The
wealth they derived from their lordships in the duchy of Spoleto and
the Umbrian hill-cities, and the treasures they accumulated in the
service of the Italian republics, made them omnipotent in their
native town. There they built tall houses on the site which Paul
III. chose afterwards for his _castello_, and which is now an open
place above the Porta San Carlo. From the balconies and turrets of
these palaces, swarming with their _bravi_, they surveyed the
splendid land that felt their force--a land which, even in
midsummer, from sunrise to sunset keeps the light of day upon its
up-turned face. And from this eyrie they issued forth to prey upon
the plain, or to take their lust of love or blood within the city
streets. The Baglioni spent but short time in the amusements of
peace. From father to son they were warriors, and we have records of
few Italian houses, except perhaps the Malatesti of Rimini, who
equalled them in hardihood and fierceness. Especially were they
noted for the remorseless _vendette_ which they carried on among
themselves, cousin tracking cousin to death with the ferocity and
craft of sleuthhounds. Had they restrained these fratricidal
passions, they might, perhaps, by following some common policy, like
that of the Medici in Florence or the Bentivogli in Bologna, have
successfully resisted the Papal authority and secured dynastic
sovereignty.

[1] The Baglioni persecuted their rivals with persistent
fury to the very last. Matarazzo tells how Morgante
Baglioni gave a death-wound to his nephew, the young Carlo
de li Oddi, in 1501: 'Dielli una ferita nella formosa
faccia: el quale era in aspetto vago e bello giovane d'
anni 23 o 24, _al quale uscivano e bionde tresse sotto la
bella armadura_.' The same night his kinsman Pompeo was
murdered in prison with this last lament upon his lips: 'O
infelice casa degli Oddi, quale aveste tanta, fama di
conduttieri, capitanie, cavaliere, speron d' oro,
protonotarie, e abbate; et in uno solo tempo aveste homine
quarantadue; e oggie, per me quale son ultimo, se asconde
el nome de la magnifica e famosa casa degli Oddi, che mai
al mondo non sera piu nominata' (p. 175).

[2] The Baglioni were lords of Spello, Bettona, Montalera,
and other Umbrian burghs, but never of Perugia. Perugia
had a civic constitution similar to that of Florence and
other Guelf towns under the protection of the Holy S