diaeval state of
warfare, which the Renaissance had checked, but which the miseries of
foreign invasions had resuscitated by brutalizing the population, and
which now threatened to disintegrate society in aimless anarchy and
private lawlessness.

It must not be imagined that governments and magistracies were slack in
their pursuit of criminals. Repressive statutes, proclamations of
outlawry, and elaborate prosecutions succeeded one another with
unwearied conscientiousness. The revenues of states were taxed to
furnish blood-money and to support spies. Large sums were invariably
offered for the capture or assassination of escaped delinquents; and woe
to the wretches who became involved in criminal proceedings! Witnesses
were tortured with infernal cruelty. Convicted culprits suffered
horrible agonies before their death, or were condemned to languish out a
miserable life in pestilential dungeons. But the very inhumanity of this
judicial method, without mercy for the innocent, from whom evidence
could be extorted, and frequently inequitable in the punishments
assigned to criminals of varying degrees of guilt, taught the people to
defy justice, and encouraged them in brutality. They found it more
tolerable to join the bands of brigands who preyed upon their fields
and villages, than to assist rulers who governed so unequally and
cruelly. We know, for instance, that a robber chief, Marianazzo, refused
the Pope's pardon, alleging that the profession of brigandage was more
lucrative and offered greater security of life than any trade within the
walls of Rome. Thus the bandits of that generation occupied the specious
attitude of opposition to oppressive governments. There were, moreover,
many favorable chances for a homicide. The Church was jealous of her
rights of sanctuary. Whatever may have been her zeal for orthodoxy, she
showed herself an indulgent mother to culprits who demanded an asylum.
Feudal nobles prided themselves on protecting refugees within their
fiefs and castles. There were innumerable petty domains left, which
carried privileges of signorial courts and local justice. Cardinals,
ambassadors, and powerful princes claimed immunity from common
jurisdiction in their palaces, the courts and basements of which soon
became the resort of escaped criminals. No extradition treaties
subsisted between the several and numerous states into which Italy was
then divided, so that it was only necessary to cross a frontier in ord