a strong, unified government so near him.
In those days popes were usually not honored in their own co