And Italian poetry, a poetry which tended to repel the religion of the spirit for the religion of enjoyment, had begun in Sicily and Siena in 1172-78, and was nurtured in the Sicilian Court of Frederick II., while Sordello was a youth.

All over Europe, poetry drifted into a secular poetry of love and war and romance.

The religious basis of life had lost its strength.
As to North Italy, where our concern lies, humanity there was weltering like a sea, tossing up and down, with no direction in its waves.

It was not till Francis of Assisi came that a new foundation for religious life, a new direction for it, began to be established.

As to Law, Government, Literature, and Art, all their elements were in equal confusion.