The Ghibelline party included the naturalized nobles, the men of arms and idleness, the advocates of feudalism, the politicians who regarded constitutional progress with disfavor.

That the banner of the Church floated over the one camp, while the standard of the Empire rallied to itself the hostile party, was a matter of comparatively superficial moment.

The true strength of the war lay in the population, divided by irreconcilable ideals, each eager to possess the city for itself, each prepared to die for its adopted principles.

The struggle is a social struggle, played out within the precincts of the Commune, for the supremacy of one or the other moiety of the whole people.

A city does not pronounce itself either Guelf or Ghibelline till half the burghers have been exiled.