or Ghibelines, a famous faction in Italy, opposed to another called the Guelphs. Those two factions ravaged and laid waste Italy for a long series of years; so that the history of that country, for the space of two centuries, is little more than a detail of their mutual violence and laughter. The Gibelines stood for the emperor against the pope; but concerning their origin and the reason of their names we have only a very obscure account. According to the generality of authors, they rose about the year 1240, upon the Emperor Frederick II. being excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. Other writers maintain that the two factions arose ten years before, though still under the same pope and emperor. But the most probable opinion is that of Mainbourg, who says that these factions arose in consequence of a quarrel between two ancient and illustrious houses on the confines of Germany; that of the Henries of Gibeling, and that of the Guelphs of Adorf.