in 1373, the pope sent two papal delegates to serve bernabò and galeazzo their excommunication papers (consisting of a parchment bearing a leaden seal rolled in a silken cord). bernabò, infuriated, placed the two papal delegates under arrest and refused their release until they had eaten the parchment, seal, and silken cord which they had served him. he managed to resist, despite also the outbreak of a plague in milan, whose consequences he suppressed with frantic energy. in 1378 he allied with the republic of venice in its war of chioggia against genoa. his troops were however defeated in september 1379 in the val bisagno.