to be priors, their names were to
be put into a bag together, in each of the sesti, and were to be drawn
thence every two months, as chance would have it; forasmuch as through
the ill-will which had arisen from the factions and divisions, there
was never an election of priors by the colleges of Consuls of the Arts
but that almost all the city was moved to uproar, and at times with
great preparation of arms. They of the White party which were at the
head of the government of the city, through fear of losing their
estate, and of being deceived by the Pope and the legate by means of
the said reformation, took the worse counsel, and would not yield
obedience; for the which thing the said legate was offended, and
returned to court, and left the city of Florence excommunicate and
under interdict.

Sec. 41.--_Concerning the evils and dangers which followed afterwards to
our city._

[Sidenote: 1300 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Sonnet xxxii. 1. Vita Nuova 3: 97-100; 24: 19, 45; 25:
111-113; 31: 21-24; 33: 4; De Vulg. El. i. 13: 37; ii. 6: 68; 12: 16,
62.]

When the legate was departed from Florence the city remained in great
turmoil and in evil state. It came to pass in the month of December
following that M. Corso Donati went with his followers, and they of
the house of the Cerchi with their followers, to the burial of a lady
of the house of Frescobaldi; and when the two parties came face to
face, they were minded to assault one another, wherefore all the folk
which were at the burial rose in uproar; and thus every one returned
in flight to his own house, and all the city flew to arms, and each of
the parties gathered a great assembly at their house. M. Gentile dei
Cerchi, Guido Cavalcanti, Baldinaccio and Corso of the Adimari,
Baschiera della Tosa, and Naldo of the Gherardini, with their
companions and followers on horse and on foot, went in haste to Porte
San Piero to the house of the Donati, and not finding them at Porte
San Piero, hastened to San Piero Maggiore, where was M. Corso with his
companions and assembly, and by them they were stoutly resisted and
driven back and wounded, to the shame and dishonour of the Cerchi and
of their followers; and for this they were condemned, both the one
party and the other, by the commonwealth. A little while after,
certain of the Cerchi were in the country at Nepozzano and Pugliano at
their country homes and farms; and as they were returning to Florence,
they of the house of the Donati, b