He was never regarded as other than an alien to the city, adopted as a temporary mediator and controller of incompatible elements.

The lordship of the burgh still resided with the Consuls, who from this time forward began to lose their individuality in the College of the _Signoria_--called _Priori_, _Anziani_, or _Rettori_, as the case might be in various districts.
The Italian republics had reached this stage when Frederick II.

united the Empire and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

It was a crisis of the utmost moment for Italian independence.

Master of the South, Frederick sought to reconquer the lost prerogatives of the Empire in Lombardy and Tuscany; nor is it improbable that he might have succeeded in uniting Italy beneath his sway but for the violent animosity of the Church.