47, 48), points out how the competition of the Church and Empire, during the Papacies of Benedict XII.

and Clement VI.

and the reign of Louis strengthened the tyrants of Lombardy, Romagna, and the March.

Each of the two contending powers gave away what did not belong to them, bidding against each other for any support they might obtain from the masters of the towns.
In order to explain the continual prosperity of the princes amid the clash of forces brought to bear against them from so many sides, we must remember that they were the partisans of social order in distracted burghs, the heroes of the middle classes and the multitude, the quellers of faction, the administrators of impartial laws, and the aggrandizers of the city at the expense of its neighbors.

Ser Gorello, singing the praises of the Bishop Guido dei Tarlati di Pietra Mala, who ruled Arezzo in the first half of the fourteenth century, makes the Commune say:[1] 'He was the lord so valiant and magnificent, so full of grace and daring, so agreeable to both Guelfs and Ghibellines.