recounts how he was born in the Piazza Minerva beneath a tent hastily erected for the occasion, and in his third year was baptised in the Cathedral of San Rufino, amidst a throng of cardinals, bishops, Assisan priors and nobles. It would, indeed, be strange that he, who later was to prove a thorn in the side of many a Pope, should have been born and nurtured in the Seraphic City. The Assisans soon wearied of the German yoke, but unaided they could not throw it off and it needed the timely intervention of Innocent III, to rid them of Conrad's presence. The Pope, who had been quietly waiting an opportunity to regain his lost Umbrian towns, felt himself powerful enough now that the Emperor Henry VI, was dead, to send haughty commands to Conrad. He was bidden to meet Innocent at Narni where he solemnly made over his possessions to the Church. Thus left to themselves, the Assisans, with cries of "Liberty and the Pope," rushed on the castle to tear it down. Built to be their safeguard, it proved their greatest danger, and they determined that no other tyrant should find shelter within its walls. While the Assisans were rejoicing in their freedom, and endeavouring to guard against the constant attacks of the Perugians, the big world outside was being torn and rent by a medley of events which was carrying men's thoughts forward in the swift current of a fresh era. Everywhere a new spirit was spreading--"the fraternising spirit" it has been called. In the cities men were joining together in guilds, heralding the commonwealths; while, in the country, bands of people, under the names of Patarins, Albergenses, Poor Men of Lyons, etc., raised the standard of revolt yet higher against their feudal and spiritual lords. A contemporary writer speaks of thirty-two heresies as being rampant in Italy at this time. Men were eager and full of energy, finding relief through many channels that set all Italy in a ferment. But amidst the confusion of wars and heresies the Papal power grew ever stronger, until, with the accession of Innocent III, the claims of a temporal ruler were blended with spiritual rights. The Marches of Ancona, Umbria, and the seven hills of Rome belonged alike to him, while he was powerful enough to excommunicate cities, kingdoms, and emperors at his pleasure, and rule all with a rod of iron. The magnificent designs planned by Hildebrand seemed to triumph under Innocent, and yet the papal horizon was not without its clouds. "Ah Constantine! of how much ill was cause, Not thy conversion, but those rich domains That the first wealthy Pope received of thee,"[5] groans Dante, in writing of the condition of the Church, and his cry reaches back to the time of which we write. Jacques de Vitry, who was often at the court of Innocent, also speaks with bitterness of the depravity of the priests. They were, he tells us, "deceiving as foxes, proud as bulls, avaricious and insatiable as the minotaur."