they enriched by that of the Ghibellines of Reggio; and they all provided themselves with horses, so that in a short time, while they abode in Reggio and in Modena, they numbered more than 400 horsemen, good men-at-arms well mounted, and they came at great need to the succour of Charles, count of Anjou and of Provence, when he came into Apulia against Manfred, as we shall hereafter relate. We will now leave the doings of Florence, and of the Guelf refugees, and turn to the things which came to pass in those times between the Church of Rome and Manfred. Sec. 87.--_How Manfred persecuted Pope Urban and the Church with his Saracens of Nocera, and how a crusade was proclaimed against them._ [Sidenote: 1261 A.D.] [Sidenote: Cf. Par. xxii. 16-18.] By reason of the discomfiture of the Florentines, and of the other Guelfs of Tuscany at Montaperti, as we have afore said, King Manfred rose to great lordship and state, and all the imperial party in Tuscany and in Lombardy greatly increased in power, and the Church and its devout and faithful followers were much abased in all places. It came to pass that a very little while after, in the said year 1260, Pope Alexander passed from this life in the city of Viterbo, and the Church was vacant without a pastor for five months through the disputings among the cardinals; afterwards they elected Pope Urban IV., of the city of Troyes, of Champagne in France, the which was of low origin, being son of a cobbler, but was a man of worth, and wise. But his election was in this fashion: he was a poor clerk which came to the court of Rome to plead a cause about his Church, which had been taken from him, which brought in twenty pounds tournois a year. The cardinals, by reason of their disputes, locked the doors when they were shut up, and made among themselves a secret decree that the first clerk which knocked at the door should be Pope. As it pleased God this Urban was the first, and where he came to plead for the poor church of twenty pounds tournois revenue, he received the Universal Church, after the ordinances of God, as fixed in the election of the blessed Nicholas. Because the election was miraculous, therefore have we made mention and record thereof. And he was consecrated the year of Christ 1261. Finding the Church much beaten down by the power of Manfred, which was occupying the greater part of Italy, and had stationed the host of his Saracens of Nocera in the lands of the patrimony of S. Peter, the said Urban preached a crusade against them; wherefore many faithful people took the cross and marched in the army against them. For the which cause, the Saracens fled into Apulia, but Manfred did not therefore cease to molest the Pope and the Church in their followers and troops, and he abode now in Sicily and now in Apulia, in great luxury and in great delights, following a worldly and epicurean life, and for his pleasure keeping many concubines, living