Feltre, Beliuno, Conegliano, and Romano, the very nests of the grim brood of Ezzelino, yielded to the charm.  Verona, where the Scalas were about to reign, Vicenza, Mantua, and Brescia, all placed themselves at the disposition of the monk, and prayed him to reform their constitution.  But it was not enough to restore peace to each separate community, to reconcile household with household, and to efface the miseries of civil discord.  John of Vicenza aimed at consolidating the Lombard cities in one common bond.  For this purpose he bade the burghers of all the towns where he had preached to meet him on the plain of Paquara, in the country of Verona.  The 28th of August was the day fixed for this great national assembly.  More than four hundred thousand persons, according to the computation of Parisio di Cereta, appeared upon the scene.  This multitude included the populations of Verona, Mantua, Brescia, Padua, and Vicenza, marshaled under their several standards, together with contingents furnished by Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Bologna.  Nor was the assembly confined to the common folk.  The bishops of these flourishing cities, the haughty Marquis of Este, the fierce lord of Romano, and the Patriarch of Aquileia, obeyed the invitation of the friar.  There, on the banks of the Adige, and within sight of the Alps, John of Vicenza ascended a pulpit that had been prepared for him, and preached a sermon on the text, Pacem meam do vobis, pacem relinquo vobis.  The horrors of war, and the Christian duty of reconciliation, formed the subject of his sermon, at the end of which he constrained the Lombards to ratify a solemn league of amity, vowing to eternal perdition all who should venture to break the same, and imprecating curses on their crops, their vines, their cattle, and everything they had.  Furthermore, he induced the Marquis of Este to take in marriage a daughter of Alberico da Romano.  Up to this moment John of Vicenza had made a noble use of the strange power which he possessed.  But his success seems to have turned his head.  Instead of confining himself to the work of pacification so well begun, he now demanded to be made lord of Vicenza, with the titles of Duke and Count, and to receive the supreme authority in Verona.  The people, believing him to be a saint, readily acceded to his wishes; but one of the first things he did, after altering the statutes of these burghs, was to burn sixty citizens of Verona, whom he had himself condemned as heretics.  The Paduans revolted against his tyranny.  Obliged to have recourse to arms, he was beaten and put in prison; and when he was released, at the intercession of the Pope, he found his wonderful prestige annihilated.[1]

    [1] The most interesting accounts of Fra Giovanni da Vicenza
    are to be found in Muratori, vol. viii., in the Annals of
    Rolandini and Gerardus Maurisius.