Dante finds no place in Hell Heaven, or Purgatory for the souls who stood aloof from strife, the angels who were neither Guelf nor Ghibelline in Paradise.

His Vigliacchi, 'wretches who never lived,' because they never felt the pangs or ecstasies of partisanship, wander homeless on the skirts of Limbo, among the abortions and offscourings of creation.

Even so there was no standing-ground in Italy outside one or the other hostile camp.

Society was riven down to its foundation.

Rancors dating from the thirteenth century endured long after the great parties ceased to have a meaning.