LEGNANO IN HISTORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 179, 1 September 1876, Page 12

LEGNANO IN HISTORY.

WIt is impossible to treat fully of the battle of Legnano in the limited space at my disposal ; but a few notes may be of use as explaining the event over which Catholic Italy rejoices to-day-This encounter is the outcome of a long contest between the Popes and the German Emperors. When Charlemagne was crowned in the Vatican, ten centuries ago, the confusion and uncertainty which followed the dismemberment of the Eastern Empire passed away. A new Roman and Christian Empire arose, a grand religious and political idea of the Popes. But in the course of time the lay power invaded the rights and privileges of the Popedom, and under Frederick Barbarossa this invasion reach ?d its climax. He attempted to restore imperial absolutism over the communes of Northern Italy, and deprive them of their liberty and independence,, which had been gained for them by the Pontiffs in the preceding century. In 1154 he subdued a number of cities and communes, and placed, some time afterwards, his own agents as Podestas in the conquered- cities. Revolutions arose ; Milan, one of the offendingcities, was besieged, taken and destroyed, and sown with salt in 1162. Tl\e Pope, driven from Rome, sought refuge, as Pius IX. did seven centuries latter, in Gaeta, and wandered amidst the Volscian and Hernican hill-cities of Anagni, Ferentino and Segni. The cruelties and sacrileges of Frederick redoubled. He had himself and his empress crowned by an anti-pope in the basilica of St. Peter's, to which he had attempted to set fire during the siege r and the people were reduced to a condition of slavery. The cities in the northern half of Italy, seeing the condition to which they were brought, resolved to rise against the tyrant, and in April of 1167, the delegates swore an oath in the Convent of Pontida, to unite together for their defence. Time passed : oppression continued. Frederick strove to break down the power of the Lombard League sworn at Pontida, but the cities being encouraged by Alexander 111. offered stern resistance. Finally, Frederick, in his seventh invasion, was marching toPavia, where he encountered the League in arms at Legnano, a small town about 14 miles from Milan. A portion of his army had already gone to Pavia, and he had under his command but 4,000 men ; the army of the League amounted to 5,000, along with which, there was the Company of Death, who had sworn to resist to the last and not retreat, but die upon the field. The result was the total defeat of Frederick's army and the liberation of the country from his oppression. He afterwards did penance at Venice ; the excommunication was removed from him and he was received into the favor of Alexander 111. Here it was he held the bridle of the Pope's horse from the church to the palace. The tale that the Pope placed his foot upon the Emperor's neck, saying in the words of the Psalms, Super aspidem et basiliscuvi ambulabis, etc. ; and that the Emperor replied to him: non tv sed Petrus, is quite false; as the Emperor did not know Latin, and the historian Gottfried of Viterbo, a particular partisan of the Emperor's, leaves out all mention of the incident. The city of Alessandria, called after the Pontiff, and now one of the most important cities of North Italy, was built in memory of this battle. — Corr. ' Catholic Review.'