for four years had been governor of Palermo under Frederic II.; but the remembrance of that connexion was easily thrown off, as soon as he rose from the condition of a subject to Honorius III. that of a rival. Frederic had made a solemn vow to Innocent, to engage without loss of time in a new crusade; and on his coronation at Rome, in 1220, he renewed that promise with still greater solemnity to Honorius. In the year following, instead of proceeding on his expedition, he appears to have appointed, on his own authority, to some vacant see; in virtue, as he maintained, of his royal right; in violation, as the pope asserted, of the liberties of the church. During the time consumed in this dispute, Damietta fell into the power of the Mahometans. In the year 1223, at a council held at Terentino in Campania, the Emperor renewed his oath to depart, and that within the space of two years; and to give earnest of his sincerity, he espoused the daughter of John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem. In the year following, that he might atone to the church for his continued delay, and evince to her the sincerity of his affection, he published some savage constitutions against heretics, which we shall presently notice. At the same time, in a long letter to the Pope, he complained of the general indifference to the cause of the Crusades, which then unfortunately prevailed throughout Europe*. Some disputes with the Lombards formed the next excuse for his delay; and in 1227 Honorius died, still pressing the departure of the monarch, and still pressing it in vain. Accession of Gregory IX., who was nephew of Innocent III., was immediately raised to the pontifical chair, with loud and unanimous acclamation. On the day of his coronation he proceeded to St. Peter's, accompanied by several prelates, and assumed the pallium according to custom; and after having said mass he marched to the palace of the Lateran, covered with gold and jewels. On Easter Day, he celebrated mass solemnly at Sta. Maria Maggiore, and returned with a crown on his head. On Monday, having said mass at St. Peter's, he returned wearing two crowns, mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, and surrounded by Cardinals clothed in purple, and a numerous clergy t. The streets were spread with tapestry, inlaid with gold and silver, the noblest productions of Egypt, and the most brilliant colours of India, and perfumed with various aromatic odours. The people chaunted aloud Kyrie eleison, and their songs of joy were accompanied by the sound of trumpets. The judges and the officers shone in gilded habits and caps of silk. The Greeks and the Jews celebrated the praises of the Pope, each in his own language; a countless multitude marched before him carrying palms and flowers; and the sena *See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 1. 78, sect. 65, where a part of the letter is quoted. The actual restitution of the territories of the Countess Matilda to the Roman See, is by some ascribed to this Pontificate. Raynaldus (ann. 1221, Num. 29) asserts, that the imperial diploma existed in the Liber Censuum of the Vatican library-apud Pagi. Vit. Honor. iii. Sect. xxxi. This description is very faintly copied from a life of Gregory IX. cited by Odoricus Raynaldus; the following is a specimen: Divinis missarum officiis reverenter expletis duplici diademate coronatus sub fulgoris specie in Cherubini transfiguratur aspectum, inter purpuratam venerabilium Cardinalium, Clericorum et Prælatorum comititivam innumeram, insignibus papalibus præcedentibus, equo in phaleris pretiosis evectus, per almæ Urbis miranda moenia Pater Urbis et Orbis deducitur admirandus. Hine cantica concrepant, etc. etc. See Pagi, Vit. Gregor. ix., s. iii. Fleury 1.79. s. 31. There seems no reason to believe, that these demonstrations of joy or ebullitions of adulation exceeded the customary parade of the thirteenth century. tors and prefect of Rome were on foot at his side, holding his bridle-and thus was he conducted to the palace of the Lateran. The first and immediate act of a pontificate so gorgeously undertaken, was to urge the renewal of the Crusades, both by persuasion and menace, at the various courts of Europe. The forces of Frederic were already collected at Otranto, and, if we are to believe some writers*, the Em. peror did actually embark, and proceed on his destination as far as the narrow sea between the Morea and Crete, when a dangerous indisposition obliged him to return. It is at least certain, that he once more deferred the moment of his final departure. The Pope was infuriated; he treated the story of illness as an empty pretence, and without waiting or asking for excuse or explanation, instantly excommunicated the Emperor. This took place on the 29th of September, within six months from his elevation to the See; and the sword of discord, which was drawn on that day, had no secure or lasting interval of rest, until the deposition, or rather the death of Frederic. The Emperor wrote several papers in his justification, and among them a letter to Henry III. of England, containing much severe and just reproach against the Roman Church. The Roman Church (such was the substance of his upbraiding) so burns with avarice that, as the ecclesiastical revennes do not content it, it is not ashamed to despoil sovereign Princes and make them tributary. You have a very touching example in your father King John; you have that also of the Count of Toulouse, and so many other princes whose kingdoms it holds under interdict, until it has reduced them to similar servitude. I speak not of the simonies, the unheard-of exactions, which it exercises over the clergy, the manifest or cloaked usuries with which it infects the whole world. In the mean time, these insatiable leeches use honied discourses, saying that the Court of Rome is the Church, our mother and nurse, while it is our stepmother and the source of every evil. It is known by its fruits. It sends on every side legates with power to punish, to suspend, to excommunicate; not to diffuse the word of God, but to amass money, and reap that which they have not sown t. And so they pillage churches, monasteries and other places of religion, which our fathers have founded for the support of pilgrims and the poor. And now these Romans, without nobility and without valour, inflated by nothing but their literature, aspire to kingdoms and empires. The Church was founded on poverty and simplicity, and no one can give it other foundation than that which Jesus Christ has fixed.' At the same time the Emperor continued to prepare for immediate departure, in spite of the sentence which hung over him. The Pope assembled a numerous Council, and thundered forth a second excommu * See Giannone, 1. xvi. c. 6. Sigonio seguitò la fede di Matteo Paris, il quale (ad ann. 1227, p. 286) scrisse: Animo nimis consternati in iisdem navibus quibus venerant plusquam 40 armatorum millia sunt reversi.' But this passage more probably relates to the numerous pilgrims, who had actually sailed to the Holy Land for the purpose of meeting Frederic, and who immediately returned on not finding him there. Fleury makes no mention of his having put to sea at all on this occasion; but Bzovius asserts per triduum in mare provectus cursum convertit ac se neque maris jactationem neque incommodam valetudinem pati posse asseruit. Ann. Eccles. ad ann. 1227. + In 1229, Gregory IX. levied an exaction of tenths in England with so much seve rity, that even the standing crops were anticipated, and the bishops obliged to sell their property, or borrow money at a high interest, in order to answer the demand. Erat Papa tot et tantis involutus debitis, ut unde bellicam, quam susceperat, expeditionem sustineret, penitus ignorabat. Matth. Paris, anno citato. Mention is made of the continual, though secret, maledictions with which the Pope was pursued, nication; and in the spring following, without making any humiliation, or obtaining any repeal of the anathema under which he lay, Frederic set sail for the Holy Land. If there had been a shadow of sincerity in Gregory's professed enthusiasm for the liberation of Palestine,-if he had loved the name and birth-place of Christ with half the ardour Frederic II. in with which he clung to his own papal and personal Palestine. dignity, he would not have pursued the departed Emperor with his perverse malevolence, he would not have prostituted the ecclesiastical censures, to thwart his projects and blast his hopes. Yet he did so his mendicant emissaries were despatched to the Patriarch and the military orders of Jerusalem, informing them of the sentence under which Frederic was placed, and forbidding them to act, or to communicate with him. At the same time, provoked, as some assert *, by a previous aggression from Frederic's lieutenant, he invaded with all his forces the Apulian dominions of the Emperor. Under these adverse circumstances, Frederic made a hasty, but not inglorious †, treaty with the Saracens, and instantly returned to the defence of his own kingdom-a measure which became the more necessary, since the Pope had issued a third excommunication, releasing his subjects from their oath of allegiance ‡. We do not profess, in this peaceful narrative, to describe the details of military adventures, or to trace the perplexed and faithless politics of Italy. We must be contented to add, that some successes of the Emperor led to a hollow and fruitless reconciliation; that this again broke out (in the year 1238) into open war, which lasted till the death of the Pope, three years afterwards. The period of nominal peace had been disturbed by the constant complaints and recriminations § of both parties. The perusal of those papers is sufficient to convince us, that if both had some, the Pope had the greater, share of blame; and while the style, which the prelate assumes, is that of an offended and injured protector and patron, the language of the Emperor, though never abject, frequently descends to the borders of querulousness and humility. The cause of Frederic gained nothing by the death of Gregory, since he was succeeded by Innocent IV. This extraordinary person (Sinibaldo Fieschi, a Genoese) had been distin- Innocent IV. guished as cardinal by his attachment to the person, if not to the cause, of the emperor; and on his election to the pontificate, the people of Italy indulged the fond and natural expectation, that the dissensions which blighted their happiness would at length be composed. Not so Frederic; for he was familiar with the soul of Innocent, and had read his insolent and implacable character. To his friends, who proffered their congratulations, he replied, that there was cause for sorrow rather than joy, since he had exchanged a cardinal, who was *Fleury, 1. 79, s. 43. Giannone, 1. 16, c. 6. The possession of the City and of the Holy Sepulchre was secured to the Christians, while the Temple (now the Mosque of Omar) which had already been desecrated to the Mahometan worship, was left in the possession of the Saracens: a fair arrangement, which was misrepresented by the Pope and most ecclesiastical writers, and restored to history by Gibbon and Sismondi. Rep. Ital. chap. 15. The plea which he gave was because no one should observe fidelity to a man who is opposed to God and his Saints, and tramples upon his commandments. A new maxim (as Fleury simply observes), and one which seems to authorize revolt. § These disputes are related at great length by Fleury, liv. 81, sect. 32, &c. On June 24, 1243. Celestine IV., in fact, intervened, but died on the sixteenth day after his election, his dearest friend, for a pope, who would be his bitterest enemy *. And so, indeed, it proved. On the occasion of an early and amicable conference, Innocent refused to withdraw his predecessor's excommunication, until Frederic should restore all that he was charged with having plundered from the Church. The meeting had no result; and Innocent presently repaired to France, and summoned a very numerous council at Lyons. First Council of Lyons. As soon as the members were assembled † (in 1245) Innocent, taking his throne, with Baldwin, emperor of the East, on his right hand, began the proceedings, by conferring the use of the red bonnet on his cardinals -to the end that they might never forget, in the use of that colour, that their blood was at all times due to the service of the Church. At the same time he adorned them with other emblems of dignity, in imitation of regal pomp and state, and in scorn (as it was thought) of a favourite expression of Frederic, that a Christian prelate ought to emulate the meekness and poverty of the disciples of Christ. He then opened his discourse respecting the defence of the Holy Land, and of other states at that time endangered by the Tartar invasion §, and concluded with some general reproaches on the character and conduct of Frederic,-that he had persecuted the pontiffs and other ministers of the Church of God; exiled and plundered the bishops; imprisoned the clergy, and even put many to a cruel death, with other similar charges. The same were repeated on the next day of meeting, and supported and exaggerated by the suspicious testimony of two partial and intemperate prelates. On both occasions they were boldly repelled by the emperor's ambassador, Taddeo di Suessa. After the delay of a fortnight, occasioned by an unfounded expectation of Frederic's appearance in person, the council assembled for the third time; and then, after premising some constitutions respecting the Holy Land, Innocent, to the astonishment and horror of all who heard him,' pronounced the final and fatal sentence against Frederic. He declared that prince deprived of the imperial crown, with all its honours and privileges, and of all his other states; he released his subjects from their oath; he even forbade their further obedience, on pain of excommunication, and commanded the electors to the empire to choose a successor. He presently recommended See Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib. xvii., c. 3, and various authorities collected by Sismondi, Rep. Ital., ch. xvi. + See Giannone, lib. xvii., cap. 3. Sismondi, Rep. Ital., ch. xvi. Bzov. Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1245. Giannone, loc. cit. Pagi. vit., Inn. IV. sec. xxxi. investigates the question whether this dignity was conferred at that time, or two years later. Besides the affair of Frederic, to which our account in the text is nearly confined, the first General Council of Lyons professed three grand objects. (1.) To assist the Latin emperor of Constantinople against the Greeks. (2.) To aid the emperor of Germany against the Tartars. (3.) To rescue the Holy Land from the Saracens. For the attainment of the first of these objects, the Pope ordained a contribution of half the revenues of all benefices on which the incumbents were not actually resident, (a wholesome and admirable distinction,) placing a still higher impost on the largest; also of a tenth of the revenues of the Church of Rome. For the second, he exhorted the inhabitants to dig ditches, and build castles. For the third, he commanded the priests, and others in the Christian army, to offer up continual prayers, moving the Crusaders to repentance and virtue. Besides which he promised a twentieth part of the revenues of benefices for three years, and a tenth of those of the Pope and his cardinals. He likewise encouraged all who had the care of souls to influence the faithful to make donations by testament and otherwise. The decree touching the levies of money displeased many prelates, who openly opposed it, declaring that the Court of Rome now perpetually despoiled them under that pretext. to that dignity Henry, Landgrave of Thuringia. For the kingdom of Sicily, he took upon himself, with the counsel of the cardinals, his brethren,' to provide a sovereign, Frederic was at Turin when he received the news of this proceeding. He turned to the barons, who surrounded him, and, with deep indignation, addressed them, The pontiff Deposition of has deprived me of the imperial crown-let us see if Frederic. it be so. He then ordered the crown to be brought to him, and placed it on his head, saying, that neither pope nor council had the power to take it from him.' Most of the princes of Europe were, indeed, of the same opinion, and continued to acknowledge him to the end of his life. And we may remark, that the usurpation of Innocent was in one respect marked with peculiar audacity,―he did not even plead the approbation of the Holy Council, but contented himself with proclaiming that the sentence had been pronounced in its presence *. Nevertheless, his edict found willing obedience from the superstition or the turbulence of the German barons. Henry was supported by numerous partizans, and waged a prosperous warfare against Conrad, the son of Frederic; and on his early death, William, Count of Holland, was substituted by the Pope as a candidate for the throne. Innocent's genius and activity suggested to him the most refined arts to insure success, and his principles permitted him to adopt the most iniquitous. He even departed so far from the observance of humanity, and the most sacred feelings of nature, as to employ his intrigues to seduce Conrad from the service of his father, into rebellious and parricidal allegiance to the Church. That virtuous prince, rejecting, with firmness, the impious proposition, replied, that he would defend the side he had chosen to the last breath of life t; and neither the Pope nor the Church gained even a temporary advantage by an attempt which covers them with eternal infamy. The same industrious hostility which had kindled rebellion among the German princes, was exerted with no less effect among the contentious states of Italy. The Guelphic interests were everywhere strengthened by the energy of Innocent; and the utmost efforts of Frederic were insufficient to restore tranquillity to Italy, or even to obtain any important triumphs over his Italian enemies. He died in Apulia, in the year 1250; and though he had never formally re- His death nounced the title of Emperor, his deposition was virtually and character. accomplished by the edict of Innocent, since the rest of his life was spent in uninterrupted confusion and alarm, in the midst of battle, and sedition, and treason, without any enjoyment of the repose of royalty, and with a very limited possession either of its dignity or authority. The character of Frederic has been vilified by Guelphic writers, and probably too highly exalted by the opposite faction. In the conduct of affairs purely temporal, he is celebrated for justice, magnificence, generosity, as well as for the patronage of arts and literature. Familiar with the use of many languages, and himself an author, he exhibited that disposition to cultivate science, and nourish every branch of knowledge, which is so seldom associated with great vices. In regard to his long and complicated contentions with the Church, it is unquestionably *Sacro præsente Concilio.' Bzovius (Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1445) gives the precious document entire, prefaced, of course, with unqualified eulogy. Pagi, however, (Vit. Inn. IV., sec. xx.), argues, that the approbation of the Council was implied in its proceedings, if not actually expressed in the title of the sentence. + Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. xvii., ch. 4. |