Editing Pope Eugene IV (section)

===Problems in the Papal States and Rome===
These concessions also were due to the invasion of the [[Papal States]] by the former Papal [[condottiero]] [[Niccolò Fortebraccio]] and the troops of [[Filippo Maria Visconti]] led by [[Niccolò Piccinino]] in retaliation for Eugene's support of Florence and Venice against Milan (see also [[Wars in Lombardy]]). This situation led also to establishment of an insurrectionary [[republic]] at Rome controlled by the [[Colonna family]].<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA43 pp. 43–45.]</ref> On 4 June 1434, disguised in the robes of a [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] [[monk]], Eugene was rowed down the center of the [[Tiber]], pelted by stones from either bank, to a [[Republic of Florence|Florentine]] vessel waiting to receive him at [[Ostia Antica (archaeological site)|Ostia]].<ref name=delia> Anthony F. D'Elia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Wrwy1_7Ug0C&dq=pope+eugene+iv&pg=PA40 ''A Sudden Terror''], Harvard University Press, 2009, p. 40. {{ISBN|9780674053724}}</ref> [[Ferdinand Gregorovius]] remarks that "Eugenius having lost the authority of the State by his own ineptitude, resolved like so many of his predecessors, on flight." On 12 June, his ship reached Pisa, and in October he reached Florence.<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA45 pp. 45–47.]</ref> 

The city was restored to obedience by [[Giovanni Vitelleschi]], the militant [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Recanati|Bishop of Recanati]], in October 1434.<ref name=Loughlin/><ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA49 pp. 49–51.]</ref> In August 1435 a peace treaty was signed at Ferrara by the various belligerents. Pope Eugenius made Vitelleschi archbishop of Florence on 12 October 1435.<ref>Eubel II, p. 154. Vitelleschi had already been made Patriarch of Alexandria by Eugene IV on 21 February 1435: Eubel II, p. 85.</ref> Vitelleschi held the post until Eugenius made him a cardinal on 9 August 1437.<ref>Eubel II, p. 7, no. 3.</ref>

The people of Rome sent a delegation to Florence in January 1436, begging the pope and the curia to return to Rome, and promising obedience and quiet. The Pope, however, rejected their overture. On 25 March 1436, Pope Eugenius consecrated the [[Florence Cathedral|cathedral of Florence]], and then, in April 1436, moved to Bologna, which had recently been conquered for the papacy.<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA43 p. 50].</ref> His condottieri [[Francesco I Sforza]] and Vitelleschi in the meantime reconquered much of the Papal States with extreme violence and destructive force. Traditional Papal enemies such as the [[Prefetti di Vico]] were destroyed, while the Colonna were reduced to obedience after the destruction of their stronghold in [[Palestrina]] in 1437. The massive fortress was preserved, however, until Lorenzo Colonna attempted to return in 1438, when it too was destroyed on orders from Vitelleschi.<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA60 pp. 60–62.]</ref>

[[Poggio Bracciolini]], the Tuscan humanist, wrote: "Seldom has the rule of any other pope produced equal devastation in the provinces of the Roman Church. The country scourged by war, the depopulated and ruined towns, the devastated fields, the roads infested by robbers, more than fifty places partly destroyed, partly sacked by soldiery, have suffered from every species of revenge."<ref>Poggio, cited by Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA61 pp. 61–62.]</ref>