Commune of Rome
| Commune of Rome | ||||||||||
| Comune di Roma | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Rome | |||||||||
| Languages | Italian | |||||||||
| Government |
Republic City-state |
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| Historical era | Medieval | |||||||||
| • | Established | 1144 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 1193 | ||||||||
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The Commune of Rome (Italian: Comune di Roma) was established in 1144 after a rebellion led by Giordano Pierleoni. Pierleoni led a people's revolt due to the increasing powers of the Pope, and the entrenched powers of the nobility at the time. The goal of the rebellion was to organize the government of Rome in a similar fashion to that of the previous Roman Republic. Pierleoni was named the "first Patrician of the Roman Commune", but was deposed shortly after in 1145.
In a pattern that was to become familiar in the communal struggles of Guelfs and Ghibellines. The commune declared allegiance to the more distant power, the Holy Roman Emperor, and initiated negotiations with the newly elected Pope Lucius II. The commune wanted him to renounce temporal power and take up an office with the duties of a priest. Lucius gathered a force and assaulted Rome, but the republican defenders repulsed his army and he himself died from injuries received when a thrown stone hit him in the head.
Lucius's successor, Pope Eugene III, could not be consecrated in the city due to the resistance. However, he eventually came to an agreement with the new civil authority, who had deposed Pierleoni, and returned to Rome on Christmas Day 1145. In March 1146 he again had to leave. He returned in 1148 and excommunicated Arnold of Brescia. Brescia was a political theorist who had joined the commune and was its intellectual leader.
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