umph of
that party in 1253, the Guelfs remained victors in the city.
Associating the glory of their independence with Guelf principles, the
citizens of Florence perpetuated within their State a faction that, in
its turn, was destined to prove perilous to liberty.

When it became clear that the republic was to rule itself henceforth
untrammelled by imperial interference, the people divided themselves
into six districts, and chose for each district two Ancients, who
administered the government in concert with the Potesta and the
Captain of the People. The Ancients were a relic of the old Roman
municipal organisation. The Potesta who was invariably a noble
foreigner selected by the people, represented the extinct imperial
right, and exercised the power of life and death within the city. The
Captain of the People, who was also a foreigner, headed the burghers
in their military capacity, for at that period the troops were levied
from the citizens themselves in twenty companies. The body of the
citizens, or the _popolo_, were ultimately sovereigns in the State.
Assembled under the banners of their several companies, they formed a
_parlamento_ for delegating their own power to each successive
government. Their representatives, again, arranged in two councils,
called the Council of the People and the Council of the Commune, under
the presidency of the Captain of the People and the Potesta, ratified
the measures which had previously been proposed and carried by the
executive authority or Signoria. Under this simple State system the
Florentines placed themselves at the head of the Tuscan League, fought
the battles of the Church, asserted their sovereignty by issuing the
golden florin of the republic, and flourished until 1266.

III

In that year an important change was effected in the Constitution.
The whole population of Florence consisted, on the one hand, of nobles
or Grandi, as they were called in Tuscany, and on the other hand of
working people. The latter, divided into traders and handicraftsmen,
were distributed in guilds called Arti; and at that time there were
seven Greater and five Lesser Arti, the most influential of all being
the Guild of the Wool Merchants. These guilds had their halls for
meeting, their colleges of chief officers, their heads, called Consoli
or Priors, and their flags. In 1266 it was decided that the
administration of the commonwealth should be placed simply and wholly
in the hands of the Ar