COMMENCEMENT OF GENOESE SUPREMACY--CORSICAN COMMUNISTS.
Pisa made a formal surrender of the island to Genoa, and thirty years
after the death of Giudice, the Terra del Commune, and the greater
number of the seigniors submitted to the Genoese supremacy. The Terra
sent four messengers to the Genoese Senate, and tendered its submission
under the condition, that the Corsicans should pay no further tax
than twenty soldi for each hearth. The Senate accepted the condition,
and in 1348 the first Genoese governor landed in the island. It was
Boccaneria, a man who is praised for his vigour and prudence, and who,
during his single year of power, gave the country peace. But he had
scarcely returned from his post, when the factions raised their heads
anew, and plunged the country into the wildest anarchy. From the first
the rights of Genoa had not been undisputed, Boniface VIII. having in
1296, in virtue of the old feudal claims of the papal chair, granted
the superiority of Corsica and Sardinia to King James of Arragon. A new
foreign power, therefore--Spain, connected with Corsica at a period of
hoary antiquity--seemed now likely to seek a footing on the island; and
in the meantime, though no overt attempt at conquest had been made,
those Corsicans who refused allegiance to Genoa, found a point of
support in the House of Arragon.
The next epoch of Corsican history exhibits a series of the most
sanguinary conflicts between the seigniors and Genoa. Such confusion
had arisen immediately on the death of Giudice, and the people were
reduced to such straits, that the chronicler wonders why, in the
wretched state of the country, the population did not emigrate in a
body. The barons, as soon as they no longer felt the heavy hand of
Giudice, used their power most tyrannously, some as independent lords,
others as tributary to Genoa--all sought to domineer, to extort. The
entire dissolution of social order produced a sect of Communists,
extravagant enthusiasts, who appeared contemporaneously in Italy.
This sect, an extraordinary phenomenon in the wild Corsica, became
notorious and dreaded under the name of the Giovannali. It took its
rise in the little district of Carbini, on the other side the hills.
Its originators were bastard sons of Guglielmuccio, two brothers,
Polo and Arrigo, seigniors of Attalà. "Among these people," relates
the chronicler, "the women were as the men; and it was one of their
laws that all things should be in common, the wives and children as
well as other possessions. Perhaps they wished to renew that golden
age of which the poets feign that it ended with the reign of Saturn.
These Giovannali performed certain penances after their fashion, and
assembled at night in the churches, where, in going through their
superstitious rites and false ceremonies, they concealed the lights,
and, in the foulest and the most disgraceful manner, took pleasure
the one with the other, according as they were inclined. It was Polo
who led this devilish crew of sectaries, which began to increase
marvellously, not only on this side the mountains, but also everywhere
beyond them."
The Pope, at that time residing in France, excommunicated the sect; he
sent a commissary with soldiers to Corsica, who gave the Giovannali,
now joined by many seigniors, a defeat in the Pieve Alesani, where they
had raised a fortress. Wherever a Giovannalist was found, he was killed
on the spot. The phenomenon is certainly remarkable; possibly the
idea originally came from Italy, and it is hardly to be wondered at,
if among the poor distracted Corsicans, who considered human equality
as something natural and inalienable, it found, as the chronicler
tells us, an extended reception. Religious enthusiasm, or fanatic
extravagance, never at any other time took root among the Corsicans;
and the island was never priest-ridden: it was spared at least this
plague.