Siena, the story of a mediaeval commune . Florentines off the field like chaff. Seeingthat their exaltation gave them irresistible strengththey were not far wrong in ascribing their victory tothe Virgin. More than ever Siena was henceforth hercity, the Sienese her sons. That presentation of thekeys in the duomo was an act unconsciously mouldedby the prevailing feudal ideas. By virtue of it QueenMary became sovereign and liege, ruling amcena Senaas her earthly fief. The very coins henceforth recountedthe new glory, for from the time of the dedication theyappeared, bearing in addition to the anc
Siena, the story of a mediaeval commune . Florentines off the field like chaff. Seeingthat their exaltation gave them irresistible strengththey were not far wrong in ascribing their victory tothe Virgin. More than ever Siena was henceforth hercity, the Sienese her sons. That presentation of thekeys in the duomo was an act unconsciously mouldedby the prevailing feudal ideas. By virtue of it QueenMary became sovereign and liege, ruling amcena Senaas her earthly fief. The very coins henceforth recountedthe new glory, for from the time of the dedication theyappeared, bearing in addition to the ancient legend,Sena Fetus, the proud words, Civitas Virginis. The gate out of which the Sienese marched to strikethe enemy opened upon the country to the east, and wasand is still called Porta Santo Viene (The Saint Comes).And thereby hangs the tale of another procession whichdeserves a word in this record of the cordial relation of amediaeval people and its saints. Older than Monta-perti by one hundred and fifty years, the story introduces. co THE SIENESE CHURCH 85 us once more to the Sienese protomartyr, Sant Ansano,and to the church at Dofana, which possessed his bodyand had from the early eighth century been the occasionof furious litigation between the bishops of Arezzo andSiena. In the year 1108 the body of the saint, a price-less relic, which had lain undisturbed for eight hundredyears, was exhumed. The bishop of Arezzo and hisfollowers, full of distrust against their neighbors, werefor carrying it away with them, but yielding either toreason or to force, agreed to a division.* Accordinglythe head was apportioned to Arezzo, the trunk to February 6, 1108, occurred a remarkable Sienese clergy accompanied by many people wentto Dofana to bring back the martyred saint, now a heapof dust without a skull, to the city which he had givenhis life to save. As the procession, moving to theaccompaniment of solemn chants, drew near the gatethe waiting people rushed fo
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