The town became embroiled in the struggles that ended in the independence of Scotland.
For it is to the individual conscience that God speaks; through the struggles of the individual conscience He builds up a strong and stable Christian character.
But the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines in Bologna itself soon followed, and the commune was so weakened that in 1337 Taddeo de' Pepoli made himself master of the town, and in 1350 his son sold it to Giovanni Visconti of Milan.
Its medieval history consists of struggles between the native sovereigns and Tamil invaders.
The religious feeling, which had not been absent even during the struggles of manhood, deepened in old age, and took the form the piety of the times prescribed.