But the chief reason for the immediate growth of sculpture in Italy was not material but psychological. It depended not upon opportunity but upon the mental and emotional temper of those to whom it appealed. The Gothic architect in Italy did not adopt the methods by which his French brother appealed to the mystic instincts of his countrymen, simply because the Italian temperament was less eager to “dwell overmuch among desired illusions.” With a far fuller emotional and intellectual experience, the Italian did not feel, in the same degree, what Matthew Arnold has called “that passionate, turbulent, indomitable reaction against the despotism of fact.” For many years the population of Northern Italy had been victimized by the continual invasions which the Holy Roman emperors made against the Pope. At first there were constant efforts to form leagues of townships to combat Emperor or Pope. But the cities could not put large bodies of fighters in the field, and their condition was deplorable. The great struggle between Henry IV. of Germany and the Papacy aided by Matilda and the Normans, brought matters to a head. The remedy was found towards the end of the eleventh century, when each town discovered that it could best serve its interests by acting alone. In other words, the conception of a city-state was reached. During the struggle in which bishop was pitted against feudal lord, feudal lord against bishop, and both or either against Emperor or Pope, each city developed a political individuality. Genoa became distinguished from Pisa, and both from Milan in marked fashion. Nor was this all. It was soon realized that the bond of citizenship was an asset that could be used with magnificent effect. As had been the case in Greece, a city with a few thousand burghers found it could safely face a power apparently vastly stronger. The enthusiasm of every citizen was fired in a manner unequalled since a similar concatenation of circumstances had given Phidias and Praxiteles to the Ægean Peninsula. Finally, this civic ideal did not entail the jettisoning of a hundred human ambitions and emotions which were entirely foreign to the Roman Catholic Church. A social philosophy began to arise in which human interests predominated. Here was the very condition for lack of which Gothic sculpture had been still-born. THE PISANI