84 Dante Sexcentenary Lectures
hands of Charles of Valois, or in any way to let matters get
beyond his control. He, therefore, sent his cardinal am-
bassador once more to the city, but the Blacks were as deaf
to his commands as the Whites had been. They refused to
divide the offices with a beaten foe, the cardinal again with-
drew, and again put the city under an interdict.
The Blacks thereupon proceeded with the proscription of
their enemies. On January 27, 1302, sentence was passed
against Dante Alighieri and four others, all Whites, who
had been previously summoned before the ∙podesta but had
failed to appear. All five were away from the city; Dante,
as we have seen, presumably at Rome, while the rest had
probably fled. Dante and his companions were falsely ac-
cused of fraud and corruption both in office and out. They
were further charged with having conspired against the
Pope, against the admission into the city of his representa-
tive, Charles of Valois, against the peace of the city and
of the GueIf party. The real offense, needless to say, was
that of being a leader of the Whites, and of having op-
posed the Pope and Prince Charles. The penalty was a
fine of five thousand florins and the restitution of the sums
illegally exacted; payment was to be made within three days
of the promulgation of the sentence, in default of which all
their goods were to be forfeited and destroyed. In addi-
tion to the fine, the delinquents were sentenced to banish-
ment from Tuscany for two years, and to perpetual depri-
vation from office in the commonwealth of Florence.
This sentence having been disregarded, on the tenth of
March of the same year a second, severer sentence was
pronounced, condemning them to be burned alive should they
ever be caught. Other prosecutions followed; more than
six hundred of the Bianchi were banished, their goods con-
fiscated, and their houses burned.