There was one dark spot. A new organisation was set on foot, under the auspices of Pope Clement and King Charles, known as the Parte Guelfa--another miniature republic within the republic--with six captains (three nobles and three popolani) and two councils, mainly to persecute the Ghibellines, to manage confiscated goods, and uphold Guelf principles in the State. In later days these Captains of the Guelf Party became exceedingly powerful and oppressive, and were the cause of much dissension. They met at first in the Church of S. Maria sopra la Porta (now the Church of S. Biagio), and later had a special palace of their own--which still stands, partly in the Via delle Terme, as you pass up it from the Via Por Santa Maria on the right, and partly in the Piazza di San Biagio. It is an imposing and somewhat threatening mass, partly of the fourteenth and partly of the early fifteenth century. The church, which retains in part its structure of the thirteenth century, had been a place of secret meeting for the Guelfs during Guido Novello's rule; it still stands, but converted into a barracks for the firemen of Florence. Thus was the greatest and most triumphant Republic of the Middle Ages organised--the constitution under which the most glorious culture and art of the modern world was to flourish. The great Guilds were henceforth a power in the State, and the _Secondo Popolo_ had arisen--the democracy that Dante and Boccaccio were to know. [Illustration: ARMS OF PARTE GUELFA] CHAPTER II _The Times of Dante and Boccaccio_ "Godi, Fiorenza, poi che sei sì grande che per mare e per terra batti l'ali, e per l'inferno il tuo nome si spande." --_Dante._