the commune of Rome, taken control of the city from papal forces, and founded a republic, the Commune of Rome. Arnold sided with the people immediately and, after Pierleoni's deposition, soon became the intellectual leader of the Commune, calling for freedoms and democratic rights. Arnold taught that clergy who owned property had no power to perform the Sacraments. He succeeded in driving Pope Eugene into exile in 1146, for which he was excommunicated on 15 July 1148. When Pope Eugene returned to the city in 1148, Arnold continued to lead the blossoming republic despite his excommunication. In summing up these events, Caesar Baronius called Arnold "the father of political heresies", while Edward Gibbon later expressed his view that "the trumpet of Roman liberty was first sounded by Arnold." After Pope Eugene's death, Pope Adrian IV swiftly took steps to regain control of Rome. He allied with Frederick Barbarossa, who took Rome by force in 1155 after a Holy Week interdict and forced Arnold again into exile. Arnold was seized by Imperial forces and tried by the Roman Curia as a rebel. Importantly, he was never accused of heresy. Faced with the stake, he refused to recant any of his positions. Convicted of rebellion, Arnold was hanged in June and his body burnt. Because he remained a hero to large sections of the Roman people and the minor clergy, his ashes were cast into the Tiber, to prevent his burial place becoming venerated as the shrine of a martyr. In 1882, after the collapse of Papal temporal powers, the city of Brescia erected a monument to its native son. Beliefs Arnold attacked the powers of the Roman Church, and he had a radical zeal to have moral reform in the clergy. Arnold rejected a theocratical state and instead believed that the church and state need to be in complete separation. Arnold believed in "apostolic poverty" and that the church needs to be restored to apostolic purity. The second Lateran council condemned the Arnoldists for denying infant baptism. Arnold denied the power of the Roman church and believed that sinful clergy lose their right of administering the sacraments. Some of his critics attacked Arnold for having "offensive views on baptism and the Eucharist". See also History of Rome in the Middle Ages Waldensians Donatists Notes References Catholic Encyclopedia: "Arnold of Brescia" Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Arnold von Brescia im Spiegel von acht Jahrhunderten Rezeption.