shadows."--_Chronicle of Neri di Donato_.

A Crusade publicly proclaimed by the Pope.

1374. Plague and famine lay Tuscany waste. William of Noellet, the Papal
Legate, refuses to allow corn to be imported into Tuscany from the Papal
States. Hawkwood, probably at his instigation, ravages the country, and
even threatens the city of Florence. Florence, enraged, rebels against the
Pope, and appoints from the ranks of the Ghibellines a new body of
Magistrates, known as the Eight of War. Meantime, Cione de' Salimbeni is
raiding the country around Siena. The roads through the Maremma are
insecure for peaceable folk, and the peasants are driven to take refuge in
the plague-stricken town.

1375. Eighty Italian cities join a League, headed by Florence, against the
Pope, with the watchword, "Fling off the foreign yoke."

1376. Gregory despatches ambassadors to the Eight of War, who scorn his
proposals. Florence incites Bologna to revolt, and the Legate flees. The
Papal Nuncio is flayed alive in the streets of Florence. The city is
placed under an Interdict. Envoys are despatched to Avignon, who set forth
eloquently, but to no avail, the grievances of the city. War is declared
against Florence by the Pope, and Count Robert of Geneva, with an army of
free-lances, is sent into Italy. Count Robert, laying waste the territory
of Bologna, summons Hawkwood to his aid, and perpetrates the hideous
massacre of Cesena. Catherine, sent to Avignon, fails to procure peace.
Gregory, swayed by her representations, returns to Italy, and reaches
Rome, after a difficult journey, on January 17th, 1377.

1378. Gregory, exhausted and disappointed by the continued discords in