The ineradicable divisions of Guelf and Ghibelline were a heavy price to pay for a step forward on the path of emancipation; nor was the ecclesiastical revolution, which tended to Italianize the Papacy, while it magnified its cosmopolitan ascendency, other than a source of evil to the nation.
The forces liberated in the cities by these wars brought the Consuls to the front.

The Bishops had undermined the feudal fabric of the kingdom, depressed the Counts, and restored the Roman towns to prosperity.

During the war both Popolo and Commune grew in vigor, and their Consuls began to use the authority that had been conquered by the prelates.

At first the Consuls occupied a subordinate position as men of affairs and notaries, needed to transact the business of the mercantile inhabitants.
They now took the lead as political agents of the first magnitude, representing the city in its public acts, and superseding the ecclesiastics.

The Popolo was enlarged by the admission of new burgher families, and the ruling caste, though still oligarchical, became more fairly representative of the inhabitants.