ugation of Italy. Lucchino left sons, but none of proved
legitimacy.[4] Consequently he was succeeded by his brother Giovanni,
son of old Matteo il Grande, and Archbishop of Milan. This man, the
friend of Petrarch, was one of the most notable characters of the
fourteenth century. Finding himself at the head of sixteen cities, he
added Bologna to the tyranny of the Visconti in 1350, and made himself
strong enough to defy the Pope. Clement VI., resenting his encroachments
on Papal territory, summoned him to Avignon. Giovanni Visconti replied
that he would march thither at the head of 12,000 cavalry and 6,000
infantry. In the Duomo of Milan he ascended his throne with the crosier
in his left hand and a drawn sword in his right; and thus he is always
represented in pictures. The story of Giovanni's answer to the Papal
Legate is well told by Corio:[5] 'After Mass in the Cathedral the
great-hearted Archbishop unsheathed a flashing sword, which he had
girded on his thigh, and with his left hand seized the cross, saying,
"This is my spiritual scepter, and I will wield the sword as my
temporal, in defense of all my empire."' Afterwards he sent couriers to
engage lodgings for his soldiers and his train for six months. Visitors
to Avignon found no room in the city, and the Pope was fain to decline
so terrible a guest. In 1353 Giovanni annexed Genoa to the Milanese
principality, and died in 1354, having established the rule of the
Visconti over the whole of the North of Italy, with the exception of
Piedmont, Verona, Mantua, Ferrara and Venice.

[1] We may compare what Dante puts into the mouth of Manfred in the
'Purgatory' (canto iii.). The great Ghibelline poet here protests
against the use of excommunication as a political weapon. His sense
of justice will not allow him to believe that God can regard the
sentence of priests and pontiffs, actuated by the spite of
partisans; yet the examples of Frederick II. and of this Matteo
Visconti prove how terrifying, even to the boldest, those sentences
continued to be. Few had the resolute will of Galeazzo Pico di
Mirandola, who expired in 1499 under the ban of the Church, which he
had borne for sixteen years.

[2] This was in 1328. Azzo agreed to pay 25,000 florins. The vast
wealth of the Visconti amassed during their years of peaceful
occupation always stood them in good stead when bad times came, and
when the Emperor was short of c