[1] The legend may have arisen from the fact that Minerva had a temple near Miletos under the title of Assesia and the legend-weavers have caught at the similarity of sound to that of their own Umbrian town. [2] _Carmina_, i. 22, translated by R. C. Trevelyan. [3] _Carmina_, IV. i. 121; translated by R. C. Trevelyan. In another place Propertius gives bolder utterance to his pride: "Whosoever beholds the town climbing the valley side, let him measure the fame of their walls by my genius" (_Carmina_, iv. 5). [4] See Cristofani, _Storia d'Assisi_, p. 42 for text of the MS. [5] Dante, _Inferno_, xix. p. 115. Translated by John Milton. [6] See _Les Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Academie de Bruxelles_ (t. xxiii. pp. 29, 33); also _Un nouveau Chapitre de la Vie de S. François d'Assise_, par Paul Sabatier. [7] Perugia was, on the whole, faithful to the Guelph cause. She was patronised by the Popes on account of her strong position overlooking the Tiber, and when inclined she freely acknowledged them as her masters but at the same time she was careful to guard her independence. [8] _Cronaca Graziani_, p. 522. [9] _Cronaca Graziani_, pp. 512 and 513. [10] _Cronaca Graziani_, p. 513. [11] _Cronaca Graziani_, p. 514, note 1. [12] For a full account of the Baglioni see the sixteenth-century chronicle of Matarazzo (_Archivio Storico Italiano_, vol. xvi. part ii.), who has immortalised their crimes in classic language; and also _The Story of Perugia_ (Mediæval Towns Series, J. M. Dent & Co.). [13] _Cronaca Matarazzo_, p. 75. [14] _Cronaca Matarazzo_, p. 75. [15] _Ibid._ [16] Fratini, _Storia della Basilica di San Francesco_, p. 287. [17] _Cronaca di Matarazzo_, p. 75. CHAPTER II _The Umbrian Prophet_ "Fra santi il pui santo, e tra i peccatori quasi uno di loro."--Celano. _Vita_ I. cap. xxix. Often while reading the Italian chroniclers we forget that a life of chivalry, song, tournament, and pagan pleasure-making was passed in a mediæval town even while war, pestilence, and famine cast a settled gloom on every home. Lazar-houses stood at the gates of the city while sumptuous feasts were spread in the banqueting halls of palaces. Men rebelled against the ugliness and squalor produced by a hundred ills that swept over Italy during the twelfth century,[18] and so it came about that in the darkest hours of a city's history, scenes of maddest revelry were enacted. At this period were founded the Brigate Amorose, or Companies of young nobles, whose one aim in life was amusement. There were few towns in Italy, however small, in which these gay youths did not organise magnificent sports and tournaments[19] to which the ladies came in gowns of rich brocades or "fair velvet," their tresses garlanded with precious jewels and flowers. Or knights, ladies, and other folk would meet in the piazzas and pass the summer evenings with