But this reconciliation was short-lived. Within three years he merited
new censures, by accepting from the Pisans the command of their troops
against the Guelphs of Florence and Lucca, along with the seigneury of
their republic. Whilst he held that authority, the fearful tragedy of
Count Ugolino was perpetrated in the _Torre della fame_, but we may
presume him guiltless of its horrors, since neither the naive
narrative of Villani, nor the magnificent episode of Dante, alludes
to his name, whilst impugning that cold-blooded murder. Meanwhile the
people of Urbino had taken advantage of his absence and embarrassments
to rally for their freedom round the papal banner. Wearied of these
struggles, and fretting under their penal consequences, he once more
humbled himself before his ecclesiastical superior, and obtained
absolution in May, 1295.[*22] It was probably the cordial reception
which his overtures met from Celestine V., that obtained for that
pontiff, after his canonisation, a high degree of devotional repute
among the people of Urbino. The romance of most men's lives goes by in
youth; that of Count Guido was reserved for his declining years.
Embued with the devotional enthusiasm which St. Francis evoked from
the mountains of Umbria, he deemed the Pontiff's pardon an inadequate
expiation of his accumulated rebellions. Casting aside the gauds of
sovereignty, sheathing the sword which he had never drawn but to
conquer, he assumed the cord and cowl of the new order, and in the
holy cells of Assisi, sought that peace which it had been the aim of
his previous life to trouble.
[Footnote *22: He had been excommunicated for the third time in 1288
for defending the Pisani. He was finally reconciled to the Church,
October 1, 1294. Cf. Ugolini, _op. cit._, vol. I., p. 81 _et seq._
MURATORI (_Annali_ ad ann. 1295) says: "Guido conte di Montefeltro
rimesso in grazia del papa, venne in quest'anno a Forlì...."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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