Lights and Twilight of the Papacy and the Empire in the Middle Ages – From Boniface VIII to Henry VII
At the time in which Dante thus relived and almost reconstructed, ideally, the life of Italy, the empire was absent from the peninsula. Anti-imperial parties and forces prevailed, cities traditionally Guelphs or linked to Guelphs prevailed over others, Rudolf of Habsburg’s vicars had little recognition, neither he nor his immediate successors came to look for royal and imperial crowns in Italy. The kings of Germany began to operate within the narrow sphere of their countries beyond the Alps, that is, in the…
