The hunted life of Alessandro Antelminelli, pursued through all the States of Europe by assassins, could be used to exemplify the miseries of proscribed exiles.

But what is the use of multiplying instances, when every pedigree in Litta, every chronicle of the time, every history of the most insignificant township, swarms with evidence to the same purpose?
We need not adopt the opinion that society had greatly altered for the worse.

We must rather decide that mediaeval ferocity survived throughout the whole of that period which witnessed the Catholic Revival, and that the piety which distinguished it was not influential in curbing vehement passions.
The conclusions to be drawn from the facts before us seem to be in general these.

The link between government and governed in Italy had snapped.

The social bond was broken, and the constituents that form a nation were pursuing divers aims.