to Gregory XI. Already the opinions of great legists had been
taken; some of them, that of the famous Baldus, may still be read. He
was in favor of the validity of the election.

But grave legal arguments and ecclesiastical logic were not to decide a
contest which had stirred so deeply the passions and interests of two
great factions. France and Italy were at strife for the popedom. The
Ultramontane cardinals would not tamely abandon a power which had given
them rank, wealth, luxury, virtually the spiritual supremacy of the
world, for seventy years. Italy, Rome, would not forego the golden
opportunity of resuming the long-lost authority. On the 9th of August
the cardinals at Anagni publicly declared, they announced in encyclic
letters addressed to the faithful in all Christendom, that the election
of Urban VI was carried by force and the fear of death; that through the
same force and fear he had been inaugurated, enthroned, and crowned;
that he was an apostate, an accursed antichrist. They pronounced him a
tyrannical usurper of the popedom, a wolf that had stolen into the fold.
They called upon him to descend at once from the throne which he
occupied without canonical title; if repentant, he might find mercy; if
he persisted he would provoke the indignation of God, of the apostles
St. Peter and St. Paul, and all of the saints, for his violation of the
Spouse of Christ, the common Mother of the Faithful. It was signed by
thirteen cardinals. The more pious and devout were shocked at this
avowal of cowardice; cardinals who would not be martyrs in the cause of
truth and of spiritual freedom condemned themselves.

But letters and appeals to the judgment of the world, and awful
maledictions, were not their only resources. The fierce Breton bands
were used to march and to be indulged in their worst excesses under the
banner of the Cardinal of Geneva. As Ultramontanists it was their
interest, their inclination, to espouse the Ultramontane cause. They
arrayed themselves to advance and join the cardinals at Anagni. The
Romans rose to oppose them; a fight took place near the Ponte Salario,
three hundred Romans lay dead on the field.

Urban VI was as blind to cautious temporal as to cautious ecclesiastical
policy. Every act of the Pope raised him up new enemies. Joanna, Queen
of Naples, had hailed the elevation of her subject the Archbishop of
Bari. Naples had been brilliantly illuminated. Shiploads of fruit and
wines, and the m