7 and following) are nothing more than a list, as melancholy as they are tedious of wars, which, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all the places of that region carried on, from the greatest to the smallest.
[9] Do not forget that in the thirteenth century Italy was not a mere geographical expression.

It was of all the countries of Europe the one which, notwithstanding its partitions, had the clearest consciousness of its unity.

The expression _profectus et honor Italiae_ often appeared from the pen of Innocent III.
See, for instance, the bull of April 16, 1198, _Mirari cogimur_, addressed particularly to the Assisans.
[10] Note what the Fioretti say of Brother Bernard: "_Stava solo sulle cime dei monti altissimi contemplando le cose celesti._" Fior., 28.

The learned historian of Assisi, Mr.Cristofani, has used similar expressions; speaking of St.Francis, he says: "_Nuovo Christo in somma e pero degno d'essere riguardoto come la piu gigantesca, la piu splendida, la piu cara tra le grandi figure campeggianti nell' aere del medio evo_" (_Storia d'Assisi_, t.i., p.

70, ed.