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r^..\ 



GREGOROVIUS* 

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF ROME 

IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

VOL. v.— PART I. 



GEORGE BELL AND SONS 

LONDON : PORTUGAL ST., LINCOLN'S INN 
CAMBRIDGB : DBI6HTON, BRLL AND CO. 
NBW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. 
BOMBAY: A. H. WHEELBR AND Ca 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE CITY OF ROME 



IN THE 



MIDDLE AGES 



BY 

FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS- 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN 3SDITI0N 

BY " -— r\ 

ANNIE HAMILTON-.: : 



VOL. v.— PART I. ; ; - ; - 

(a.D. 1 200-1 260) - ' ' 

SECOND EDITION, REVISED * : ' / 

LONDON Ci: 

GEORGE BELL & SONSf.V: 
1906 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

2. Inundation of the Tiber, 1230 — The Romans recall Gregory pagb 

IX, — Peace of S. Germano, 1230 — First general Trial 
of Heretics in Rome — The Senator Anibaldo issues an 
Edict against Heresy — Persecution of Heretics — The 
Inquisition, . . . . . • I53 

3. Fresh Disturbances in Rome — John of Poli, Senator, 1232— 

The Romans wish to remove the Campagna from Papal 
dominion — The Emperor effects Peace between Rome 
and the Pope — Fitarckianc/edeU ^Another 'Rebellion of 
the Romans — ^Their Political Programme — ^They rise in 
1234, in a serious attempt to obtain their Freedom, . 163 

4. Lucas Savelli, Senator, 1234 — ^The Romans declare the 

Patrimony of S. Peter the Property of the City— The 
Pope invokes the aid of Christendom against them — The 
Emperor comes to his assistance — Defeat of the Romans 
near Viterbo — Angelo Malabranca, Senator, 1235 — 
Rome submits by Treaty to the Papal Government, . 172 



CHAPTER V. 

1. Frederick II. in Germany and Italy — He resolves on War 

with the Lombard League — The Communes and the 
Pope — League of Umbrian and Tuscan Cities — ^Views of 
the Pope concerning his right over Italy, and his claim 
to Universal Supremacy — ^The Proconsular Title among 
the Romans— Peter Frangipane — John Poli and John 
Cinthii, Senators— Return of the Pope, 1237 — Battle 
of Cortenuova — ^The Carrocdo of Milan in Rome — John 
de Judice, Senator, . . . . .181 

2. Exorbitant demands made by the Emperor from the Lom- 

bards — ^The Pope Excommunicates Frederick, 1239 — 
Frederick writes to the Romans— His Manifesto to the 
Kings — Counter Manifesto of the Pope — Difficult 
position of Frederick II. in relation to the times — Con- 
tradictions in his own Character — Impression created by 
his Letters on the World — The Curia hated on account 
of its Extortions — Grouping of Parties — Frederick carries 
the War into the State of the Church, . . • I95 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK IX. 

History of the City of Rome in the Thirteenth Century 
FROM the Reign of Innocent III. until 1260. 



CHAPTER I. 

1. The Thirteenth Century—The Empire, the Church, the 'agb 

Middle Class, the City of Rome — Election of Innocent 
III. — The House of Conti — Largesses made to the 
Romans by the scarcely elected Pope — His Consecration 
and Coronation — Account of the Coronation Procession 
to take Possession of the Lateran, ... I 

2. Innocent III. transforms the Prefect of the City into a Papal 

Official — Circumstances of the City Prefecture — ^The 
Prefects of the House of Vico— Circumstances of the 
Senate — Scottns Paparone, Senator — Innocent III. 
acquires the Right of Electing the Senate — Formula of 
Oath taken by the Senators — ^The City of Rome retains 
its Autonomy — First Roman Podestiis in the Cities out- 
side Rome, ...... 15 

3. Decay of the Feudal Principalities of Henry VI. after his 

Death — Philip of Swabia, Duke of Tuscany — Markwald, 
Duke of Ravenna — Conrad, Duke of Spoleto — The 
Tuscan Confederation — Restoration of the Patrimonies 
of the Church— The Popular Party rises in Rome— John 



VI CONTENTS. 

Capocci and John Pierleone Rainerii — War concerning pagb 
Vitorchiano between Rome and Viterbo— Pandulf of the 
Suburra, Senator — Viterbo submits to the Capitol, . 26 

4. The Orsini — Their Hereditary Feud with the Relations of 
Innocent III. — Richard Conti and the House of Poll — 
The Poli Estates come to Richard—Civil War— Flight 
of Innocent III. to Anagni, 1203 — War of Factions 
concerning the Senate — Innocent returns, 1204— 
Gr^ory Pierleone Rainerii, Senator — Bitter Dispute 
concerning the Constitution — Character of these Civil 
Wars — Innocent once more obtains Recognition of the 
Papal Right over the Senatorial Election, 1205, . 38 



CHAPTER II. 

1. Sicilian Affairs — Innocent III. becomes Frederick's Guardian 

— Markwald — Walter of Brienne — The German Barons 
in Latium — ^The Communes in Latium — Richard Conti 
becomes Count of Sora — The Pope returns from Latium 
to Rome, •.••.. 5^ 

2. Innocent IIL'sattitude in the Quarrel for the German Throne 

— Otto of the House of Guelf, and Philip of Swabia — 
The Capitulation of Neuss— The State of the Church 
and its Confines recognised in Imperial Law — Protest of 
Philip's Party against the Interference of the Pope in 
the Royal Election—Coronation of Peter of Aragon in 
Rome, ....... 64 

3. Revulsion of feeling in Philip's &vour in Germany— Philip's 

Negotiations with the Pope — He is murdered — Otto 
recognised as King in Germany — His Journey to Rome 
and Coronation — Battle in the Leonina, . . 75 

4. Breach between Otto IV. and the Pope— Innocent is 

undeceived — Complete Transformation of the Guelf 
Emperor into a Ghibelline — Otto enters Apulia — Is 
excommunicated by the Pope — The Germans summon 
Frederick of Sicily to the Throne — Otto IV, returns to 
Germany, • • ' • • • .86 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER III. 

1. Frederick resolves to go to Germany — Comes to Rome — Is 'agb 

crowned at Aachen in 1215 — Vows a Crusade — ^Lateran 
Council — Death of Innocent III. — His Character — 
Temporal Supremacy of the Papacy, . . .96 

2. Activity of the Heretics— Doctrine of Christian Poverty — 

Foundation of the Mendicant Orders, S. Francis and S. 
Dominic — ^The First Monasteries of their Orders in 
Rome — Character and Influence of the Mendicant 
System — The Sect of the Spiritualists, . . .105 

3. Honorius III., Pope — ^The House of Savelli-— Coronation 

of Peter of Courtenay as Emperor of Byzantium in Rome» 
1217— Frederick defers the Crusade— Death of Otto IV., 
1218 — Election of Henry of Sicily as Successor to 
Frederick in Germany — Disturbances in Rome under 
the Senator Parentius — ^Journey to Rome and Coronation 
of Frederick II., 1220— Imperial Constitutions, . 118 

4. Frederick returns to Sicily — Honorius III. in peaceful 

possession of the State of the Church — The Romagna 
ruled by an Imperial Count — Disturbances at Spoleto^ 
Rome and Viterbo — Democratic movements in Perugia 
/ — Rome and Perugia — Flight of the Pope from Rome — 
Parentius, Senator — Negotiations concerning the oft- 
delayed Crusade — Angelo de Benincasa, Senator- 
Hostile attitude of the Lombards to the Emperor — 
Strained relations between the Emperor and the Pope 
— Breach between Frederick and John of Brienne — 
Death of Honorius III., 1227, . . . .128 



CHAPTER IV. 

Hugolinus Conti as Pope Gregory IX, — Summons the 
Emperor to start on the Crusade — Departure, Return, 
and Excommunication of Frederick, 1227 — Manifestos 
of the Emperor and the Pope — ^The Imperial Faction 
drives Gregory IX. from Rome — Crusade of the 
Emperor— The Pope invades Apulia, 1229 — Return of 
the Emperor and Flight of the Papal Army, • • 142 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

2. Inundation of the Tiber, 1230— The Romans recall Gregory 'agb 

IX. — Peace of S. Germano, 1230— First general Triai 
of Heretics in Rome — The Senator Anibaldo issues an 
Edict against Heresy — Persecution of Heretics — ^The 
Inquisition, . . . . . • I53 

3. Fresh Disturbances in Rome — John of Poli, Senator, 1232— 

The Romans wish to remove the Campagna from Papal 
dominion — ^The Emperor effects Peace between Rome 
and the Pope — Vtiorchtano/edele^Anotlitt Rebellion of 
the Romans — ^Their Political Programme — ^They rise in 
1234, in a serious attempt to obtain their Freedom, . 163 

4. Lucas Savelli, Senator, 1234— The Romans declare the 

Patrimony of S. Peter the Property of the City— The 
Pope invokes the aid of Christendom against them — The 
Emperor comes to his assistance — Defeat of the Romans 
near Viterbo — Angelo Malabranca, Senator, 1235 — 
Rome submits by Treaty to the Papal Government, . 172 



CHAPTER V. 

1. Frederick II. in Germany and Italy — He resolves on War 

with the Lombard League — The Communes and the 
Pope — League of Umbrian and Tuscan Cities — ^Views of 
the Pope concerning his right over Italy, and his claim 
to Universal Supremacy — ^The Proconsular Title among 
the Romans — Peter Frangipane — John Poli and John 
Cinthii, Senators— Return of the Pope, 1237 — Battle 
of Cortenuova — The Carroccio of Milan in Rome— John 
de Judice, Senator, . . . . .181 

2. Exorlntant demands made by the Emperor from the Lom- 

bards — ^The Pope Excommunicates Frederick, 1239 — 
Frederick writes to the Romans — His Manifesto to the 
Kings — Counter Manifesto of the Pope — Difficult 
position of Frederick II. in relation to the times— Con- 
tradictions in his own Character — Impression created by 
his Letters on the World — The Curia hated on account 
of its Extortions — Grouping of Parties — Frederick carries 
the War into the State of the Church, . . .195 



CONTENTS. ix 

^. The Cities of the State of the Church veer to Frederick's pagb 
side — ^The Emperor makes his Residence at Viterbo— 
Desperate Position of the Pope — ^Why Rome remained 
Giielf— The great Procession of Gr^ory IX.— Retreat of 
Frederick II.— Truce— Its Violation by the Pope- 
Defection of Cardinal John Colonna — Gr^ory convokes 
a Council— The Priests imprisoned at Monte Cristo, 
1241 — The Tartars — Unsuccessful Negotiations — 
Anibaldi and Odo Colonna, Senators — ^Matteo Rubeus 
Orsini, sole Senator — Frederick blockades Rome — 
Deathof Gregory IX., 1 241, . . . • 205 

4. Frederick II. returns to his Kingdom — Election and 
immediate Death of Celestine IV. — The Cardinals 
disperse — The Church remains without a Head — 
Alliance between Rome, Perugia, and Nami, 1242 — 
The Romans advance against Tivoli ; Frederick once 
more against Rome — Building of Flagellse- Frederick 
again in the Latin Mountains— The Saracens destroy 
Albano— State of the Latin Mountains — Albano — ^Arida 
— ^The Via Appia — Nemi — Civita Lavinia — Genzano — 
The House of Gandulfi — Places on the Tusculan side of 
the Mountain — Grotta Ferrata — Bronze Statues, . 218 



CHAPTER VI. 

Sinibald Fieschi elected Pope as Innocent IV., 1243— 
N^otiations for Peace— The Pope comes to Rome — 
Viterbo abandons the Emperor, who is driven back 
from the City — ^Anibaldi and Napoleon Orsini, Senators 
— Preliminary Peace in Rome — It is refused by the 
Emperor— Flight of the Pope to Genoa, 1244, . 229 

Innocent assembles a Council at Lyons, 1245 — Deposition 
of the Emperor — Consequences of the Sentence — 
Frederick's Appeal to the Princes of Europe — Counter 
Manifesto of the Pope — Public Opinion in Europe — The 
Emperor's wishes — Innocent IV. resolves on War to 
the Death against the House of Hohenstaufen, . 242 

Conspiracy of Sicilian Barons against the Emperor, and its 
Suppression — Frederick's good Fortune in War — 



X CONTENTS. 

\^terbo and Florence ML into his Hands — State of pagb 
Affiurs at Rome — ^The Senator writes exhorting the Pope 
to return — ^The Pope bestows Taranto in fief on the 
Frangipani — The Emperor determines to advance 
against Lyons— Defection of Parma ; Misfortunes of the 
Emperor — Enzio taken Prisoner by the Bolognese — Fall 
of Peter de Vineis— Death of Frederick II,, 1250—His 
Figure in History, ..... 255 

4. The Sons of Frederick II.— Conrad IV.— Return of the 
Pope to Italy — State of Affiurs in the Peninsula — Man- 
fred's Position as Vicar of Conrad — Conrad IV. comes 
to Italy, and takes Possession of the Kingdom — Innocent 
rV. oflfers Investiture with the Kingdom first to Charles 
of Anjou, then to an English Prince — The Senator 
Brancaleone forces him again to make his Residence in 
Rome, 1253 — Prince Edmund receives Sicily in Fief 
from Uie Pope— Tragic Death of Conrad IV., 1254, . 272 



CHAPTER VII. 

1. Brancaleone, Senator of Rome, 1252— Particulars concerning 

the Office of the Senator and the Organisation of the 
Roman Republic at this time— Resistance of the Roman 
Barons, and energetic Action of the new Senator, . 285 

2. Innocent FV. goes to Anagni — ^Tivoli renders submission to 

the Capitol — ^The Pope prepares to take possession of 
the Kingdom of Sicily — Manfred becomes his Vassal — 
Entry of Innocent IV. into Naples— Flight of Manfred 
— His Victory at Foggia — Dcaih of Innocent IV., 1254 
—Alexander IV. returns to Rome, . . 299 

3. Brancaleone's Government in Rome — Rise of the Guilds — 

Their Position in Rome — Constitution of the Guild of 
Merchants— The Foundation of the Populus — Branca- 
leone, first Captain of the Roman People— His Over- 
throw and Imprisonment, 1255 — Bologna placed under 
the Interdict — Emmanuel de Madio, Senator — Release 
of Brancaleone and his return to Bologna, . .310 



CONTENTS. XI 

4. Fall of Emmanuel de Madio, i257~The Demagogue Matteo 'agb 
de Bealvere — ^Bnmcaleone Senator a second time — 
Punishment inflicted on the Nobility — Destruction of 
their Towers in Rome — Death of Brancaleone, 1258 — 
His honourable Memory — His Coins — Castellano degU 
Andal6, Senator — His Fall and Imprisonment — 
Napoleon Orsini and Richard Anibaldi, Senators — Fall 
of the House of Romano— The Phenomenon of the 
Flagellants, ....•• 320 



BOOK NINTH. 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF ROME IN THE 
THIRTEENTH CENTURY FROM THE REIGN 
OF INNOCENT III. UNTIL 1260. 






HISTORY OF THE CITY OF ROME 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



CHAPTER I. 

I. The Thirteenth Century — The Empire, the 
Church, the Middle Class, the City of Rome 
— Election of Innocent III. — The House of 
CoNTi — Largesses made to the Romans by the 
scarcely elected Pope — His Consecration and 
Coronation — Account of the Coronation Pro- 
cession to take Possession of the Lateran. 

After the chivalric and religious enthusiasm of the 
twelfth century, the succeeding century shows man- 
kind arrived at a fuller maturity, engaged in fierce 
struggles for the acquisition of a civic constitution, 
and already enjoying a life ennobled by work, by 
knowledge, and by art The thirteenth century is 
the culmination of the Middle Ages, on which the 
Church stands conspicuous in the fulness of her 
power, while with the Hohenstaufens the ancient 
Grerman empire passes out of history in order to 
leave the field clear for independent national states. 
The empire, with a last superhuman effort, continued 
VOL, V. A 



2 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

under Frederick II. the struggle for its legitimate 
existence against two tendencies of the age, to the 
united force of which it was obliged to succumb. It 
fought against the universal dominion of the Papacy, 
and, as in the second half of the twelfth century, the 
Papacy formed an alliance with the Italian democ- 
racies, which, by means of the principle of Latin 
municipalism, overthrew the foreign institution of 
German feudalism. The thirteenth century is the 
age of a great struggle for freedom against an 
obsolescent but legitimate constitution ; of the re- 
volution of the middle class against the feudal 
aristocracy; of democracy against the imperial 
monarchy; of the Church against the empire; of 
heresy against the Papacy. It is a period, above 
all, invested with a special lustre by the republican 
freedom of Italy. Within strongly walled and no 
less strongly governed cities, which enclosed a sur- 
prising amount of genius, property, and energy, the 
mother-country of European culture rose to her first, 
still imperfect consciousness of her own nationality. 
This period of the Middle Ages was the period of the 
cities. As in ancient times, man was again above all 
a citizen. The city, with its families and clans, with 
its organised guilds, realised for the second time in 
history the conception of the state. If we overlook 
the idea expressed by this remarkable municipal 
spirit, the return of Italy — ^the true motherland of 
cities — to a communal system of politics, immediately 
after her escape from the decayed framework of the 
empire, may appear as a retrograde movement. 
That idea was the victory over feudalism, the re- 



ch. l] the thirteenth century. 3 

covery by learning and labour of the good things of 
life, the creation of a national culture which was the 
work of civic society. The energies of the laity, de- 
veloped by a tedious process, demanded a system in 
which they should be combined and protected. This 
protection was furnished by the free cities, the most 
glorious product of the Middle Ages, the ever active 
seminaries of a new culture. Italy flourished again 
independently in her democracies, and again sank into 
deepest misery when these free cities fell to decay. 

The restriction of the State to the city, of the 
nation to the citizens of the communes, is neverthe- 
less an inadequate condition of things, and one in 
which the higher elements remain unexpressed. 
Cities formed leagues as in ancient days, but it was 
impossible to extend these leagues into an Italian 
confederation. The empire, which was still pre- 
dominant, and the Papacy, which possessed its own 
city, prevented any confederation of this kind ; and the 
Church, which recognised the impossibility of carry- 
ing out the Guelf idea of a papal theocracy of Italy, 
by the foundation of a French monarchy in the 
south, rendered every prospect of union vain. Alike 
incapable of creating a political nation the cities fell 
into a condition of narrow isolation. The force of 
faction which kept their political life weak, and which 
bore witness to the need of some symbol for a uni- 
versal political cult, availed itself of the opposition 
between the Church and the empire, and created the 
world-historic factions of the Guelfs and the Ghibel- 
lines. The obstruction of national unity caused the 
vital sap which (otherwise than in ancient Italy and 



4 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Greece) was not drained by colonisation to stagnate 
in narrow channels ; and after the great struggle be- 
tween Church and empire was ended, the cities, seeth- 
ing with energy, broke out into class and civic war- 
fare, the results of which were necessarily, in the first 
place, the rule of the mob, afterwards the reign of civic 
tyrants, and finally the rise of petty principalities. 

In like manner the city of Rome also manifested 
the municipal tendency. Consistently enough, she 
put aside the last connecting link with the empire 
at the same time that the communes, in alliance 
with the Papacy (which had now become a national 
institution), defeated the feudal empire in Italy. It 
was the popes who severed these links, who ex- 
tinguished the ancient conception of the Respublica 
Romana as the source of the imperium, who robbed 
Rome of the support of the empire, and brought the 
city into a position of dependence on the Church. 
The city fought incessantly, and with the greater 
energy against the pope, who claimed imperial rights 
over her; she attained her civic autonomy, and at 
brilliant intervals even acquired complete independ- 
ence as a republic. Incapable of making good her 
claim to be regarded as the Urbs Orbis, incapable of 
becoming the head of a universal confederation of 
Italian cities, she restricted her ambition to the aim 
of ruling the territory of the Roman duchy from the 
Capitol. We see her in the thirteenth century con- 
fined, like Milan or Florence, within limits thoroughly 
adapted to a municipality. Not till the following 
century did she aspire to a fantastic ideal. It is 
curious to see the Romans, untroubled by the aifairs 



Ch. I.] INNOCENT III. S 

of the world, seriously occupied with their republic 
at home. While the empire became reduced to a 
shadow, while the Church attained her great object, 
that of becoming the constitution of the world, the 
gaze of the Romans remained fixed on the hoary 
Capitol ; the people barred their gates in the face of 
the popes as well as of the emperor, and thought of 
nothing but how to bestow the best constitution on 
their community. The municipal history of Rome 
in the thirteenth century contains some honourable 
pages, which extort our admiration for the Roman 
populace, who in the midst of difficult conditions 
periodically asserted their independence. For al- 
though in the thirteenth century the Papacy had 
reached the summit of its supremacy, it remained 
entirely impotent in Rome. 

At the beginning and end of the great century 
depicted in our fifth volume. Innocent III. and 
Boniface VIII. stand as the two pillars which mark 
the confines of the most important period of the 
history of mediaeval culture. They mark at the same 
time the culmination and the downfall of the Papacy. 

On January 8, 1198, Cardinal Lothar was unani- innocent 
mously elected Pope in the Septizonium, and was li^^a??' 
proclaimed as Innocent III. He was the son of 
Count Thrasmund of Segni, a member of one of 
the ancient ruling families of Latium, which owned 
property at Anag^i and Ferentino. His family was 
probably one of those which, in the tenth century, had 
borne the office of Count in the Campagna, as the 
Crescentii had borne it in the Sabina ; nevertheless it 
was not until after the time of Innocent III. that 



6 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the title of count became permanently the name of 
the family, henceforward known as de Comitibus or 
dei Conti.^ Lothar's ancestors were Grermans who 
had migrated to Latium, as is shown by the names 
of Lothar, Richard, Thrasmund, and Adenulf, which 
survived in the family. The Conti had not acquired 
any prominence in the history of the city, but 
Claricia, the mother of Innocent III., was a Roman 
member of the family of Romanus de Scotta.^ 

Lothar, who was young and wealthy, had studied 
in Paris and Bologna, had acquired great scholastic 
learning and an extensive knowledge of jurispru- 
dence, and as a priest had served with distinction 
among the adherents of Alexander III., until 
Clement III. made him Cardinal-deacon of S. 
Sergius and Bacchus on the Capitol. At the age 
of thirty-seven he ascended the sacred chair. He 
was handsome, although of short stature, and was en- 
dowed with great eloquence and an all-subduing will. 

^ Ex poire Trasmundo, de Comitib, Signia {Gesta Innoc, Ill.y c. i). 
Contelorius, Geneal, famil. Comttumy Rome, 1650. Marco Dionigi's 
Geneal, di Casa Conti^ Parma, 1663, is uncritical Ratti, Hist, della 
Fam, Sforzay il The uncritical summary in Hurter is derived from 
C. Trasmondi, Comp, Storico-Geneal, della Fam, Trasnumdi^ Rome, 
1832. Hurter says, ** there was no county of Campania " ; neverthe- 
less it existed as early as sac, x. (see vol. iii of this history). That 
there was no Count of Segni prior to scec* xiii. is contradicted by 
Amatus comes Signie^ A. 977 (vol. iii.). The coimty of Campania was 
ruled, like the Sabina, by papal consuls, duces, or comites. It is also 
wrong to confuse the house of Conti with the Crescentii. The Conti 
were of Lombard origin,and owed their first prominence to Innocent III. 

^ A Romanus de Scotto in 1 109 (vol. iv. p. 327 n.) ; a Senator Bobo 
Donna ScottiB, A. 1188 {ibid,), Grimaldi, Lib, Canonicor, S, Vatic, 
Basil, {Mscr. Vat,, 6437), says that the Scotii dwelt in the Reg. 
Arenula near S, Ben, Scottorum^ the present S, Triniiatis Femgrinor, 



Ch. I.] CEREMONIAL OF PAPAL CORONATION. 7 

Scarcely was the election accomplished when 
Innocent was assailed with cries for gold from the 
Roman populace. Instead of offering gifts of hom- 
age, the Romans demanded them from their popes. 
The oath of fealty was constantly purchased, and 
the municipality further required the payment of 
Sooo pounds from every newly elected pope. Before 
Innocent had actually ascended the throne, it was in 
danger of being overturned. As he yielded to the 
impatient cries of the Romans, he resolved to ex- 
tract a permanent advantage out of an abuse. He 
was not parsimonious as Lucius III. to his own 
misfortune had been; he gave liberally, and thus 
gained over the majority of the populace ; papal 
largesses, however, on so vast a scale were a dis- 
grace, and might be fairly called the price of his 
accession.^ 

Lothar was consecrated in S. Peter's on February is con- 
22, 1 198. Accompanied by the prefect of the city, Pope, Feb. 
the senator, the nobility, the provincial barons, the ^ ''^* 
consuls and rectors of the cities, who appeared to do 
him homage, he immediately made his solemn pro- 
gress to the Lateran. 

The coronation procession affords us an oppor- 
tunity of giving a brief account of these marvellous 
spectacles of mediaeval times. No less ostentatious 
than the coronation processions of the emperors, but 
without the foreign military pomp and without the 

^ Rc^er Hoveden, Anna/., p. 778. Innocent had the citizens 
counted according to the ecclesiastical districts. These statistics • 
unfortunately have not come down to us. Cancellieri {del Tarantismo) 
estimates the population of Rome at this time at 35,000 souls ; but 
hit estimate cannot be proved. 



8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

battles in the Leonina which attended the latter, 
they represented the splendour of the Papacy in a 
Roman pageant As early as the eleventh century, 
the pope who had been consecrated in S." Peter's 
was accustomed to return in solemn procession to 
his residence, the Lateran. After the time of 
Nicholas I. these processions were transformed 
into a species of triumphal progress through the 
midst of Rome, and along a route which became 
traditionally known as the Via Sacra or Papa} 
Its goal was the basilica of Constantine, of which 
the pope took possession amid curious ceremonies, 
and therewith inaugurated his accession as temporal 
sovereign of Rome and of the State of the Church. 
Spectacle As soon as he was consecrated by the Bishops of 
coro^Sf Ostia, Albano, and Portus, he proceeded to the plat- 
processioiL form in front of S. Peter's, and seated himself upon a 
throne. The archdeacon took the episcopal mitre 
from his head, and amid the applause of the people 
replaced it by the princely "regnum." This was 
the round pointed tiara, that mythic crown which 
Constantine was said to have presented to Pope 
Sylvester ; it had originally consisted of white pea- 
cock's feathers, and was later ornamented with 
precious stones, encircled by a gold rim, and after- 

^ Cancellieri, Possessi de* Poniefici, The oldest description of these 
customs in the Vita Paschalis IL (1099) ahready contains the forms 
of the later books of rituaL Ordines Romania Mabillon, Mus, Itai,^ 
ii. ; most exact is Ordo XIV, of Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi, who 
described the procession. {De coronatione Bonif. VIJJ,^ Murat, iiu) 
In general R. Zoepffel : Die PapstwahUn und die mit ihnen im 
HoehsUn Zusamtnenhang sUhendn$ Ciremonien vam 1 1, bis i^Jahrh.^ 
Gottingen, 1871. 



Ch. I.] CEREMONIAL OF PAPAL CORONATION. 9 

wards by three diadems ; the whole was surmounted 
by a carbuncle.1 While crowning the pope the 
archdeacon pronounced the haughty formula, 
" Take the tiara, and know that thou art the father 
of princes and kings, the ruler of the world, the 
vicar on earth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose 
honour arid glory shall endure through all eternity." * 
Christ and His barefooted Apostles would have 
looked in profound astonishment on the form of 
their successor, who, glittering with gold and jewels 
and clad in sumptuous apparel, now rose from the 
throne, the regnum on his head, and as pope-king 
mounted a horse covered with scarlet trappings. 
Emperor or king, were either present, held his 
stirrup and led his horse a short distance by the 
bridle ; in the absence of a monarch, the service was 
performed by the Roman nobles or senators.* All 
who took part in the cavalcade mounted their 
palfreys — the procession being made on horseback 
—and advanced in the following order: One of 

^ Regnum or Phrygium ; illustration in Garampi, Del Sigillo della 
Goffagnana, Nicholas I. is supposed to have adopted the first crown, 
Boni&ce VIII. the second, and Urban V. the third crown ; this, how- 
ever, cannot be proved. Garampi notices the passage in Benzo, 
according to which Nicholas 11. (1059) must have worn two crowns. 
We still see these glittering tiaras carried on great festivals, but none 
of them belong to mediaeval times. 

' Accipe Tiaram^ ut sa'as te esse Patrem Principum et Regum, 
Rectcrem crbis^ in terra Vtcarium Salvatoris n,J, Ch,, cufus est honor 
et gloria in sacula saculor. See Papebroch's note to the text oj 
Cardinal Jacopo (Murat., iii. 648). 

' Senatores Urbis D, Papam debent adextrare ; they received in 
return ten solidi. OrdoXII, of Cendus. The popes rode; Paul IV. 
being the first who allowed himself to be carried in a litter. 



lO ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the pope's horses, richly caparisoned, led the way ; 
next came the cross-bearer \crucifer) on horseback ; 
twelve standard-bearers also mounted and holding 
red banners followed;^ then two other horsemen 
bearing gold cherubim on lances; two prefects of 
the marine, the scrinarii, the advocates, the judges 
in their long black gowns of office; the school of 
singers ; the deacons and sub-deacons ; the foreign 
abbots, the bishops, the archbishops ; the abbots of 
the twenty abbeys of Rome ; the patriarchs and 
cardinal-bishops, the cardinal-presbyters, the cardi- 
nal-deacons, all on horseback, where it was only 
with difficulty that many of the older men retained 
their seats. Then followed the pope on a white 
palfrey, led on each side by senators or nobles. 
Close beside him rode the sub-deacons and the 
prefect of the city, accompanied by the college of 
judges. The civic guilds, the militia, the knights 
and nobles of Rome came next in glittering mail, 
and carrying the arms and colours of their houses. 
The long procession (it lasted an hour) of these 
spiritual and secular magnates, the solemn chaunt, 
the ringing of all the bells, the applause of the 

* XII, bandonarii cum XII, vexillis rubeis. In the Ordo of Bene- 
dict, in the middle of sac, xii. : milites drcuonarii^ portantes XII. 
Tfexilla qua bandora vocantur ; the militia of the twelve regions still 
existed. Cencius, on the other hand, explains these standard-bearers 
as scholae of the Bandonarii colosaiet ccuabarii (Mabill., Mus, It,^ 
ii. 199). These standard-bearers, mentioned with other artisans in 
the service of the pope, appear as a guild, who made banners and 
similar articles. In sac. xvi. these twelve standard-bearers were called 
cursoreSf outriders. Procession of Innocent VIII. in 1484 : duodecim 
cursor es Papa cum XII. vexiUis rubeis, — Duo prafecH navales also 
appear as late as sac, xv. 



Ch. I.] CEREMONIAL OF PAPAL CORONATION. 1 1 

populace, the parade, the dignities and offices, the 
variety of the costumes, the blending of things 
ecclesiastical and secular, presented a curious 
spectacle, and one which, in a single picture, re- 
flected the. essence of the Papacy. 

The city was wreathed with garlands : triumphal 
arches towered above the route, erected by the laity, 
who were compensated by distributions of money 
made beneath them.^ The procession advanced 
through the arches of the Emperors Gratian, Theo- 
dosius, and Valentinian, to the quarter Parione, 
where the pope halted at the tower of Stephen 
Petri, to receive the acclamations of the schola of 
the Jews.^ For a deputation of the children of 
Israel, the steadfast believers in a pure unadulter- 
ated monotheism, stood here in dread or timid hope, 
the rabbi of the Synagogue, bearing on his shoulders 
the veiled roll of the Pentateuch, at their head. 
The Roman Jews were obliged to salute their 
territorial ruler in each new pope, who, like the 
ancient emperors, at whose accessions their ancestors 

^ Arches of honour, mentioned for the first tune in the Vita Calixti 
II, ^ A. 1 1 19. Cencius already speaks of the Palazzo Massimo (domus 
Maxitnt), Mabillon's text of the Ordo of Cencius abounds in errors, 
as I found on comparing it with the Florentine MS. For example, 
instead of areas de Cairande read Arcus de Miranda; instead of the 
senseless salacia fragmina pannorum read palatia Frajapanorum. 
The names of the churches are even distorted. A correct edition of 
the Ordo is to be desired. 

* The older Ordines say turris Stephani Serpetri ; the later de 
Campo {di Fiore) ; it is the tower in Parione, which had belonged to 
Stephen the City Prefect (father of the notorious Cencius) in the time 
of Gregory VII. ; it long remained standing with a clock, but 
▼aniflhcd in the building of the Palano Pio. 



12 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

had appeared to do homage, graciously accorded 
them an asylum in Rome. And while the rabbi 
offered the code of Moses for the ratification of the 
Vicar of Christ, the Jews read their fate in the sinister 
or benevolent looks of the new pontiff. The pope 
merely bestowed a passing glance upon the roll, and 
handed it backward to the rabbi, saying with grave 
condescension, "We acknowledge the law, but we 
condemn the principles of Judaism ; for the law has 
already been fulfilled through Christ, whom the 
blinded people of Judah still expect as their 
Messias."^ The Jews retired amid cries of deri- 
sion from the Roman crowd, and the procession ad- 
vanced through the Field of Mars, while here and 
there the clergy greeted the pope with incense and 
the chaunt of hymns, and the people sang songs with 
a joviality worthy of the Carnival.^ In order to 
divert the pressure of the crowd and perhaps also in 
remembrance of ancient consular usages, the cham- 
berlains scattered money at five appointed places.^ 
Advancing across the forums and through the 

^ Ordo XIV, See also the verses of the same Cardinal Ste&neschi 
(Murat., iil 652) : — 

—Judaa canetts, qua eacula corde est 
Occurrit vasana Duci^ Parume sub ipso, , . . 
Ignotus Judaa Deus^ tibi cognitus olim ; 
Qui quondam populusy nunc hostis. 
The Jews on this occasion also contributed i lb. of pepper and 2 lbs. 
of cinnamon to the papal kitchen. Ordo XII, 

' In the life of Gregory IX. : et puerilis lingua garrulitas procacia 
fescennia cantabat. According to ancient Roman custom some of these 
songs must assuredly have been satiricaL 

' In front of S. Peter's ; at the tower Stephani Petri; at the PalO' 
Hum Centii Musca in Punga; beside S. Marco, and beside S. Adriano. 



Ch. I.] CEREMONIAL OF PAPAL CORONATION. 1 3 

triumphal arches of Septimius Severus and Titus, 
the procession skirted the Colosseum, passed by S. 
Clemente, and reached the piazza of the Lateran.^ 
Here the clergy of the Lateran received the pope 
with solemn song. They escorted him to the Portico, 
where he took his seat on an ancient marble chair, 
the sella stercoraria. This symbolic ceremony, of 
the deepest abasement of the supreme Head of 
Christendom on a seat bearing such a name, is per- 
haps the most curious custom of the Middle Ages, a 
custom which we can only now contemplate with a 
smile. Cardinals, however, hastened to raise the 
Holy Father from the inappropriate seat, with the 
comforting words of Scripture, " He taketh up the 
simple out of the dust, and lifteth the poor out of the 
mire." * The pope standing erect took three hand- 
fuls of gold, silver, and copper from the lap of one of 
his chamberlains and threw them among the people, 
saying, " Gold and silver are not mine, but what I 
have that I give thee."* He offered up prayer in 
the Lateran, and, seated on a throne behind the 
altar, received the homage of the chapter of the 

^ The procession at that time left S. Clemente on the right ; 
Ste&neschi says : — 

Romulei qua Templajacmt^ celsusque Colossus, 
Quoquepius colitur Clemens , qui dexter eunti est, 

' Ducitur a cardinaiib, ad sedem lapideamy qua sedes dicitur Stereo^ 
raria — Ordo XII, The first mention of the Stercoraria, Leo X. 
was the last to seat himself on this porph3nry chair. Pius VI. had it 
polished and placed in the Vatican Museum. Another seat of the 
same kind may be seen there. 

' Argentum et aurum non est mihi ; quod autem hadeo, hoc tiln do. 
Ordo XIV, The beautiful saying was frequently enough turned to 
irony. 



14 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

basilica ; he entered the palace, of which, either 
seated or on foot, he took possession, and threw him- 
self down in a prostrate attitude on an ancient 
porphyry seat in front of the chapel of S. Sylvester. 
The prior of the Lateran thereupon gave him the 
pastoral staff, with the keys of the church as well as 
of the palace, symbols the one of his governing 
power, the other of his power to bind and to loose. 
He took his seat on a second porph5ny chair, re- 
stored the symbols to the prior, and was clad with 
a girdle of red silk, from which hung a purple purse 
containing musk and twelve seals of precious stone, 
emblems of the apostolic power and the Christian 
virtues.^ All the officials of the palace were then 
admitted to kiss the papal foot. The new pope 
threw silver denarii three times among the people, 
saying, " He scattered and gave it to the poor, his 
justice endures for ever and ever." He prayed 
before the relics in the Sancta Sanctorum^ the private 
chapel of the popes, and rested again on a throne in 
S. Sylvester, while the ranks of the cardinals and 
prelates knelt in front of him proffering the mitre in 
which he placed the customary donative or presby- 
terium.* 

^ In the Vita PaschaJis II, it is still said : baltheo succtngitur^ cum 
septem ex eo pendenitb, clavib,^ septemq, sigillis. The keys are now 
one gold and one silver key ; these are handed to the pope in a bowl. 

* All the scholae of the pope, churches, convents, judges, scribes, 
prefect, senators received a present. The triumphal arches all cost 
thirty-five pounds. The Jews received twenty sofidi, which was more 
than was given to the other scholae ; at Advent and Easter, when half 
the senators dined with the pope^ each received a malechino (the judges 
and advocates probably the same) ; at every festival on which the 
pope appeared wearing his crown, they received a cask of wine, a 



Ch. I.] CEREMONIAL OF PAPAL CORONATION. !$ 

The Senate then tendered the oath of homage in 
the Lateran, which was followed by a banquet in the 
dining hall. The pope sat alone at a table covered 
with costly vessels, while the prelates and nobles were 
accommodated at other tables, and the senators and 
the prefects took their places beside the judges. The 
greatest nobles waited on the pope. Kings, if 
present, carried the first dishes, and modestly took 
their place at the table with the cardinals. 

Such are the main features of the great papal 
coronation. They survived in their mediaeval form 
until the time of Leo X., when the ancient symbolical 
customs fell into disuse and the ceremony was trans- 
formed into one more consistent with the age, that of 
the possessus or pompous function of taking posses- 
sion of the Lateran. 



2. Innocent III. transforms the Prefect of the 
City into a Papal Official — Circumstances of 
THE City Prefecture — The Prefects of the 
House of Vico — Circumstances of the Senate 
— ScoTTUS Paparone, Senator — Innocent III. 

ACQUIRES the RiGHT OF ELECTING THE SENATE — 

Formula of Oath taken by the Senators — The 
City of Rome retains its Autonomy — First 
Roman PodestAs in the Cities outside Rome. 

From his throne Innocent III. cast a glance over 
the dominions he governed, and beheld nothing but 

cask of claret, and a dinner was laid of forty covers. The city prefect 
received a dinner of fifteen covers, a cask of wine, and a cask of claret 
OrdoXIl. 



l6 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ruins ; he surveyed the task on which he was about 
to enter, and saw the world reduced to conditions 
such as invited the rule of the strong man. The 
temporal power of S. Peter had been completely de- 
stroyed under Innocent's weak predecessor. The 
more distant provinces of the ancient State of the 
Church had fallen into the possession of Grerman 
counts, generals of Henry VI., to whom they had 
been given in reward ; the districts in the neighbour- 
hood of Rome, into the power of the nobility or of the 
Senate.^ Innocent's first task must consequently be 
to restore the dominion of the Papacy in its immediate 
surroundings. That he succeeded in this and in still 
greater undertakings with unexpected rapidity, was 
due to the consternation into which the imperial party 
had been thrown by the death of Henry VI. and the 
sudden state of orphanage in which the empire was 
left. Beside the coffin of its oppressor the Papacy 
suddenly rose from the depths of impotence to be- 
come the national power in Italy. 

The republic on the Capitol'having lost its support, 
Innocent succeeded in restoring papal authority in 
the city by a first audacious stroke. Two magistrates 
still remained in the way of the rule of the sacred 
chair ; the prefect as representative of the rights of 
the Roman empire and the senator as representa- 

innocent tive of the rights of the Roman people. Henry VI. 

the'prefec- had again reduced the prefecture of the city to an im- 

dty ^* penal oflfice, and Peter, the City Prefect, to his vassal. 

feet to Finding himself deprived of protection, the Prefect 

1198. 1 Henry VI. reduced the State of the Church to the same bound- 

aries of the Roman duchy, to which it is still (1864) limited. 



Ch. I.] THE CITY PREFECT. 17 

offered, as the price of his recognition, to yield sub- 
jection to the Pope. On February 22, 1198, Peter 
tendered the oath of vassalage to Innocent III. and 
received the purple mantle of the prefect as a symbol 
of investiture from his hands.^ The functions of his 
office are but vaguely indicated in the formula of 
oath which has been preserved. The prefect did 
homage to the Church as a papal vassal, who is 
merely entrusted with the temporary management of 
an estate ; he swears to maintain the rights of the 
Church, to provide for the safety of the streets, to 
exercise justice, to preserve the fortresses for the 
pope, to refrain from arbitrarily building new ones ; 
he promises not to divert to himself the allegiance 
of any vassals in the patrimony of the Church, to 
renounce his administration whenever the pope may 
command. The territory subject to the prefect is 
not, however, specified.^ In ancient Rome this terri- 
tory had extended to the hundredth milestone, and 
thence the Romans in the Middle Ages traced their 
right to govern the entire district of the city by 
means of communal judges. Even in the fifteenth 
century Martin V. granted a document to a 
secretary of the city, in which utterance is given to 

^ Ad ligiam fidelitatem recepit — deprafectura eum publice investvoit^ 
qui usque ad id tempus juramentofidelitatis Imperatorif'ueratobligatus, 
Gestay c. 8, and £p. i. 23. 

* Ego Petrus Urbis prof, juro, quod terrain^ quam mihi D, Papa 
procurandam commisit^ fideliter procurabo ad hon, etproftctum EccL 
Epistolar, Innoc, /., 577. According to the Reg, Innoc, III,^ i. ep. 
23, this homage was divided into two acts : investiture with the office 
by the mantle ; Hgium homagium and investiture with the cup ; the 
latter act I take to be the enfeoffment with the territory of the 
prefecture. 

VOL. V. B 



1 8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the following principle: "After the Imperium had 
been handed over to a prince, the city of Rome was 
transformed into a prefecture; she has always retained 
her independent authority as such, and since this 
authority reaches to the hundredth milestone, it 
follows that the city territory extends the same 
distance and that the entire district comprised within 
these limits is subject to the jurisdiction of Rome ; 
the city there possesses the rights of the republic, 
the merum and mixtum imperium^ the royalties, 
rivers, roads, harbours, customs, coinage, and the 
like."^ The Roman municipality claimed the 
administration of the entire district from Radicofani 
to Ceprano, from the Sabine Mountains to the sea, 
but it does not appear whether the prefect exercised 
jurisdiction within this territory or not. The power 
of the once dreaded criminal judge had been destroyed 
by the democracy on the Capitol ; the senator had 
thrust the prefect from his office, the head of the 
municipality had supplanted the imperial provost.^ 
The nature of this office at the beginning of the 
thirteenth century and after the extinction of all 
imperial fiscal rights is utterly obscure. He still 
held a police tribunal in the city as also outside it. 
But his influence resided no longer in his office, but 

^ Nicholas Signorili {Mscr. Vatican^ 3536). The author says that 
he found the document quoted above in principio Censuarii antiqui 
dicte urbis jam in ncvitatibus Romanis amissi, 

* How great were his privileges even in sac, xii. is shown by the 
custom, that in the Leonine city the property of all such as died without 
children fell to the City Prefect. Calixtus abolished this custom by a 
XmVLdai, Alba VI. Id, Julii A. 1122 ; Moretto, Ritus dandi Presby- 
terium^ Rome, 1 741, App., iii. 332. 



Ch. I.] THE CITY PREFECT. I9 

in his landed possessions. The city prefect had, for 
instance, become ruler of large estates in Tuscany, 
where he had acquired the adherence of many 
captains of Matilda's party. As early as the end of 
the twelfth century a territory near Viterbo appears 
as the scene of his ambitious exertions, and in the 
thirteenth the prefecture is seen to have become 
hereditary in the ruliner family of Vico, a place which The torii- 

, ,. ,, , .* - tory of the 

has now disappeared, but whose name is borne by a Tuscan 
little lake. It must have long been endowed with p*^"^^ 
the revenues of Tuscan estates as a formal fief of 
the prefecture ; the noble house of Vico then, how- 
ever, transformed this official fief, as well as the 
prefecture itself, into a hereditary possession; a 
possession which had been greatly extended by 
purchase and robbery. Innocent III. in vain sought 
to obstruct this hereditary transmission, by giving a 
merely temporary tenure to the Prefect Peter, a 
member of the family.^ 

In the year 1198 expired the last remains of the 
imperial power in Rome, which had been represented 
under the Carolingians by the Missus, later by the 
prefect The office had so completely fallen into 
abeyance that the Pope was at a loss how to deal 
with the antiquated figure of the prefect.^ Innocent 

^ Thus alone can be explained the fiict that the prefecture continued 
in the house of Vico. That the Tuscan estate of the Prefect was of 
ancient date, we have already seen in sac, xii. As late as 1453, 
Calixtus III. rendered a number of cities— only in Tuscany, however — 
subject to the jurisdiction of the prefect (Contelori, dei Prefetio^ 
n. 45). 

^ Prorfectusque urbis^ magnum sine viribus nomen, says the Vita 
Bonif, VI IL (Murat., iii. 648); evidently taken from Boethius (iii. 



20 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. rx. 

III. in 1 199 had already conceded him, as papal 
Missus, the authority of a justice of the peace in 
the cities of Tuscany and Umbria, also in Spoleto ; ^ 
and it was in these territories that the lords of Vico 
later rose to increased power. For the main point 
was, that the prefect of the city henceforward attained 
a prominent dynastic position as Capitaneus in 
Tuscany. He retained his judiciary authority in 
Rome and the civic territory, and we may regard him 
as governor of the city. He continued to appoint 
judges and notaries ; * he possessed police authority ; 
he provided for the security of the streets, and super- 
vised the prices of grain and the market. The Pope, 
who in him respected the oldest magistracy of Rome, 
often attempted by his means to cast the senator 
into the shade. He gave him a representative 
dignity full of pomp and splendour, the Prcefecttis 
Urbts being always found in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of the Pope in all coronation processions. 
On the fourth Sunday in Lent he was regularly 
invested with the golden rose, which he was then 
accustomed, mounted on horseback, to wear with 
solemn pomp through the streets.* 

prosa 4) : prafectura magna olim potesias^ nunc inane nomen est, Leo 
(Geseh. Ital.^ ii. 206) fells into a curious error when he asserts that 
after the time of Innocent III. the prefect took the position and title 
of a senator. 

^ Ep. ii. 467. The Pope calls him diLfil. Petrum Prof, urbts, 
virum nob, et potentem. 

* In sac, xiii. we continually find the formula : Ego N, auct, Alme 
Urbis Prcrfecti Notarius^ or Ego N, Dei gratia Sacra Rom. Pra- 
fectura Judex et Scrinarius, 

* The seal of the Prefect is given by Pietro Sancta, Tessera 
Gentilicia^ Rome, 1638 ; in Vettori, ii Fiorino d*Oro. The Prefect 



Cft. I.] THE SENATE. 21 

With equal good fortune Innocent III. on the same 
day acquired supremacy over the Roman muni- 
cipality. The republic on the Capitol, which had 
again become aristocratic, still lacked the founda- 
tions of an organisation resting on the strength of 
the people. Its executive power wavered between innocent 
an oligarchic and a monarchic form, between too the Rom^ 
many rulers and a single podesti. Thus fifty-six ^^^^ ^^ 
senators had been elected in 1197, but at the time of himself, 
Innocent III.'s consecration there was but one ''^' 
senator.* The municipal head of Rome incessantly 
disputed the pretensions of Saint Peter ; Benedict 
Carushomo and his successors had made themselves 
independent of the sacred chair, had appointed 
rectors in the Roman country towns, and had even 
sent communal judges into the Sabina and Maritima; 
for the Romans asserted that these provinces were 
by right demesnes of the city.* The municipality 
demanded the jurisdiction of the city district, under 
which it understood all the territory of the former 

John is seated on a chair decorated with the heads of dogs, holding a 
sword and a rose. The inner legend is : Attinui Papa Munus 
Auream Rosam, Round the edge are the words : Joannes Dei Gr, 
Alma Urbis Prof. Casare Absente Pontificis Ductor, It belongs to 
about the year 1340. The arms of the prefect are : on a purple field 
a white eagle, occasionally holding the rose in its claws; Round the 
eagle are six loaves, denoting the daily tribute of the city bakeries. 
The prefect also daily received a measure of wine from the publicans, 
and a sheep's head from the butchers. Rome possesses no monument 
of a prefect. Viterbo, however, preserves the tomb of Peter de Vico, 
who died in 1268. Illustrations in Bussi. 

^ At the coronation procession : comitantibus Prafscto et SencUore, 
GestOf c. 8. 

' A tempore BenedUti Carissimi Senatum Urbis perdiderat^ et 
idem B, — suitraxerat iUi Maritimam et Sabiniani, Gesta^ c 8. 



22 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Roman duchy. As other Italian cities had annexed 
the ancient counties, so Rome determined to become 
the ruler of her own duchy. At the time that 
Innocent III. ascended the throne Scottus Paparone, 
a noble Roman of ancient family, probably related to 
k»ttus the Pope on his mother's side, was Senator.^ Inno- 
5^^"® cent persuaded him to abdicate ; by means of bribes 
'98. he induced the populace to renounce the important 
right of freely electing a Senate, which the Pope 
declared to be a papal privilege. He now appointed 
an elector (Medianus), who appointed the new 
Senator ; whereupon the justitiarii, hitherto appointed 
by the Capitol, were replaced throughout the civic 
territory by papal judges.* The Senate conse- 
quently fell into the power of the Pope in 11 98. 

^ I have obtained the information concerning this Senator from a 
document of January 27, 1 198, from S. Maria in Trastevere : a I, D. 
Innoc. Ill, PP. Ind. L ; in curia senatoris ante EccL b, M. in Campi- 
tolio, Et hoc factum est temp, Dni Scotti Paparonis Urbis R. 
Senatoris {Mscr. Vat,, S051, f. 33). A stone flag on the floor of the 
church of S. Maria Maggiore, a modem copy of the ancient one, 
displays the outlines of two horsemen: SCOTVS PAPARONE 
JOHS PAPARONE FILI EI. Valentmi, Basil. Liberiana, p. 3, 
wrongly places these Romans in the time of Eugenius III. That both 
were dead by 1201, is proved by an inscription in S. Pantaleo ai 
Monti : A.D, MCCI. Ind, V. M. Oct. D. XX. . . . Ego Aldruda 
Infelix Christi FamulaUxorQuond. SCOTTI PAPARONIS Roman. 
Consulis — Ob — Depositionem Animar. Prad. Viri Et Filii Mei /ohis 
Paparonis EccL Istam , . . Reintegrari Feci. On April 20, 1204, 
PhU. and Barthol. Filii qd. Lombardi, in the presence of their sister 
Aldruda^ uxore qd. Scotii Paparonis, renounced to iihi^ procurator and 
consobrinus of the Pope, Octavianus, the third part of the castrum 
Nimpharum^ which Oddo Frajapane had formerly sold to Scottus. 
Studj e Doc. a 1886, Doc. per la stor. eccl. e cwile di Roma, n. xxziii. 

* Et exclusis Justitiariis Senatoris, qui ei fidelit. Juraverat, suos 
/ustitiarios ordi$uani ; electoque per Medianum suum alio Senatore, 



Ch. I.] THE SENATE. 2$ 

We still possess the formula of oath tendered by 
the Senator : " I, Senator of the city, will henceforth ^^^^ 
in the future be faithful to thee, my Lord Pope taken by 
Innocent. Neither by word or deed will I con- senator, 
tribute to thy loss of life or limb, or be privy to thy 
imprisonment. That which thou personally en- 
trustest to me, either by letter or messenger, will I 
confide to no one to thy hurt. Any injury medi- 
tated towards thee, of which I have any knowledge, 
I will prevent. Should that not be possible I will 
warn thee by letter and trustworthy messengers. 
According to my power and knowledge will I aid 
thee to uphold the Roman Papacy and the regalia 
of S. Peter, which thou ownest, or to recover that 
which thou dost not own, and I will defend that 
which thou hast regained against all the world : S. 
Peter's, the city of Rome, the Leonina, Trastevere, 
the island, the fortress of Crescentius, S. Maria Ro- 
tunda, the Senate, the coinage, the honours and dig- 
nities of the city, the harbour of Ostia, the domain 
of Tusculum, and above all both the privileges within 
and without the city. To the cardinals, to their 
court and to thine, will I guarantee perfect security 
when they go to church, while they remain there, 
and on their return. I swear faithfully to observe 
all I have promised, so help me God and these holy 

pairimonium recuperavit nuper amissum, Gesta^ c. 8. The name of 
the new Senator is unknown. On October 6, 1202, we find as senators 
Jacobus Odd. Franciscus et Johes Ovicionis Dei gr, alme urbis HI, 
senatcres: Instrument concerning Centrum Btucegie . . . <ictum a. 
LV//A renovaiionis Senaius Ind. V, et m. Octub, die VI, ^ datum per 
man, Cencii Cancell, S, P, R, (Coppi, Dissert, delta Pont, Accad. 
Rom., t. XV. 231). 



24 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

gospels."^ From this formula it is evident that even 
at this time the city of Rome {urbs romana\ which 
consisted of twelve r^ons, was separated not only 
from the papal Leonina but also from Trastevere 
and the island. The Trasteverines were regarded 
entirely as foreigners, since no inhabitant of the 
quarter could be elected a Roman Senator.' 

It were a mistake to believe that the pope hence- 
forward acquired a direct and royal power over Rome. 
Monarchical rule, in the sense of present times, was 
so entirely foreign to the Middle Ages, that it never 
occurred to Innocent III. to doubt the independence 
PoKticai of the Roman municipality. All popes of this 
^Sie^dty period recognised the city of Rome not only as a 
of Rome civic but also as a political and autonomous power. 
They sought to influence this power; they assured 
its supremacy in principle ; they frequently appointed 
or ratified the appointment of the senators, but they 
made no disposition either over the will nor over 
the power of the people. Their dominion was solely 
a title of authority, nothing more. For the Romans 
continued to deliberate on the Capitol in free parlia- 
ment, had their own finances, their own army, and 
continued to decide on war and peace without 
questioning the pope. They made war on cities, 
even on those in the State of the Church, or 
concluded political treaties with them. For these 

^ S, Petrum^ urhem romanam^ civitaiem leoninam^ transtyberim^ 
insulatn. In the Florentine Codex of Cencius the formula contains 
the name of Innocent : in the Ordo Rom, XII, of the same Cencius 
that of Urban, where that of Clement III. would be better. 

' This decision of the Roman statutes was first abolished by Clement 
V. in 1307. Theiner, Cod, Dom, Temp,, n. 589. 



Ch. I.] INDEPENDENT ATTITUDE OF THE CITY. 2$ 

cities also were for the most part free communes 
while other places in the Roman district paid, 
according to treaty, feudal taxes to the CapitoHne 
treasury and received their podest^ from the 
Senator,^ The vigorous character of the Roman 
nobility at this period and the respect which the 
commune enjoyed are shown by the fact that, in the 
first half of the thirteenth century, we find so many 
Romans podestis of foreign cities. These cities, 
standing for the most part in defensive alliance with 
Rome, frequently besought the Romans in solemn 
embassy to give them a noble Roman as regent. 
The series of such podest^, who signed themselves 
in all acts as Consules Romanorum^ is opened as 
early as the year 1191 by Stephen CarzuUus, and in 
1199 by John Capocci, both ^^ Perugia; also in 1199 
at Orvieto by Peter Parentius as Podesti of Orvieto, 
where he was slain by the heretics of the Ghibelline 
party and is still honoured by an altar in the beauti- 
ful cathedral.* 

^ Cod, Z). 8, 17 of the Bibl, Angelica in Rome contains the formula 
of appointment of a podesti in a district subject to the Senate as late 
as the sac, xiv. 

' The name Parentius appears in Rome for the first time among the 
senators in 1 148. Concerning P. Parentius, Raynald, ad A, 1 199, n. 
22; Acta Sanctor, ad 21 Maji^ p. 86 ; htoria antica del Martirio di 
S. Pietro di Parensio, by Anton Stef. Cartari, Orvieto, 1662. Peter 
Lombard, Manichaorum Doctor^ who had come firom Viterbo, 
preached in Orvieto (p. 7). See also Gualterio, Cronaca inedita degli 
awenimenH cPOrvieto, Torino, 1846, i. 212. Immediately after the 
death of Parentius we again find a Parenzo as Podest^ of Orvieto : 
L, Fumi, Cod, Dipl, d, citth, (TOrvieto (1884), p. 49 f. 



26 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



3. Decay of the Feudal Principalities of Henry VI. 
AFTER HIS Death — Philip of Swabia, Duke of 
Tuscany — Markwald, Duke of Ravenna — Con- 
rad, Duke of Spoleto — The Tuscan Confedera- 
tion — Restoration of the Patrimonies of the 
Church — The Popular Party rises in Rome — 
John Capocci and John Pierleone Rainerii — 
War concerning Vitorchiano between Rome 

AND VlTERBO — PaNDULF OF THE SUBURRA, SENATOR 
— VlTERBO SUBMITS TO THE CaPITOL. 

Rome, the vassals in Campania, the Maritima, the 
Sabina, and Tuscany had recognised Innocent III. 
as territorial ruler in February ; the Pope was there- 
fore again sovereign within the boundaries of the 
Roman duchy. It now devolved upon him to regain 
all other provinces, which under the Carolingians had 
previously formed the State of the Church. In con- 
sequence of the succession of Henry VI. to the 
throne of Sicily, Italy had fallen into a retrograde 
movement. The treaties of Venice and Constance 
remained a thorn in the side of the Hohenstaufen 
princes, who would recognise neither the freedom 
acquired by the cities, nor the Dominium Temporaie 
FaU of the inherited by the Pope. Henry VI. had revived the 
^^^^. principle of empire and had made Sicily the basis 



^ o^ ^ of his monarchical endeavours. By the re-establish- 
ment of German feudalism and the foundation of 
German principalities from sea to sea, he had effected 
a breach in the Italian nationality which had grown up 
in the city communes under the protection of Alex- 
ander III. These principalities were carved partly 



Ch. I.] FALL OF THE FEUDAL PRINCIPALITIES. 27 

out of Matilda's estates, partly out of the patrimonies 
of the State of the Church, which Henry wished to 
annihilate as the most stubborn hindrance to imperial 
rule. He made his younger brother Philip Duke of 
Tuscany ; his talented Seneschal Markwald, Margrave 
of Ancona and Duke of Ravenna, had previously 
been invested with the Exarchate ; ^ while Conrad of 
Uerslingen had been installed yet earlier as Duke of 
Spoleto. Thus Italy, divided by Swabian imperial 
fiefs, was held in bounds and menaced with the ruin 
of her civic democracies. But the carefully planned 
structure of Henry VI. fell to pieces with his death, 
and we can scarcely find a more striking instance 
of the ephemeral nature of all foreign rule, than the 
rapid overthrow of these imperial foundations. They 
sank less by the force of arms than by the power of 
the national instinct, which had been fostered by the 
beginnings of Lombard independence. The inter- 
regnum and the quarrel for the German throne over- 
threw the Hohenstaufen party in Italy, and made it 
easy for the cities to obtain their independence from 
the empire. The astute Innocent constituted himself 
henceforward the liberator of Italy from the rule of 
the Germans. When, as early as 1 198, he explained 
that this country, the seat of the two powers, was by 
divine dispensation the head of the world, his words 
there found an echo, although not in the sense of 
the universal papal dominion of which Italy was the 
foundation.^ 

^ The investiture had taken place at the imperial diet at Bari on 
April 2, 1195* Markwald was also Count of the Abruzzi (comes 
ApruciCj, P. Prinz, MarkwuUdvon AnweiUr^ Emden, 1875, p. 37. 

* Utraque vero potestas skfe primaius sedem in Italia meruit obtinere^ 



28 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The grave of Henry VI. was the breach through 
which Innocent, more fortunate than Gregory VII., 
entered the empire. Of this empire he created 
himself the arbiter, while he led the Guelf portion of 
the Italian people to an assault on the citadels which 
Henry had erected. The result of the foreign domi- 
nation of the emperors was severe oppression and a 
glowing hatred in many a refractory city. The first to 
experience these results was Philip, Duke of Swabia, 
who came to Italy at the command of Henry VI. 
in order to take Henry's son Frederick, the heir to 
Sicily and already elected King of the Romans, from 
Foligno to be crowned in Germany. Philip was met 
Oct. 1197. by the tidings of the Emperor's death at Monte 
Fiascone: he returned in dismay, and only with 
difficulty escaped from the furious insurrection of 
the Italians. Innocent unfurled the banner of inde- 
pendence in Tuscany, the Romagna, and the Marches ; 
and who but the Pope could represent the Italian 
nation at this time ? It was not, however, patriotism 
that inspired him, but the knowledge that the tem- 
porary weakening of the imperial power would afford 
the Papacy the most favourable opportunity for 
founding a State of the Church. Innocent inaugu- 
rated his reign with a revolution which he himself 
had . evoked and the object of which was the sup- 
pression of the historic rights of the empire in Italy. 
It was the Church itself which by its attacks chal- 
lenged the imperial power. 

qua dispositume divina super universas premncias obtinuit principatum, 
Et ideo — specialiter — Itcdia pcUema nos cowoenit solicitudine providere. 
To the rectors of the Tuscan league, October 30, 1 198. I. £p. 401. 



CH. I.] FALL OF THE FEUDAL PRINCIPALITIES. 29 

Out of hatred to the foreigner many cities threw 
themselves into the arms of the Papacy ; others were 
forced in spite of themselves to follow a great move- 
ment, for it was necessary that the German feudal 
lords should be everywhere expelled. Of these loyal 
adherents of Henry, Markwald, a courageous and 
crafty soldier, was the most powerful. Summoned 
by Innocent to render subjection to the Church, he 
first negotiated with subtlety, then bravely defended 
himself against the revolted cities and the papal 
troops, until obliged to surrender his fair fief of 
Ravenna. In this war between the Church and the 
Hohenstaufen empire, which was now beginning and 
which was to prove decisive, the Guelf spirit of a part 
of Italy was, as a matter of course, the ally of the 
Pope. 

Innocent, it is true, was not able to make Ravenna 
and the other cities of the exarchate his own ; the 
archbishop opposed his demands. On the other 
hand, he conquered the March of Spoleto without any 
difficulty. Conrad of UersHngen, Duke and Count Duke 
of Assisi, undoubtedly offered tribute, military service, spoi^ °^ 
and the surrender of all fortresses ; the Pope, how- renders 

, .1 f , . 1/- T «. . subjection 

ever, determined to show himself an Italian patnot, to the 
and would not accept his offers.^ It was necessary ^^' 
that the Duke should render unconditional submission 
in Narni, should release his vassals from the oath of 
fidelity, and should even leave Italy. Thus the long 
series of German Dukes of Spoleto, headed by the 
Lombard Faroald in the year 569, ended with Con- 

^ In favorem Ubtrtatis dtclincats^ non acceptavit oblata, Gesta, 
c a 



30 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

rad in Swabia.^ In the summer of 1 198, with feel- 
ings of proud satisfaction, Innocent traversed these 
districts, now emancipated from foreign rule, and 
received the homage of Spoleto, Assisi, Rieti, Foligno, 
Norcia, Gubbio, Todi, Citt^ di Castello, and other 
places, over which he placed the Cardinal of S. 
Peragia Maria in Aquiro as rector. Even Perugia, the 
homage to already powerful capital of Umbria, did homage for 
the Pope, ^jjg gj.g|. ^jjjjg ^Q ^jjg Pope ; he confirmed the com- 
mune in its civic jurisdiction and the liberty of elect- 
ing its consuls, privileges which Henry VI. had 
already bestowed upon it.^ He sought in general to 
gain the cities by promises of the communal franchise, 
which he astutely gave them, while he avoided con- 
ceding too much.' 

Thus aided by unparalleled good fortune Innocent 
appears as leader of the Italian independence, which 
covered that of the States of the Church. If ever 
the Guelf idea of a confederation of Italy under the 
leadership of the Pope could have been attained, no 
one so nearly realised it as he. The splendid triumphs 
of his early years show the irresistible power which 

* Fatteschi, Duchi di Spoleto, Undoubtedly Dukes of Spoleto were 
later incidentally appointed by Otto IV. and Frederick II. 

* Bull issued in Todi, October 2, 1 198, Privilege Heinr. VI. Gubbio, 
August 7, 1 186 (Bohmer, Acta Imp, selecta, i68). Innocent III. was 
the first pope who attained nominal supremacy at least over Perugia. 
Annibale Mariotti, Mem, di Perugia (1^06^ i. 62). 

' He granted even Radicofani the liberty of consular election, 
although under the ratification of the papal castellan. Ep. viii. n. 
211. In 1201 he confirmed statutes and jurisdiction to Fano, Jesi, 
and Pesaro. Theiner, Cod, DipL, i. 43. On the other hand, he for- 
bade the election of foreign podestiks without his sanction ; thus in 
Sutri, Ep. ix. n. 201. 



Ch. I.] TUSCAN CONFEDERATION. 3 1 

the Church acquired whenever, from political motives, 
she allied herself with popular tendencies.^ 

Tuscany also, the fief of Philip of Swabia, sought 
to sever itself from the empire, and the Pope formed Tuscany 
hopes of subjugating this noble province to the Church. ?ffp^ 
Florence, Siena, Lucca, Volterra, Arezzo, Prato, 
and some other cities had already (on November ii, 
1 197) formed a Tuscan confederation after the model 
of the Lombard league and with the co-operation of 
the legate of Celestine III. In their articles they had 
taken upon themselves the obligation of defending 
the Church and its property, and had promised 
never to recognise emperor, duke, or vicar in their 
territories without the pope's consent Innocent 
sought to rule this alliance, which Pisa, in gratitude 
to the Hohenstaufens, refused to join. In October 
1 198, after long negotiations, he renewed the Tuscan 
treaty on the basis of 1197 ; nevertheless he in no 
wise succeeded in obtaining possession of the estates 
of the Countess Matilda which had been taken by 
these cities. The communes accorded no political 
rights to the Church in the ancient duchy of Tuscany. 
Their resistance to Innocent's desires preserved the 
republics of Florence, Lucca, and Siena from the loss 
of their independence.^ On the other hand, all the 
places in the Tuscan patrimony which had formerly 
belonged to Matilda, but had been wrested from the 

* The Guelf idea of a Confederation of Italy reappeared for the last 
time in history in the peace of Villafranca in 1859. 

* Act of Confederation of November 11, 11 97 {Archives ofSiena^ n. 
59}, frequenUy printed. Innocent allowed the cities of Tuscany and of 
the March of Spoleto to join the league. Gesta^ c 11. 



32 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

' Church by Henry VI. or Philip, again yielded homs^e. 

rimony Innocent reorganised this patrimony with the other 

oage provinces belonging to the Church, placed rectors 

**® within it, appointed new castellans, and strengthened 

the fortresses. A line of threatening strongholds, 

which were to be regarded as the property of the 

patrimony of the Church, extending from the 

Marches to Latium, were rebuilt or restored in order 

to hold these lands in check.^ 

The first appearance of the Pope, therefore, was 
that of a man bom to rule. For scarcely had he 
filled the papal throne for two years when he was 
already the restorer of the State of the Church 
within the limits of Pipin's donation, and at the 
same time arbiter of the empire (the throne of 
which was the object of fierce rivalry between the 
Swabian Philip and the Guelf Otto), feudal lord of 
Apulia and Sicily, and also the defender of powerfiil 
city confederations — the true protector of Italy. 
Nevertheless the Pope never attained to the peaceful 
enjoyment of his temporal power. His glorious reign 
showed, on the contrary, the laborious and only out- 
wardly victorious struggle of a great will against 
the spirit of the age, whose depths he did not rule, 

* Gestat c. 14, The bull of Gregory IX., of January 22, 1235, g>ves 
the list of these castellanies (pcUrinumialta), In Campania : Fumone, 
Palliano, Serrone, Lariano. In the Maritima : Aqua Putrida, Ostia, 
Aritia, Nympha, Juliano, Cora, Cistema, Terracina. In Tuscany : 
Monte Flascone, Orcla, Montalto, RadicofEuii, Priseno, Aquapendente, 
Bolsena. In the duchy of Spoleto: Cesi and Gualdo. In the 
bishopric of Spoleto : Rocca Sacrati, Brusium, Corinum, Rocca de 
Saxo. In the bishopric of Nami : Nami, Castrum Sci. Gemini, Stron- 
cone, Miranda, Otricoli. In the Sabina : Rocca Antiqua, et totam 
Sabiniam cum omnib, castris it mllis. Cod, Vat, Reg.^ 395, fol. 104. 



Cn. u] THE CITY RESISTS THE POPE. 33 

and against the hostile opposition of the world, which 
he failed to reconcile. It was even by him that this 
opposition was aggravated into a bitter contradic- 
tion, which soon after broke forth into terrible wars. 
The city of Rome likewise showed that within her 
tumultuous populace lay a force, which, although the 
popes occasionally became her rulers, they neverthe- 
less could not control. It even drove Innocent into 
exile. The democrats, the men of the Constitution The dty 
of 1 1 88, the companions of Benedict Carushomo, ^era™** 
could not brook the fact that the Pope usurped the J^J^J^**** 
mastery of the Senate, and had removed the urban Pope, 
territory from the jurisdiction of the Capitol. Two 
demagogues belonging to the foremost Roman houses 
were the leaders of the party, John Capocci and 
John Pierleone Rainerii, both of whom had succeeded 
the energetic Benedict in the Senate a short time 
before Innocent's ordination. Capocci, who dwelt 
in a towered palace standing in the Suburra, was a 
bold and eloquent man, exerting great influence at 
the time in Rome. Perugia showed the respect in 
which she held him by twice electing him podestii ; he 
was connected by marriage with the leading families 
in the city, and was the head of a house which 
throughout the thirteenth century enjoyed high 
esteem not only in the Church but also in the republic.^ 
The two ex-senators excited the ire of the commune 
by representing that the Pope had robbed the city 

* John Capoccius had three sons, Peter, Cardinal of S. Georgio in 
Velabro (died May 20, 1259), Archius, and James ; his daughter Johan- 
nella was married to Pandulf Sabelli of Ariccia. History of the 
Family of Capocci^ by Joh. Vine. Capoccius, Mscr. Vatican^ n. 7934. 
VOL. V. C 



34 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

of her rule and had " plucked her as the hawk plucks 
the hen."^ The discontent of the Romans sought an 
opportunity for display, and Viterbo, like TivoH or 
Tusculum in former days, afforded the desired op- 
portunity. The Pope, however, astutely averted the 
danger by making the cause of the Romans his own. 
Viterbo, a prosperous commercial town and a free 
commune under papal supremacy, had long been at 
war with Rome, whose jurisdiction she refused to 
acknowledge.* In 1199 she laid siege to Vitor- 
clanum, and the fortress consequently placed itself 
The under Roman protection. Viterbo, summoned to 

m2^^ retreat, refused, and the Roman Parliament con- 
on Viterbo sequently declared war.* The Viterbese, who had 
been sufficiently far-sighted to join the Tuscan 
league, demanded aid against Rome from the rectors 
of the league, and aid was immediately granted. The 
Tuscan league, utterly regardless of the treaty which 
it had sworn to with the Church, took part in the 
war which the papal cities thus made upon one 
another, and even threatened Rome, the residence of 
the Pope. These conditions, which explain the 
nature of the papal rule in the Middle Ages, show 
that the Pope and the city of Rome were two 
entirely distinct powers. The interference of the 
^ Gesta^ c. 134. 

' Consuls are mentioned in Viterbo as early as 1095 (Pinzi, Star, di 
Viterbo^ i. 1 10). In 1 148 there were in Viterbo Consuls de communi 
poptUOy and de militia^ and decemvirs [capudtce), Orioli, FloriUgio 
Viterbese^ Giom, Arcadico^ t. 137, p. 255 ; Pinzi, i. 142. The 
Codex of the oldest statutes of Viterbo was edited by Ignazio Ciampi, 
Cnmache e Statuti della Cittd di Viterbo^ Firenze, 1872. 

' Diffidati sunt a Ronianis, Diffidare^ now sfidare — reaffidarCt was 
the phrase for the abrogation of a state of war by treaty. 



Ch. !•] WAR BETWEEN ROME AND VITERBO. 35 

league forced the leaders of the Roman populace to 
seek the assistance of the same Pope whom they 
had hoped to involve in painful complications. He 
immediately yielded to their demands. After having 
vainly summoned Viterbo to submit to his arbitra- 
tion, he laid the town under sentence of excom- 
munication. This he did all the more readily since 
it had rendered aid to rebellious Nami only a short 
time before. His exhortations also induced the 
Tuscan confederation to recall its troops, which done, 
the Romans relieved Vitorclanum. 

The war broke out afresh at the end of the same 
year (1199) while Pandulf of the Suburra, an ener- Panduifde 
getic man, was Senator.^ Had Innocent refused |^JJ^' 
the city commune further support, the consequence 1199- 
would have been a popular revolt, and this he was 
obliged to obviate. He was short of money; the 
military forces were weak : the Senator waited in 
hesitation in camp on the Field of Nero. Richard, 
the Pope's brother, lent money to raise troops ; the 
Romans came forth in crowds, and while they stood 
in the field the astute Innocent publicly prayed for 
the success of his Roman brethren. So little was 
the war between two neighbouring papal cities 
regarded as a civil war, and so far removed were 
the communes of one and the same territory 
from the conception of a joint confederation. The 

^Anastasius IV. probably belonged to the family of Suburra. 
Ciaconius, Vita Honorii II, et Anctstasit IV, The street which took 
its name from the ancient family continued to exist. An inscription 
of 1270 in the vestibule of the Pantheon speaks of Pandulphus d$ 
Sebwra Archipr. Ecch S. M. Rotunda. 



36 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Viterbese, deserted by the Tuscan league, had 
formed a treaty with Count Ildebrandino of 
Santa Fiora, had appointed him their podesti, 
and had acquired yet other allies. They neverthe- 
less suffered a severe defeat on January 6, 1200.^ 
The Roman army returned in triumph with their 
spoils, and the grateful Parliament entrusted the 
Pope with making overtures for peace. Innocent 
removed some captives from the prisons of the Can- 
naparia, to keep them as hosts^es in the Vatican.' 
As Viterbo threatened to break off the negotiations, 
he rescued the most distinguished of these men, 
namely, Napoleon, Viscount of Campilia, from the 
popular fury and placed him in the strong fortress 
of Larianum. Napoleon ungratefully escaped : the 
Romans, however, complained that the Pope had 
betrayed them to Viterbo.^ 

^ Chran, Sigardi^ ad A, 1200. Ildebrandinus was head of the 
Aldobrandeschi, lords of the county of that name and of S. Flora. 
On July 31 he did homage to the Pope at Monteiiascone on account 
of Montalto (Cencius, fol. 138) ; on May 23, 1221, Frederick II. at 
Messina ratified him in possession of the town of Grossetto {Archivio 
di Sienay n. 143). The archives of Siena and those of Orvieto are 
rich in documents concerning this ancient Lombard fiunily of the 
Hildebrands. 

' As late as the fifteenth century an ancient building, called edifidum 
cannaparij still stood in the Contrata que dicitur la roccia et cannaparia. 
Thus I find this building designated in the Catastatum omnium honor , 
of the hospital ad sancta Sanctor. of the year 141a (In the 
archives of that hospital in Rome. ) It is also called templum cana- 
pare in 1426, when Martin V. allowed its stones to be carried away 
and burnt for lime. E. MUntz, Les Mon, antiques de Rome d 
FEpoque de la Renaiss. nouvelles Rechercha^ i., Paris, 1S85, p. 12. 
Romans called de Cannapara are mentioned as early as Ae tenth 
century (vol. iiL). 

' Gtsta^ c 133. The Pope's letter, ▼. 138, Lateran, January 10, 



Ch. I.] VITERBO YIELDS SUBJECTION. 37 

Through the mediation of the Pope, peace wasvitcrbo 
made at the end of 1200, or at the beginning of the subjection 
following year.^ According to the articles, which pj ^^^, 
he caused the Romans to confirm in the Lateran, ^aoa 
Viterbo made subjection to the Roman Senate and 
people, acknowledged the duty of vassalage, rendered 
tribute, ceded Vitorclanum, tore down a portion of 
its walls and undoubtedly received confirmation of 
its podesti from Rome.^ The conquered town was 
obliged to surrender the bronze doors of S. Peter's 
and other objects, which she had carried away from 
Rome in 1167 as spoils of war. The Romans hung 
the bell of the commune of Viterbo in the Capitol, 
a chain and the keys of one of its gates on the Arch 
of Gallienus near San Vito.* If the Pope dictated a 
peace, according to which a considerable town of the 

1203 — adarcefn Lariani^ qua est fere pr<B ceteris Roccis Italia spaiiosa ; 
one of the four papal fortresses on the Algidus m Latium ; given to 
the Church by Raino of Tusculum m exchange for Norma in 1174. 
Cendus, fol. 114. 

* Rainer, Bishop of Viterbo, mentions it in a letter to the Senator 
John Colonna: D, Inn, omnia capitida reformanda pacis inter 
Romanos et Viterbiensisy in sua potestate posuit {Giam, Arcad,, L 
137, p. 210). 

* A document contains the articles {Idui. , p. 200). ££p N» civis 
Viterb, ab hoc hara in aniea Jidelis ero Senatui {et Pop, Rom, ). . . • 
Guerram et pacem faciam ad ma»tdatum eor, . . . SaliHi fidelUaU 
Rom, Pont, et E, Rom, Another formula of 1281 speaks of vassal- 
lagium et fidelitatem senatui populoqtu R, Orioli, Bussi, and the 
Chronicle of Viterbo {Bibl, Angelica, b. 7, 23) place the peace in the 
year 120a In 1207 Johannes Guidonis de Papa dei grat. Consul 
Romanor, was podestiL of Viterbo {Giom. Arcad., t. 136, p. I2SX 

' The above-mentioned MS. Chronicle : la campana del comune 
. • . poserla net campidoglio o poser H nome la paterika di Viterbo, 
Viterbo teemed with heretics. Concerning the bronze doors, &&, lee 
Gesta, c 135. 



38 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ecclesiastical State made subjection not to him, but 
to the Roman commune, the fact serves as a proof 
that he recognised the Roman people as a sovereign 
power, and it is principally for this reason that the 
war between Rome and Viterbo has claimed our 
attention. 



4. The Orsini — Their Hereditary Feud with the 
Relations of Innocent III. — Richard Conti and 
the House of Poli — ^The Pqli Estates come to 
Richard — Civil War — Flight of Innocent III. 
TO Anagni, 1203 — War of Factions concerning 
THE Senate — Innocent returns, 1204 — Gregory 

PlERLEONE RaINERII, SENATOR — BiTTER DISPUTE 
CONCERNING THE CONSTITUTION — CHARACTER OF 

THESE Civil Wars — Innocent once more obtains 
Recognition of the Papal Right over the 
Senatorial Election, 1205. 

Innocent hoped that he had now tranquillised 
Rome;^ opposition, however, to the papal rule, 
quarrels concerning the Constitution, and feuds 
between the nobility kept the city in continued 
strife. From amongst the patrician families some 
houses rose with the thirteenth century to new 
power, while the earlier ruling families of the Pier- 
leoni and Frangipani receded into the background. 
The popes themselves also became the founders of 
houses which were bound to them by family ties and 
which aimed at the tyranny of the cities. But neither 

^ He wrote from Anagni to the legate Gnido in Germany : de urbe 
quoque scire vos voiumuSf quod earn ter Dei gr. ad beneti, nostrum 
hademus, Reg, Itnp.^ £p. 56, at the end. 



Ch. I.] THE ORSINI. 39 

the Colonna (already an ancient race) nor the Ani- 
baldi were among the families of whom we speak ; 
the Conti, Savelli, and Orsini, however, owed their 
greatness to the popes. 

Celestine III. had endowed his nephews of the 
house of Bobo with property belonging to the Church, 
and had thus founded the fortune of a family who 
were kinsmen of the Orsini.^ The race of Ursus, The Omni 
soon to become celebrated, is conspicuous in the "° ^* 
Roman Middle Ages through several popes, through 
a long series of cardinals, of statesmen, and of mili- 
tary leaders. Among all the Roman families the 
Orsini alone could vie on terms of equal birth with 
the Ghibelline Colonnas. Their origin is, however, 
obscure. The records of the family in the Roman 
archives (which are devoid of critical value) trace it 
to Spoleto, but the statements of these documents 
are mere fictions. Some authorities represent the 
cradle of the race to have been situated on the 
Rhine. But the names Ursus and Ursinus are 
ancient Roman, nor can it be shown that the power- 
ful Roman house owed its foundation to Saxons 
who migrated to Italy under the Ottos.* A fortunate 

^ Gestaf c. 135. In cap. 136 we Bndiji/ii Ursi^ quond, CalestiniP, 
nepotesj de bonis EccL Rom, diioH, He probably also bestowed 
Vicovara, Burdello and Cantalupo in the Sabina upon them. The 
name Bobo long survived among the Orsini. The baptismal name of 
Napoleon is also common among them (as among the Torre in Milan); 
also that of Matthew. 

' Gammurrini (Famil, nob, Toscane et Umbre^ Flor., 1671, t ii.) 
cites ancient Roman inscriptions with the name of Ursinus. The 
anti-pope to Damasus was called Ursicinus, A. 366. In 499 a Firmi- 
lianus Ursinus signs a Gothic deed at Ravenna. Legend represented 
the German Barm of Anhalt as descended from the Orsini Muratori 



40 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

man, probably a warrior endowed with rude energy, 
called Ursus, the Bear, became the founder of a race 
which, in numbers and tenacity, put royal dynasties 
to shame. The date and the person of this ancestor 
are veiled in obscurity. Only so much is certain, 
that the name Ursus is found in the time of the 
Ottos.i 

At the beginning of the thirteenth century ** the 
sons of Ursus," already numerous and powerful, 
inhabited towered palaces built upon ancient monu- 
ments in the r^ion Parione. They dwelt in heredi- 
Ike^^ tary feud with the race of Romanus de Scotta and 
other of John Ocdolinae, relatives of the Conti,* and in 
Rome ^^ autumn of 1202, during Innocent's absence in 
Velletri, drove these families from their homes.' 
The Pope on his return demanded peace, and the 
Senator Pandulf banished the hostile factions, one 

{AfU,, iii. 784) discreetly derives them from C/rso quod, nobiU 
viro, 

* The family was called ^/iV Ursu An Orso de Baro appears as 
early as 998 (vol. iii. p. 383) ; a Constantinus Ursi in 1032 (Gar- 
ampi, Mem, di B. Chiard), Better than Sansovino's Hist, di Casa 
Orsina (1565) is the genealogy in Litta, who represents the historic 
£imily of Orsini as beginning with Orso, the great-grandfather of 
Nicholas III. (1277). His genealogical tree agrees with a summary 
in the Conti-Ruspoli archives, which briefly gives the five branches of 
the &mily : Pitiliano, Castel S. Angelo, Bracciano, Monte Rotondo, 
and Gravina. The arms of the Orsini are: Per fess: chief: arg., 
charged with a rose gu. and bearing in base a fess or charged with an 
eel az. Base : bendy of six, gu. and arg. The branch of Monte Rotondo 
alone bore on the helmet a bear holding a spray of roses in its claws. 

"The ancestor of thitjliiijohis Ocdolince (Ottolina, the name of a 
Roman lady) appears in iioi. Vol. iv. p. 318 n. 

• The Regesta show that Innocent was in Velletri from September 
14 to October 9. 



Ch. I.] RICHARD CONTI 4I 

to S. Peter's, the other to S. PauPs. A murder com- 
mitted in revenge immediately set the city in uproar. 
Theobald, an Orsini, was slain on the road to S. 
Paul's, and immediately the entire family of Ursus 
forced their way into the city, and crying for revenge, 
carried the body of the murdered man through the 
streets, and destroyed the houses of the enemy. 
The fierce hatred borne to the relatives of the Pope 
extended to the Pope himself. He was accused, 
and with justice, of nepotism, for he had been at 
pains to provide his ambitious brother, Richard, with 
a princely estate in Latium and had successfully 
accomplished his object. 

Richard lived in Rome, where, with means fur- Richard 
nished by the Pope, he built the gigantic tower ^^^^ 
of the Conti, released Count Odo of the house of ^**» 
Poli from his numerous creditors, but appropriated'^"''" 
according to treaty Odo's estates, ancient fiefs of 
the Church. Odo had promised that his son should 
marry Richard's daughter; he now retracted his 
promise and demanded the restoration of his 
property. But having no valid ground for his de- 
mand, he incited the people against the Conti. The 
relatives of the Poll, nobles, who owing to bad man- 
agement of their property and tedious law-suits 
were in reduced circumstances, frequently paraded 
the streets as suppliants, half naked and carrying 
crosses. They uproariously forced their way into 
S. Peter's on Easter day ; they even interrupted the 
papal procession, and finally they offered their 
estates, which were mortgaged to Richard, to the 
Roman people on the Capitol. The fair possessions 



42 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk. 1 



Acquires 
the estates 
of the 
house of 
PolL 



Battle 
between 
the demo- 
cratic and 
the papal 
parties. 

Innocent 

III. 

escapes 

from 

Rome, 

xap3. 



of the house of Poll included nine fortresses on the 
frontiers of the Sabina and Latium. The Romans 
immediately stretched forth their hands ; the Pope, 
however, hastened to represent his claims upon these 
fiefs of the Church to the Senate ; he invested his 
brother with the estates in question as security, and 
soon afterwards the entire fiefs of the Poli were 
transferred in perpetuity to the Conti.^ 

The Senator Pandulf, who was devoted to the Pope, 
had opposed the proposals of the Poli for legal reasons, 
and had merely drawn upon himself the hatred of 
the populace. Fire was thrown into Pandulfs 
tower on the Quirinal ; the Capitol was attacked ; 
the Senators within escaped but with difficulty ; with 
difficulty also the Pope's brother, Richard, whose 
tower was attacked by the people and declared the 
property of the city.^ Innocent himself escaped to 
Palestrina in the b^inning of May 1203. In the 
very days that the Latin crusaders conquered 
Byzantium, the great Pope found himself driven to 
bay by the petty feuds of the Roman barons, exposed 
to the fury of the populace, and forced to flight. 



1 G>nceming Odo, son of Gregory, and the estates granted to the 
house of Poli, in 1 1 57, see vol. iv. p. 561, note. Innocent's letter to 
Richard (vii. 133), Rome, October 9, 1204, makes the trial clear. With 
it the Gesta taken from the acts frequently agree word for word. The 
Conti retained possession of Poli for 600 years until they became extinct 
in 1808 ; the place then passed into the hands of the Sforza Cesarini ; 
and in 1820 into those of the Torlonia. See Nibby, Analisi, ii. 569, 
who wrongly places these events in 1208. Ep. vii. 133 shows that 
the deed of the investiture of Richard had not been issued by October 9, 
1204. 

' The Gesta do not speak of Richard, but the Pope's letter, vii. 
133, says : turrem tuam acriter expugnarent — tt adhuc quidam sub 
nomine CommunUcUis detinent occupcUam (even in October 1204). 



Ch. I.] CIVIL WAR. 43 

The contrast between his sense of power as Pope 
and the actual straits in which he found himself in 
Rome caused him profound depression. In the 
autumn, when the thrilling news of the fall of 
Constantinople had already reached him, he was 
taken so seriously ill at Anagni that the news of his 
death was announced.^ 

Meanwhile November was drawing near, when the 
new Senate was to be elected. The discontented 
people desired fifty-six Senators, and the Pope, with 
whom negotiations were held through envoys, ordered 
— as he was entitled to do — the cardinals, by whom 
he was represented, to appoint twelve electors. 
The populace shut up these cardinals as in a con- 
clave, within the tower of one of their leaders, John 
de Stacio, who had erected his house in the ruins of 
the Circus Flaminius.^ The cardinals were forced 
to swear that they would elect at least two candi- 
dates from the faction hostile to the Pope. Pandulf 
the retiring Senator nevertheless surrendered the 
Capitol to Innocent's adherents, and the newly 
elected Senate divided on the ground of the trial 
with Richard into two hostile parties. The popular 
party pronounced the Poli estates civic property ; 

* Gestaf c 135, 136. Chron. Fossa N. ad A. 1203: nonas Maji 
indignatume Rotnanor. Z>. Papa venit Ferenttnum, According to 
the Regesta (in Brequigny) a bull is dated from Palestrina on May 3. 
See Potthast, Regesta PonHficum Rotnanor,^ a work which continues 
}a£fi('s gigantic labours. 

• The Circus was called at that time Castellum Aureum, Two 
convents stood there, Domine Rose (the present S, Caterina dei 
Funan) and S. Laurentii Pallacini et in Clausura, Bull of Celestine 
III. of 1 192 in the Bullar. VaHcan,^ i. 74 : Castellum aureum cum 
parietibus altis et antiquis in circuitu positis, • • • 



44 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

their opponents rejected this decree. Rome was 
torn asunder by furious war, until the populace, 
oppressed by the nobility, urgently invited the Pope 
He retums to retum. He first refused, then came in March 1204, 
Mardi * with the courageous resolve to quell the disturbances 
'^®^ and to order the Senate, (the re-election of which was 
to take place at the end of six months), according to 
his will. Innocent, received in Rome with every 
honour, immediately tranquillised the disturbances 
by prudent measures: he appointed as elector a 
man respected by all parties, his former opponent, 
now perhaps his friend, John Pierleone. Pierleone 
elected as Senator Gregory Petri Leonis Rainerii, a 
near relative of his own, a noble distinguished by 
integrity but not by energy.* The democratic party, 
however, would not hear of peace, nor would they 
concede the elective right to the Pope. They 
assembled in the Circus Flaminius, pronounced the 
treaty of 1 198 null and void, and elected an opposi- 
tion Senate under the title "Good men of the 
Commune." 2 

Rome was thus split into a papal and a democratic 
faction. Pandulf of the Suburra, Richard Conti, 
Peter Anibaldi, the family of the Alexii, and Gilido 

^ The Pope returned at Easter 1204 ; then followed the election of 
Gregorius Petri Leonis Rainerii, Vitale believes that Gregorius di 
Giovanni Leone di Rainerio was Senator in 1203, ^^^cl quotes the 
decree appointing him from Cantatore's History of Terrtuina, But 
the indictions do not agree with that date. The histories of the 
Senate, founded on Gigli's uncritical MS., are full of gaps. The 
Rainerii family appears as early as 1164 in the person oi Jokes Petri 
Leonis de Rainerio (Nerini, p. 193). 

' Gesta, c 139, c. 141. Boni homines de Communis a title usual in 
all Italian democracies. 



ch. l] civil war. 45 

Carbonis were the leaders of the former; John 
Capocci, Baroncellus, Jacopo Frajapane, Gregory 
and John Rainerii, who had again joined the popular 
side, headed the opposition.^ The bitter civil war 
was a struggle concerning the constitution and was 
based on a principle of serious importance. The 
adherents of the ancient communal constitution 
refused to surrender the election of the Senate to 
the Pope, and with this right gradually to relinquish 
every other. The Poli law-suit, moreover, entered 
into the question, the growing power of the house of 
Conti affording just grounds for suspicion. John John 
Capocci, the most energetic enemy of the Pope, ^§^ 
again placed himself at the head of the populace, ^ ^^^ 
while the ex-Senator Pandulf commanded the papal 
following, and Richard provided the money. Fighting 
was carried on in the streets throughout the entire 
region from the Colosseum to the Lateran and the 
Quirinal, on the slopes of which stood the towers of 
the three captains, Richard, Pandulf and CapoccL 

The manner and nature of these civil wars are 
highly characteristic of this rude and vigorous time. 
As soon as the factions arose they built towers 
and opposition towers of bricks or wood with furious 
activity, thence to hurl stones on one another with 
the savage rage of uncouth Lapithae. These for- 
tresses sprang up in the course of a night, were built 
and fashioned amid brawls and tumult, were over- 
thrown to-day and rebuilt on the morrow. They 

^ Peter Anibaldi was called Sororius^ brother-in-law, or son of the 
sister of Innocent III. He was his seneschal, and later rector of Cori. 
Ep. xiv. 86. 



Colosseum. 



46 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

were erected on the remains of temples, baths, and 

aqueducts, and were provided with projectiles, while 

the narrow streets were barricaded with iron chains, 

pe Ex- and the churches were fortified.^ Pandulf, besieged 

Senator , ^ . . , . , , , . , , . , ^ , 

Pandulf, by Capocci m his palace (which stood in the Baths 

Se*^^ of iEmilius Paulus, on the site of the present Via 

P^y* Magnanapoli), planted a wooden tower on an ancient 

monument and hence attacked the adjacent fortress 

of the enemy with equal energy. The Alexii built 

a colossal tower on the Quirinal ; Gilido Carbonis 

even erected three towers, and Peter Anibaldi built 

one in the neighbourhood of the Colosseum.^ The 

Fhuwipani Amphitheatre belonged to the Frangipani, who still 

cf the^ remained in possession of the dignity of Lateran 

Counts Palatine, but who, while ruling over several 
fiefs on the Campagna, no longer retained in the 
city the authority which they had once possessed. 
Innocent III., it is true, had rendered the five 
sons of Oddo Frangipane, Jacopo, Oddo, Manuel, 
Cencius and Adeodatus, a service in the year 1204, 
by forcing the commune of Terracina to surrender 
them the fortress of Traversa ; he had, however, 
taken Terracina itself under his protection against 

' Gestat c, 139. Fecerunt utrtnque turres Ugneas^ ubi iapideas 
turn Aadedantf aggeres et fossata^ munientes thermos^ et incastelianUs 
eccUstas — Erexerunt enim petrarias^ a mangoneUos^ conduxerurU 
balistario5» 

' One of these towers must have been the Torre delle Milizie which 
already existed, and which was only refortified. Whether remains of 
the other towers still exist is doubtful. Adinolfi {Roma nelt eta di 
Mezzo^ ii 50) rec(^;nises them in the Tower of the Colmna alU tre 
Cannelie, and the Torre del Grillo^ which belonged first to the 
Carboni, then to the Colonna, and from them passed to the Conti. 



Ch. I.] PEACE BETWEEN ROME AND THE POPE. 47 

the desire of these barons and had in consequence 
offended them.^ They no sooner discovered that 
Anibaldi, a relative of the Pope, wished to invade 
the precincts of their fortress, than they attacked 
him and, hurling down projectiles from the battle- 
ments of the Colosseum, sought to hinder the progress 
of his tower.2 

The hostile parties brought kinsfolk, vassals, and 
tenantry to their aid, and war was fiercely waged 
day and night with projectiles, with sword and fire. 
Rome resounded with the clash of arms and the thud 
of falling stones, while the Pope remained shut up 
in the Lateran, the quarter where his friends the 
Anibaldi dwelt, but where not even in the remotest 
chamber of the palace did he escape the din of war. 
The brave Capocci took Pandulf s fortress by assault 
on August 10, and pushed as far as the Lateran, 
where they destroyed the fortified remains of the 
Aqueduct of Nero. But the Pope's gold fought with 
greater efficacy against the democrats, and the 
wearied people desired peace. Innocent proposed 
the following treaty: four umpires were to decide 
the quarrel between the opposition Senate and 
Richard Conti, and were also to decide on the 
election of the Senate; the Pope would yield to 

^ Ep. iv. 206 and Panvinius, History (MS.) of the House of Frangi- 
pant. The Pope forced Terracina to take the oath of vassalage to the 
Church. The town, however, also retained its feudal relations with 
the Frangipani. 

' Gesta^ c. 139 : prohibentib, Jacobo Fraiapane et relicta Naionis 
Frajapanis^ Najone is the abbreviation of a name, or else we must 
read Rainone, In a document of 1207 appears Jacoba uxor qd^ 
Gratiani Frajapani, 



48 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

their decision for the year. These terms offended 
the popular party, who foresaw their own defeat. 
The bell of the Capitol summoned a parliament, and 
Capocd's John Capocci rose and said : — *" The city of Rome 
speech in is not accustomed to yield to the Church in her 
g^' conflicts, is not used to conquer by judicial sentences 
but by power. To-day, however, I see that she will 
be defeated ; contrary to the decisign of the people 
and to the oath of the Senators she surrenders the 
domains to the Church, and confirms the Senate to 
the Pope. If, in spite of our numbers and power, 
we bow to the Pope, who will again dare to resist 
him? Never did I hear of a peace so disgraceful 
to the city, and I will refuse in every way to vote 
for it." ^ The opposition of the demagogue induced 
John Pierleone Rainerii also to record his veto.* 
The parliament dispersed in uproar and recourse 
was s^ain had to arms. The Pope triumphed ; the 
four umpires adjudged him the right of electing the 
The Pope Senate, and the Roman commune with this decision 
the ]i^t of lost an essential part of its political power, 
^j^ngthe Innocent with great sagacity had attained his 
object, and with equal sagacity now made but 
moderate use of his victory. Unable to find a single 
man who was welcome as Senator to both parties, 
he agreed to the election of fifty-six Senators, fore- 
seeing, however, the unfortunate consequences in 

* Gesta, c. 141. 

* Tohn Pierleone s^in quarrelled with the Pope. He plundered 
Tusculan estates and was excommunicated. On his death (1204 or 
1205) it was only after his heirs had made restitution to the Pope that 
he was accorded Christian burial. 



Ch. I.] PEACE BETWEEN ROME AND THE POPE. 49 

store for them. This plural government was per- 
manently set aside six months later, when the new 
Senator, apparently the energetic Pandulf of the 
Suburra, restored quiet to the city.^ The firmness 
of the Pope achieved great success. After the 
strenuous efforts of five years he subjugated the 
Capitol. Thus the Roman people forfeited in 
succession their three great rights : the Papal Elec- 
tion, the Imperial Election, and the Election of the 
Senate. 

Peace between the city of Rome and Innocent 
was finally concluded in 1205. The Pope changed a single 
the form of the civic government ; the executive api»imcd 
power lying henceforward in the hand of a single ^y^® 
Senator or Podesti, who, directly or indirectly, was 1205.' 
appointed by the Pope. A period of greater tran- 
quillity for the popes, although frequently interrupted 
by conflicts, began in Rome with this constitution.* 

^ According to a manuscript history of the Senate in possession of 
Don. Vincenzo Colonna in Rome, the first sole Senator, under the new 
system, was Pandulf as Vitale supposes. Pandulphus de Suburra 
Romcmor, Consul appears three times as podestii in Perugia, 1209, 
1210, 1217. (Acts in Archives of Perugia,) 

* Raynald wrongly places the war in 1208. The events are: 
flight of the Pope, in the spring of 1203 ; new election of the Senate, 
November 1203 ; return of the Pope between March 6 and 13, 1204 ; 
followed immediately by a new election. Gregorius Pierleone Rainerii^ 
Senator. He resigns, November 1204. Furious civil war during his 
administration. Attempts to make peace, November 1204. Fifty-six 
Senators are elected until April 1205. A single Senator. 



VOL. V. 



50 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



CHAPTER II. 

I, Sicilian Affairs — Innocent III. becomes 
Frederick's Guardian — Markwald — Walter 
OF Brienne — ^The German Barons in Latium — 
The Communes in Latium — Richard Conti 
becomes Count of Sora — The Pope returns 
FROM Latium to Rome. 

While at war with the Roman commune, Innocent 
III. was deeply involved in the affairs of the political 
world, which had constituted him arbitrator of 
Europe. Other histories describe these affairs ; the 
quarrel for the German throne and the affairs of the 
kingdom of Sicily, which henceforward became of 
the highest importance for the empire, the Papacy, 
and Italy, alone concern the history of the city. 

The widow of Henry VI. found herself defence- 
less against the storms which broke over Sicily 
after the Emperor's death. She had her son (a boy 
of three) crowned in Palermo on May 17, 1 197, but 
the heir of a hated conqueror had but little prospect 
of ruling the kingdom at a later date. The Sicilians 
rose in just national hatred against the Germans, 
who could not appear otherwise than as oppressors 
of their country, which under Norman laws had 
prospered in wealth, industry, and noble arts. The 
temperate Southerners were disgusted by the ex- 



Ch. il] SICILIAN AFFAIRS. 5 1 

cesses of the common soldiers and by the unbridled 
greed of rude squires and knights, who regarded the 
wealthy island as a paradise in their quest of fortune. 
A classically educated Norman, a historian who 
combined seriousness with poetic fire, gave vent to 
the national feeling of Sicily on the fall of the 
Norman dymsty in a passionate outburst.^ The 
patriots raised the cry, ** Down with the foreigners.'* 
Sicilian Vespers threatened. Constance yielded to 
the demand of the nation and banished all Germans. 
Bewildered among the various parties who struggled 
for supremacy, and anxious for the future of her son, 
Henry's pious widow sought protection from the 
Pope, with whose name Italy re-echoed. Never 
would her husband have recognised the feudal right 
of the sacred chair. She recognised it from necessity, 
and Innocent offered her the ratification of the 
crown for her son, but at the exorbitant price of the 
renunciation of the ancient ecclesiastical liberties 
of the Norman kings. After long struggles Con- 
stance yielded, and a cardinal went to Sicily with 
the letter of investiture. But on November 28, 
1 198, and before his arrival in Palermo, the Empress Death of 
died, leaving the Pope the guardian of her son.^of*a^^ 
Constance ended the line of Norman sovereigns of "^' 
Sicily and became the ancestress of the Sicilian 
Hohenstaufens — the fatal Pandora of the German 
empire. 

^ We may read the letter of Hugo Falcandos, which serves as an 
introduction to his excellent history of Sicily. Murat, vii. 251. 

' GestUf c. 23. The document of investiture of November 19, 1198, 
in Httillard, Hist, dipL Friderui II, , L 16. 



$2 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES [Bk. ix. 

The work of Henry VI. also fell to pieces in 
Sicily. For Innocent not only succeeded in restor- 
ing the feudal lordship of the Church in the island, 
but became the regent and guardian of the heir to 
the throne. Papal protection preserved the crown 
of Roger to the youthful Frederick, but never did 
a like patronage cost a prince so dear. 
Innocent Innocent undertook the government of the king- 
"^ientof dom With the sincere desire of securing Henry's son 
"y* upon the throne, of delivering him alike from his 
German and from his Sicilian oppressors, and of 
making him the lifelong gratefdl vassal of the 
Church.^ It cost him tedious efforts to obtain 
recognition of the Church's supremacy and to sub- 
jugate Henry's German counts; for it was a more 
' difficult matter to drive these feudal lords from their 
principalities in Apulia, than from those in Central 
Italy. Some ruled in the frontier lands of the 
Liris, where Dipold of Vohburg, Count of Acerra, 
was captain of the fortress of Arce, and where 
Conrad of Marley held Sora and the castle of 
Sorella planted on the rocky height above.* These 
nobles tyrannised, as had formerly the immigrant 
Norman barons, over a reluctant population, struck 
terror into Campania and Apulia, or entered and 

^ He wrote to him in his letter of condolence at the end of January 
1 199: exultes in Domino — qui pro temporali spiritualem tibipatrem 
prtnndity et in tnairis obitu matrem Ecclesiam — deptUavit^ ut foetus 
vir et in regnisolio soUdaius earn amplius venererisper quam te ncveris 
exaltatum, 

' With Dipold were his two brothers Otto and Si^ried. All 
these particulars are given by Abel, Kaiser Otto IV, und Konig 
Friedrich IL^ BerUn, 1856. 



Ch. II.] RESISTANCE OF THE FEUDAL COUNTS. S3 

devastated papal Latium.^ They made common The feudal 
cause with Markwald, when the seneschal, driven Hesuy vi. 
from Ancona, came to his county of Molise, and ^J.*^® 
after the death of Constance usurped the office of 
protector of Frederick (in virtue of the confidence 
shown him by the Emperor Henry, who when dying 
had entrusted him with his will and charged him to 
see it carried out). S. Germano fell into his power ; 
he negotiated with the cardinals and exchanged 
S. Germano for VeroH in the summer of 1199.* 
While his allies Dipold and Conrad held Apulia, 
Markwald crossed to Sicily to obtain the guardian- 
ship of Frederick. Innocent raised troops in the 
State of the Church, and also acquired troops from 
the Tuscan Confederation ; the Romans, however, 
at the time at war with Viterbo, afforded him no 
aid in affairs foreigpi to their own objects. Nor had 
the Pope any right to make use of the Roman 
militia unless with the sanction of the city, and 
when he paid these troops as mercenaries. The 
new papal army, commanded by the able Marshal 
Jacopo, a cousin of the Pope, was taken to Sicily 
to drive Markwald from the field.' At the same 

^ The Chronicle of Fossa Nova records such a predatory expedition 
of Dipold which extended as &r as Ripi and Torrice as early as the 
year 1198. 

' Gesta^ c. 23. The Pope's letter to the Sicilians of August 1199, 
in Huillard, i 32. Markwald deceived Octavian, Cardinal of Ostia, 
and uncle of Oddo de Polo (Ughelli, i. 67). With him were the 
Cardinals Guido and Hugolin (afterwards Gregory IX.) and also the 
Consul Leo de Monumento. Concerning Markwald : £. Winkel- 
mann, PhiUpp von Schwaben und Otto von Braunschweig^ vol. ii 
(1878) chap. i. 

* Jacobus, Conti of Anagni in 1202, Justiciar and Captain of Cam- 



54 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

time a French adventurer, experienced in war, 
Walter, Count of Brienne, who had shortly before 
married a daughter of Tancred, the last Norman 
king, entered the Pope's service. In the name of 
his wife he claimed Taranto and Lecce, fiefs which 
Henry VI. had in 1194 awarded, but never given, 
to William, Tancred's unfortunate son. Walter was, 
in fact, another pretender to the crown of Sicily, 
and presumably the avenger of the Norman house. 
The times of Robert Guiscard were repeated, for 
the world swarmed with vagrant warriors. Errant 
knights from Germany and France fought for 
sovereignty in Sicily, and valiant crusaders, among 
them influential cousins of Walter, came out from 
France, Flanders, and Venice, and with unexampled 
bravery conquered the great city of Constantinople, 
to found not only a Latin empire but several princi- 
Waiterof palities. In 1200 Walter came to Rome with his 
p^o*^' wife Alberia, with Alberia's mother, the widow of 
captain. Tancred, and with an imposing retinue.^ He 
demanded Sicily, Lecce, and Taranto from the Pope 
as feudal lord The demand placed Innocent in 
a difficulty. After long consultation he recognised 
the justice of Alberia's claims and actually promised 
the fiefs to her husband But Walter's oath to 
refrain from ever injuring Frederick as King of 

pania and Apulia, later received Nympha for his lifetime. He had 
acquired wealth in Sicily and lent money to the Pope. Ep. xv. 114. 

^ Sibylla and her children William, Alberia, Constance, and 
Mandonia had been banished to Hochenems in Vorarlberg by the 
perjured Henry VI. They were released by Philip. But William 
was already dead. Sibylla went to France, where Walter married 
Alberia. Raumer, ii. 613. 



Ch. II.] WALTER OF BRIENNE. 5$ 

Sicily, on the contrary to maintain the fidelity of 
a vassal, does not exonerate the Pope from the 
charges made by Frederick's counsellors, and 
Frederick himself afterwards reproached the Church 
with having put forward a pretender during her 
period of guardianship.^ Meanwhile Innocent 
rejoiced in making use of one of the foremost 
captains of the age in his own and, as he supposed, 
in Frederick's service, and it was thus Innocent 
who at this early date opened the way for the French 
into the kingdom. 

When Walter appeared in Apulia in 1201 with a 
body of French knights es^er for war, everything 
turned to the disadvantage of the Germans. We 
pass over military events in the two Sicilies, where 
Walter, Dipold, and Markwald, adventurers of their Dipoid and 
century, filled with courage, craft, and energy, were ^ ^"^^ 
conspicuous. They lacked, however, the good for- 
tune of the Normans or of Simon de Montfort. In 
September 1202 Markwald died suddenly in Sicily, 
the country which as regent he had gallantly defended 
against the enemy. His death released Frederick 
from a tyrannical defender, and the Pope from one 
of the worst enemies trained in the school of Henry 
VI. Walter, at first victorious over Dipold on the 
field of Cannae, fell mortally wounded into the power 
of his enemy in June 1205, ^^^ ^^^ ^ knightly 
death in the castle of Sarno. The now power- 

^ Comitem G, de Brenna, qui veiui gener Tancredi regis irUrusi 
mortem nostram et sanguinem sitiebat^ sub defensumis nostra specie 
misit in regnum, February 1246. Frederick to the French ; HuiUard, 
Hist. Dip/., vi. 389. 



S6 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ful nobles became temporarily reconciled to the 
Church.1 

To Southern Italy, afflicted by war and famine, 

peace returned but slowly. Henry's feudal counts 

were defeated. The last of these tyrants on the 

Liris, Conrad of Marley, had /been overcome at the 

Sora beginning of the year 1208. Sora surrendered to the 

S^e ^ Abbot Roffried of Monte Casino and Richard Conti 

r^' on January 5 ; the fortresses of Sorella and Arce 

capitulated about the same time, and these frontier 

lands were thus delivered from a tyranny which had 

lasted seventeen years. 

Having obtained these fortunate successes. Inno- 
cent left Rome on May 15, 1208, for S. Germanoand 
Sora, to adjust the affairs of the Neapolitan kingdom 
in a parliament of the barons. For in spite of 
Frederick having attained his majority, the Pope 
still regarded himself as ruler of his kingdom. 
Shortly before, in the autumn of 1207, he had 
ra^t^^ assembled in Viterbo the bishops, counts, podest^, 
viterbo, and consuls of the patrimonies of Tuscany, Spoleto, 
'**^' and the March of Ancona, and had issued a statute 
which confirmed the rights of the Church, recom- 
mended peace to the country, and appointed the 
tribunal of the papal rectors as the court of ultimate 
appeal. This parliament, however, formed the basis 
of the ruling power of the Pope in these newly ac- 

^ An exhaustive account of these afiairs in the two Sicilies during 
the quarrel for the throne is given in Winckelmann, vol. ii. The 
descendants of Walter of Brienne again received the countship of 
Lecce under the Angevins, and became extinct in 1356 in the cele- 
brated Duke of Athens and Signor of Florence. See Femand de 
Sassenay, Les Brienne de Lecce et cCAthhtes^ Paris, 1869. 



Ch. II.] GERMAN NOBLBS IN LATIUM. 57 

quired provinces of the State of the Church.^ The 
barons of Latium also received Innocent on his 
journey as obedient vassals and accompanied him 
with pomp from place to place. Colonna, Frangi- 
pani, Contiy Anibaldi, Orsini, Savelli, the counts of 
Ceccano, and other lesser noblemen shared between 
them the possession of the Campania and the Mari- 
tima. The barons of this classic land of Vii^l, 
descendants of those conquerors of German race who German 
had formerly wrested this territory from the Latins Sob^ in 
and had bequeathed it to their heirs, still sat en- !-»*>"«»• 
sconced within their gloomy fortresses. Many traced 
their origin to the period when the Lombards filled 
Latium with feudal families; others were descend- 
ants of Saxons and Franks who had come in the 
train of the emperors, from whom and from the 
popes they had obtained feudal investiture. The 
house of the counts of Ceccano, as an ancient 
territorial dynasty, was dominant in the Volscian 
Mountains, and was highly respected in the Church 
for its wealth and dignity. Even before the rise of 
the Colonna these nobles were already powerful, 
Gregory, one of their ancestors, being mentioned as 
Count in the time of Henry IV.* The German The counts 
origin of the family is shown by the names of Guido, ° ^ 

Landulf, Godfrey, Berald, and Raynald which sur- 

' Gesia, c. 124, 125. £p. x. 131, 132. Bull C/niv, fidelib, per 
pairim, B, F. constitiUis, Viterb, IX. Kal, Oct. Pont. N. a. X. On 
the same day he issued an edict against heretics, which he ordered to 
be inscribed in the communal statutes. 

* The Chronicle of Fossa Nova records his death in 1 104. ObtU 
Gregorius Comes Ceccani^ 12 KaL Oct. feria III. First mention of 
this fiunily of counts. 



58 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

vived among them. They owned several places in 
the present division of Frosinone, holding them 
from the Church. The same John of Ceccano, who 
awaited Innocent at Anagni with a retinue of fifty 
knights (his vassals), was confirmed in his feudal 
possessions by the Pope in 1201.^ 

While these counts ruled over Southern Latium, 
other vassals of the Church formed other houses 
destined to a longer or shorter existence. Such 
were the lords of Sculgola in the Volscfan Moun- 
tains, descendants of the German race of Galvan and 
Conrad ; ^ such the barons of Supino ; the Guido of 
Norma, the lords of Colledimezzo bearing the names 
of Lando and Berald, and other vassals of Lombard 
origin.® The Colonna of Palestrina, moreover, pene- 

^ Deed in Theiner, Cod, DipL^ L n. 45. John, son of Landulf 
and Egidia, married Rogasinta, daughter of the Marsian Count Peter 
de Celano, in 11S9. His sister Mabilia married Count Jacopo of 
Tricarico in 1 182 (Chron, Fossa Nov.), John's uncle was Jordan, 
Cardinal of S. Pudenziana. The Colonna Archives contain many 
documents concerning this fiunily, as well as John's will, dated April 
5, 1224. He owned : Ceccano, Amaria, Patrica, Cacume, Monta- 
cuto, Julianum, S. Stephanum, Magentia, Rocca Asprano, Prosseum, 
Postertium, Carpinetum, and rights in Castrum Metellanici, in Alatri, 
Frosinone, Turrice, Ceprano, Pipemo, Setia, Nympha. His children 
were Landulf, Berard, Thomasia, and Adelasia. 

* Cencius, fol. 157 : Gualganus de Sculcula recognovit castrum ips» 
juris d, Petri esse^ et habere illud in custodia. Document of July 13, 
1 1 58, the earliest concerning this &mily with which I am acquainted. 
There are documents of sac, 13 and 14 in the Colonna Archives ; the 
oldest contains the will of Conradus de Sculgulafil, qd, dni GcUgam^ 
of January i, 1270. Conrad's son Galganus had three sons : Conrad, 
Simon, and Godfrey, Cardinal of S. Giorgio in Velabro. Parchment 
deed of February 28, 127a 

* CoUismedii, a ruined fortress in Volsdan territory. The name of 
the place still survives. 



Ch. II.] BARONIAL RULE IN LATIUM. $9 

trated ever further into the heart of the Campagna, 
where they already owned Genazzano and Olevano, 
and portions of Paliano and Serrone;^ while the 
Frangipani had acquired the greater part of the 
territory which stretches from Astura to Terracina 
in the Maritima. 

The agricultural province of Latium, devoid of 
trade and industry as at the present day, was in 
general the seat of great and petty territorial barons ; 
towns of any importance there were none. The 
majority of places were enclosed with walls (Castra), 
had a castle built on a rock (Rocca or Arx\ usually 
of Satumian construction, consisting of primitive 
circles of Cyclopean masonry. In these lived the 
baron or his vicar, or a castellan of the Pope, the 
serfs who were bound to the soil remaining crowded 
together in a wretched place at the foot of the rock.^ 
Such places with the name of Rocca still linger in Baronial 
the mountain districts of Latium, living memorials Latium. 
of the Middle Ages which have not yet passed away. 
The ruler of these castles was a petty monarch with- 
in his district, the owner of the soil and arbiter over 
the life and death of his subjects. All judicial 
power emanated from him, since he possessed the 
merum et mixtum imperium^ the supreme criminal 

^ On December 21, 1232, Oddo de Columpna dom, OUbani sold his 
share of Castr, PttlianiKoA Serronis to the Church. Cencius, fol. 14a 

' Rocca et Castrum Palianiy Rocca et C, Seronis, But also Arx et 
C, Fumonis, where a steward or provost of the Pope dwelt Nympha, 
Tiberia, Norma, Larianum, Falbateria, even Frostnone were Ccutra, 
On the other hand, civitas Tusculana cum arce ejusd, cvuitatis. In 
deeds of Latium we find the formula : quacunque civitas ^ sen centrum 
veiBaro, 



60 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

and civil justice. The popes were too weak to 
wrest these important privileges from the territorial 
nobility, as Frederick II. did, later, in his kingdom, 
when, to the strengthening of the monarchy and the 
benefit of his people, he broke down the defiance of 
the feudal lords. Within the papal states the 
barons continued to retain the supreme jurisdiction, 
and that the popes themselves frequently bestowed 
this right upon them is shown by various documents 
of the thirteenth century. Baronial jurisdiction was 
exercised, moreover, by convents and churches, 
which by donations and purchase had become 
possessed of a disproportionately large part of the 
estates of the Campagna. If Castra still formed a 
commune of free men (cammunitas ox populus) under 
consuls, thefr municipal existence nevertheless was 
greatly restricted by the encroachments made on 
them by the jurisdiction of the secular or spiritual 
ruler. The predominance of a rude and tyrannical 
nobility, unchecked by municipal influences and 
untouched in its lonely fastnesses by the progress of 
time, explains the circumstance that even down to 
the present day Latium remains behind all the other 
provinces of the Church. The communes, which 
throughout the rest of Italy shook off feudal bar- 
barism and fostered a national culture, never de- 
veloped in this district, thinly inhabited by peasants 
and agricultural labourers, over whose wide-spread 
wastes barons and monks remained the rulers. 
E|>isoppai Only a few large places (from ancient times the 
seats of bishops), headed by consuls or podest^, still 
asserted themselves as civitates or city communes 



dtiesin 



Ch. II.] EPISCOPAL CITIES IN LATIUM. 6l 

under the protection of their bishops and the popes. 
They were divided within themselves into the natur- 
ally hostile classes of free citizens {populus) and 
knights (milites). Anagni, Veroli, Velletri, Alatri, 
Frosinone, and Ferentino never passed into the ex- 
clusive power of a baronial dynast. On the contrary 
they possessed their municipal constitution, the right 
of electing their rectors, and the right of making 
treaties of every kind.^ Since, notwithstanding, 
barons with various prerogatives clung like vam- 
pires to the soil, the papal rector had no light task 
in adjusting conflicting rights, or in soothing the 
quarrels between communes, lords, and knights. 
The whole of Campania and the Maritima between 
the Volscian Mountains and the sea, (where Terra- 
cina was the only town of any importance in 
possession of a communal constitution of its own), 
was temporarily governed by a papal legate with Campania 
the title of Rector Campanice et Maritimce. This Maritima. 
former office of Count of the Campagna {Comitatus 
Campania) was administered now by distinguished 
Roman laymen endowed with merely secular 
authority, now by prelates and cardinals with 
twofold power.* 

1 Anagni and Velletri had podest^; in Ferentino Podestas, 
Consil et Pop, (Theiner, i. n. 195, A. 1241). When Gr^ory XI. 
took Suessa under his protection in 1229, he said in his bull : con- 
cedimus vod,, ut in prefictendis vob, Rectorib,^ et in contractib, 
venditionis . . . habeatis ad instar pradictar, citntatum Campanie 
libertatem^ and previously:* sicut Anagniam et alias cizntates, 
Theiner, i. n. 153. Knights and citizens made war on one another in 
Anagni ; bull of Gr^ory says dii, JUiis rectorib, , miHHb, et pop, 
Anagninis, August 11, 1231, n. 161. 

^ After the restoration accomplished by Innocent III. the provinces 



62 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Innocent III/s journey through Latium was taken 
with the purpose of securing the vassals and cities 
in their fidelity to the Church, and of giving, at a 
diet at San Germano, a firmer organisation to the 
province of Sicily, governed by King Frederick. 
At the same time the Pope had yet another object. 
He created a principality on the Liris for his brother 
Richard. The young King who ceded it thereby 
repaid his obligations to the Pope. While Innocent 
remained in the monastery of Fossa Nova near 
^^ Ceccano, Richard Conti, amid the braying of 
Count of trumpets, was proclaimed Count of Sora by a 
^JJ Sicilian protonotary. Besides the ancient town 
his fief comprised a considerable territory, Arpino, 
the home of Cicero and Marius, Arce, Isola, and 
other places. Frederick again ratified Richard in 
the possession of these territories in 1215, when the 
King dissolved the union between them and his 
realm, and formally recognised them as fiefs of 
the Church.^ Thus Innocent created a family estate 
as an outwork beyond the Liris, and extended 
the State of the Church at Frederick's expense. 
Richard's power might now be called princely. 
He already owned the fiefs of the house of Poli, 
received in the same year (1208) Valmontone from 

of the Church formed the following groups i^Campania et Marittma^ 
Pairim, B, Petri in Tuscia, Ducaius SpoUtanus, RomandioUif 
Marchia Anctmitana, For Campania et Marit. we occasionally find 
the ancient expression Comitatus Campania, 

^ Document of Speyer, October 11, 121 5, Murat, Antiq, Ital.^ v, 
663. In 1221 Frederick II. wrested Sora from the Count, whom he 
threw into prison. The Conti in vain claimed back the fief from 
Nicholas IV. in 1288. Ratti, Hist, deliafam. Sforza^ ii. 231. 



Ch. II.] RICHARD CONTI, COUNT OF SORA. 63 

the Pope, and consequently became the ancestor 
of the house of Conti, which was divided into two 
branches, that of Valmontone (later also of Segni) 
and that of Poli. For of his three sons Paul founded 
the first, and John the second line.^ On October 6, 
1208, Richard tendered the oath of vassalage to the 
Pope at Ferentino for all the territories that he had 
acquired.* Can we blame the Romans when they 
accused Innocent of nepotism? He provided 
liberally for his relations, bestowing estates and 
the highest dignities upon them. It was necessary 
to reward them for their many services, and they 

^ Trasmundus = Claricia de Scotta. 



I I 

Innocenz III. Richard Dux Soise. 



I ! I 

Johannes de Polo, Paulus Romanor., Stephanus, 

Comes Albee. Proconsul 1238. Card. S. Adrian!. 

According to the deed of partition of May 3, 1226 (Contelori, n. 4) : 
Paul received Valmontone, Sacco, Fluminaria, &c. ; John Turrim 
Urbis — Ponte Mammolo, Monte Fortino. John, son or grandson of 
Paul, put an entail for his son Adenulf and his grandson John on 
Valmontone, Gabiniano, Sacco, and Fluminaria. The document of 
August II, 1287, contains the first instance of the right of primogeniture 
known to me in Roman territory (Conti-Ruspoli Archives, Busta 
27, 8). The formula : tenecUur restituere . . . ilU primogenitus , . . 
aUeri primogenito stuf masculo nato ex legit, nuUrim, in infinit. et in 
perpet,^ ita quod successive dicta castra et tota Terra prced, et Barona- 
gium semp. applicentur et pervenient ad unum sol. masculum haredem 
primogenitum* {Act, in Castro Vallis Montonis in Majori Palatio 
Curies dicti Domini, ) 

« Ep. xii. 5. Nob, viro Ricardo germano nro, Sorano Cotniti^ dot, 
iMteran, VL Kal, Martii a, XII,^ in which the article of October 6, 
1208, is inserted. The investiture of the fief was made with the chalice 
{per cuppam deauratam). 



64 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

all appear to have possessed conspicuous qualifica- 
tions. 

On November 12, 1208, the Pope returned to the 
Lateran, where he was received by the Rotnans 
with every honour. The city was now completely 
restored to quiet Although the commune occa- 
sionally attempted to set up a senator of their 
own election, the Constitution of 1205 was neverthe- 
less conscientiously upheld during the lifetime of 
Innocent 1 11.^ 



2. Innocent III.'s attitude in the Quarrel for the 
German Throne — Otto of the House of Guelf, 
AND Philip of Swabia — The Capitulation of 
Neuss — ^The State of the Church and its Con- 
fines recognised in Imper^ial Law — Protest of 
Philip's Party against the Interference of the 
Pope in the Royal Election — Coronation of 
Peter of Aragon in Rome. 

Innocent found in the German empire greater 
difficulties than those presented by the State of the 
Church. A twofold election following on the death 
of Henry VI., and the summons of the factions made 
the Pope the protector of the empire. The Guelf 
party, enemies of the Hohenstaufen hereditary 
monarchy and the allies of England, whose King 
Richard had been humiliated by Henry VI., stood 
opposed to the majority of the German electors. 

* Chron, Andrense^ d'Achery, SpiciL^ ii. 843, whence it appears 
that the Senator then in office voluntarily retired : SencUortm urh's, 
qui quasi ipso invito dominium tenuercU, sponte cessurum denuntiat. 



Ch. II.] QUARREL FOR THE THRONE. 65 

Otto, the youthful son of Henry the Lion and of the 
English Princess Matilda, the proteg^ and vassal of 
his uncle Richard, who had made him Duke of 
Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, raised his house 
from the ruin into which the Hohenstaufens had 
thrown it, by the help of English means and of the 
bishops of the Lower Rhine, whose aid he had pur- 
chased. On July 12, 1 198, he was crowned King 
by Adolf of Cologne at Aachen. But the greater 
number, and also the most powerful, of the princes Quarrel for 
had already elected the young Philip of Swabia — in Germany 
the brother of Henry VI. and husband of Irene ^^^^j 
(daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and widow of P*»ii»p- 
Roger III. of Sicily). Philip was crowned in Mainz 
on September 8.^ 

When, in order to preserve the crown to the house 
of Hohenstaufen, Philip, once Frederick's guardian, 
became the usurper of his rights, and when the 
princes set aside the oath which they had sworn to 
Henry's infant son in 11 96, they might plead ex- 
tenuating circumstances. If Innocent III. did not 
defend the rights of his ward, he might allege with 
perfect right that he had only undertaken to protect 
Frederick in his Sicilian inheritance, while Philip 
was the guardian appointed by Henry VI. in 
Germany. Like Gregory VII., Innocent made use 
of a quarrel for the throne to strengthen the Papacy 
at the cost of the empire. And the Papacy was 
strong in its union, the empire crippled by dis- 

^ Concerning these imperial questions see O. Abel, Konig PhUipp^ 
Berlin, 1852, and E. Winkelmann, PkiHpp vcn Schwaben^ <Sr'r., voL i. 
cap. 3. 

VOU V. E 



66 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

union.^ The Acts of the great imperial trial show with 
what statesman-like judgment Innocent extracted the 
greatest profit from the quarrel for the Church. In 
the face of the needs of earthly power, it were vain 
indeed to expect that a pope would sacrifice the 
advantage of his Church for an ideal justice. From 
imuxxnt the beginning Innocent was obliged to favour the 

IILfavours frT^uT- ur-1 

theGueif 9on ot Henry the Lion, whose family was re- 
^^"^ garded as a support of the Church. If he desired to 
dethrone the Hohenstaufens once for all and to set 
up the Guelfs in their place, who can blame him? 
* I cannot," he said with perfect sincerity, " I cannot 
favour Philip, him who has just seized the patrimony 
of the Church for himself, who calls himself Duke of 
Tuscany and Campania, and asserts that his authority 
extends to the gates of Rome, yea even to Tras- 
tevere." ^ Could he venture to require the elevation 
of Frederick ? The son of Henry VI. would again 
have united Sicily with the empire. The popes 
fought the Hohenstaufen design — the favourite 
scheme of Henry VI. — to restore the imperial 
power and found a hereditary monarchy by means 
of the subjugation of Italy and the destruction of 
the State of the Church. They dared not permit 
the foundation of a hereditary monarchy; not for 
the ideal reason that the empire, delivered from the 
* hereditary rights of a dynasty, should, like the elec- 

* EccL per Dei gr, in unitate consistit^ ei imp, peccatis exigentib. est 
divisum. Innocent to Philip's envoys. Baluz, i. 693. 

* DelibercUio D, P, Innoc, super facto imp. de trib. electis^ Ep. 29, 
in which he enumerates all the persecutions inflicted on the Church 
by the Hohenstaufens* 



Ch. II.] THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE. 67 

tive papal monarchy, be ruled only by ** the wisest 
and most pious of emperors"; but from the fear 
that a strong Germany would oppress all other 
countries and also the Church. The popes were 
the natural enemies of the monarchical unity of 
Grermany, as also of Italy. We have consequently 
no difficulty in divining the reason that inspired 
Innocent III. to represent to the electors that 
Germany must never become a hereditary king- 
dom.^ 

In the celebrated document which he sent to 
Germany as the result of his deliberations on the 
quarrel that divided the empire, he explained with 
masterly skill all his arguments for and against both 
candidates. His language was in the main that of 
Gr^ory VII. and Alexander III., whose audacious 
views of papal power his own, however, surpassed. 
In Carolingian times, when the popes had scarcely 
discarded the modest vestments of bishops, they 
regarded the empire as the theocratic organisation 
of this world in which the visible Church took shape 
in a political system. But after the time of Gregory 
VII. the popes degraded this empire to the idea of 
merely material power, and saw in the emperor His view of 
nothing more than the chief vassal of the Church, to tion^flhe 
whom he owed his investiture, and in whose defence S^'PJJ? ^® 

the Church. 

he was to draw his rude temporal sword as secular 
judge for the suppression of heresy.^ While the 

* Letter 33, of March i, 1201. 

' In the Reg. Imp.^ Ep. 32, to Otto, Innocent III. represents the 
imperium merely as mcUerialis gladii potestas for the defence of the 
faith and the extermination of heresy. 



68 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Church of God, that is to say the Papacy, was the 
son that illuminated the universe, the empire (ac- 
cording to the opinion of the priests) moved within 
its orbit only as the overcast moon in the cloudy 
spheres of night, and this adroit play of monkish 
fancy penetrated the minds of men, as were it an 
astronomical fact^ The Church arose as a sublime 
spiritual power, as the universal ideal, and the empire 
sank both in idea and in reality. The subtle philo- 
sophy of the popes measured the origin of the 
princely power, and thus reached views which we 
now call democratic. Every emperor conscious of 
his own dignity was forced to revolt against opinions 
which repeated the principles of Hildebrand, namely, 
that the royal power stood far below the priestly, 
that the pope, as the representative of Christ, 
"through whom kings govern and princes rule," 
was lord of the earth ; that the princely office was 
derived from the tyranny of Nimrod, which was a 
punishment imposed on the Jews, while the sacer- 
dotal office alone was derived from God ; that the 
pope was judge and orderer of the empire, since the 

* Letter i. 401 to the rectors of Tuscany : sic regalis potestas ab 
auctor, ponHficcUi sua sortitur dignitatis splendorem. See also Rig, 
Imp,, 32, to Otto. It was harmless enough to say : ctim Sacerdotium et 
Imp, duo sint luminaria {ma/us et minus) in Ecci, Jirmamento, quib, 
mundus in spiritucUib, et temporalib, veluti die ac nocte claresccU. 
This simile, already employed by Gregory VII. (VIII., Ep. 21), was 
developed by monks with childish fantasy. See the work of the 
Cologne Cistercian Caesarius Heisterbach (about 1220), lUtistrium 
Miraculor, et Historiar, Memorabilium, lib. xii. p. 177 : the Church 
is the firmament ; the sun, the Pope ; the Emperor, the moon ; the 
day, the clergy ; the night, the laity ; the stars, the bishops and 
abbots. 



Ch. II.] THE IMPERIAL ELECTION. 69 

empire had been transferred from Byzantium to the 
land of the Franks through the Church, and since 
the emperor only received his crown from the pope ; 
that, in conformity with its origin and its aim, the 
imperium appertained to the sacred chair; which 
asserted, in short, that the pope held the two 
swords, the secular as well as the spiritual — a theory 
which Dante afterwards so energetically combated 
in his demand for the severance of the two 
powers.^ 

While Otto's electors, heedless of consequences, 
rendered the empire subject to the papal tribunal, 
the princes who supported Philip rose in suspicion 
against the Pope's interference in the imperial elec- 
tion. They warned him to keep within his limits ; 
they even threatened to bring their King by force of 
arms to be crowned in Rome. The Pope replied to 
their protests that he did not oppose the electoral 
right of the princes, but that they themselves must 
recognise that the right of examining into the quali- 
fications of the elect and of making him emperor 
belonged to the pope, who anointed, consecrated, 
and crowned him. Thus the historic attitude of 

* Concerning these maxims the Pope's answer to Philip's envoys 
{Reg, Imp,f 18) is very important : Huic est^ ptod Dominus sacerdotes 
vocauit DeoSy reges autem principes. Further, Ep. 30, 62. Innocent 
expressly says : imperium nosccUur ad earn {sedem AposU )prin£ipaiiUr 
et Jinaliter pertinere. Reg, Imp,, n. 29. Sacerdotium was appointed 
per ordinatianem divinam, regnum atUem per extorsionem humanam, 
Reg, Imp,y 18. In the remarkable introduction to the constitutions of 
Melfi, Frederick himself said (A. 1231) that princes were created 
owing to human necessity, to the distinction between Mine and Thine, 
which succeeded the natural community of property, but also by the 
Divine disposition. 



70 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk. 



Innocent 
III. recog- 
nises the 
election of 
Otto, 
March 



The 

Capitula- 
tion of 
Neuss, 
June 8, 
laoi. 



emperor to pope had become entirely reversed in 
the course of time.^ 

Innocent withheld his decision for three years, 
during which Germany remained exposed to all the 
horrors of civil war ; on March i, 1 201, he pro- 
nounced in favour of the son of Henry the Lion. 
The Romans revived their ancient claims regarding 
the imperial election, but only to recognise the papal 
decision : for the Guelf was proclaimed King of the 
Romans on the Capitol.^ 

The price which Otto paid for his recognition was 
the renunciation of the ancient imperial power through- 
out the greater part of Italy, and the ratification of the 
independence of the new ecclesiastical state. He sub- 
mitted to a treaty imposed upon him at Neuss on 
June 8. \There for the first time the boundaries of 
the State of the Church were determined almost on 
the lines on which they have remained down to the 
latest revolution. The State comprised the territory 
from Radicofani to Ceprano, the Exarchate, the 
Pentapolis, the March of Ancona, the duchy of 
Spoleto, Matilda's property and the county of Brit- 
tenoro, " with other adjacent territories as they had 
been defined in many privilegia promulgated by the 
emperors from Lewis downwards."* Otto, without 

* Reg, Imp., Ep. 14, and also later when the Pope had rejected 
Philip, £p. 61. The explanation of Innocent, Ep. 62. 

* Roger of Wendover, Chron, (ed. Coxe, London, 1841, vol. iii. 
142) : in Capitolio autetn ei per totam urbem declamatum est: Vivatet 
valeat imperaior Otho, 

* Juram, Ottonis, act, Nuxia in Colon, diocesia 1201, VI, Id,Junti 
— Reg, Imp,, Epp. 77, Mon, German,, iv. 205, Reference is made to 
the IMploma of Lewis I., which had been held as genuine since the 



Ch. II.] OTTO AND PHILIP. 71 

mention of Frederick's rights, swore to preserve 
Sicily to the Church ; and with respect to the two 
Italian confederations and to Rome, promised to 
conform to the will of the Pope. This was a matter 
of importance, for the Pope intended to remove the 
Lombard league from every imperial influence. The 
submissive Guelf passed over the rights of the empire 
in silence. The German feudal principalities in the 
Romagna and the Marches, the hitherto unquestioned 
rights of the empire over Spoleto and Ancona, all 
the institutions founded by Henry VI. for the 
purpose of restoring the imperial power in Italy and 
Rome were set aside by this document, which gave 
legal ratification to all the revolutions accomplished 
by Innocent. The celebrated Capitulation of Neuss 
consequently became the first authentic basis for the 
practical authority of the pope in the State of 
the Church. It was recognised by all succeeding 
emperors, and thus the earlier and unauthenticated 
donations from the time of Pipin became incorporated 
in a document of indisputable validity.^ In the face 
of this great document, can we still doubt that, among 
all the various motives that induced Innocent to 
decide for Otto, the strongest was the conviction 
that Philip would never have granted such important 
concessions as those which the weaker Guelf was 
ready to yield? 

time of Gregory VII. There is no mention as yet of Corsica and 
Sardinia. «* 

^ Nevertheless the Romagna remained imperial until 1278. Con- 
cerning these matters see Ficker, Forschungen zur Reichs- und 
R€chtsg$s€h, Italiens^ ii. 469. 



72 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The Pope's decision irritated the patriots in 
Germany. Philip's adherents protested against the 
l^ate Guido of Praeneste, who had violated their 
rights. " When have your popes and cardinals heard/' 
they asked, " that your predecessors or their envoys 
interfered in the election of the Roman kings?" 
They recalled the former imperial rights over the 
papal election ; previously it had been the emperors 
who appointed the popes ; now it was the popes who 
appointed the emperors. The Roman Imperium had 
become a phantom.^ Pride and patriotism were 
wounded by the humiliation of the empire under the 
despotism of papal nuncios, who threw Germany 
into confusion, divided bishoprics and countries, 
declared Philip excommunicate and exhorted his 
G««»n subjects to abjure him. The civil war still raged. 
Victory was now the only means left to Philip to 
convince the Pope of his rights. He did not despair; 
the liberal promises, however, which he made to 
Innocent in 1203, scarcely obtained a hearing. He 
formed an alliance with the old party of Henry VI. 
in Italy; in 1204 he sent Lupoid (whom he had 
invested with the bishopric of Mainz, but who had 
been rejected by the Pope) to the Marches, to call 
Markwald's followers to arms. The bishop succeeded 
in gaining several cities to his side and in holding 
the papal troops in check until 1205.^ Philip also 

* Reg, Ifnp,t 61, where the principle of the severance of the two 
powers is maintained ; and Ep. 62, the Pope's answer to Berthold of 
Zahringen. Philip Augustas, who had formed an alliance with Philip 
of Swabia as early as July 29, 1 198, also protested. Ep. 63. 

' Innocent admonidies the people of Ancona, vii. 88, appealing to 



Ch. II.] CORONATION OF PETER OF ARAGON. 73 

came to an understanding with the Pope's enemies 
in South Italy; and Rome also afforded him the 
opportunity of harassing Innocent by means of party 
divisions.^ 

While protestations against the usurpation by the 
Pope of the post of arbitrator were rife in the empire, 
Innocent showed the world that there were actually 
kings who voluntarily recognised the Vicar of Christ 
as the source of royal authority. The young Peter 
of Aragon, a chivalrous champion of the faith in the 
wars against the Moors, an inexorable exterminator 
of heretics, came to Rome in 1204, to be crowned by 
the Pope. Innocent had himself invited him, for 
he wished at the same time to urge on Frederick's 
marriage with Peter's sister Constance. The kings 
of Aragon had hitherto never coveted any coronation 
ceremony ; their descendant desired it from motives 
of vanity, and paid an incalculable price for the 
empty pageant. The Pope sent an honourable 
escort, among whom was the Senator of the city, to 
meet Peter on November 8, when he landed on the 
island at Ostia.^ The royal guest was lodged in the 
palace of S. Peter ; his coronation, however (Novem- 
ber 1 1, 1204), was not celebrated in the cathedral but 

the will of Henry VI. He sent Cencius, Cardinal of S. Lorenzo in 
Lucina, to them. 

^ Reg, Imp»t £p. 153. Quidam enim dvium RotMmor, adversarii 
iui corrupti pecunia^ gravem seditionem ado, nos commaverunt in urbe 
. . . thus the Pope wrote to Otto in 1208, assuring him that he did 
not abandon his cause, although he was deserted by all, and even the 
Romans revolted. Hie insurrection is that of 1204 and 1205. 

^ Gesta^ c. 120 : Senatorem urbis — ^this was at the time Gregory 
Pierleone Rainerii, shortly before his retirement. 



74 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

in the basilica of S. Pancrazio outside the gate. The 
Innocent Cardinal-bishop of Portus anointed, the Pope crowned 
Peter of the monarch. Peter swore to remain obedient to 
tribuuffv^ the Church and to extirpate heresy; returning to 
>^- S. Peter's, he laid his crown at the apostle's grave, 
offered his kingdom as a votive gift to his namesake 
the Prince of the Apostles, and pledged himself to 
the payment of an annual tribute to the sacred chair. 
The fanaticism of this prince, who quite unnecessarily 
made himself a vassal of the Pope, is significant of 
the Spanish mind even of these early times; the 
States of Aragon reproached him on his return with 
treason to the liberty of his native country, and his 
fantastic action eighty years later gave the Pope, as 
feudal lord of the country, the right of taking Aragon 
from Peter's family and transferring it to a prince of 
France.^ But of what importance was Aragon's 
oath of vassalage compared to the inestimable glory 
which the same Pope, Innocent III., acquired a 
few years later, when a successor of William the 

^ Ordff coronationis Petri regis Aragonuniy in Brequigny, 
Diplomata, vol. iL 697. Gesta^ c 121, which also gives the deed of 
investiture. A king admitted that which Innocent wished to accom- 
plish : Cum corde credam et ore conjitear^ quod Rom, Pontif, qui est 
B, Petri successor, Vicarius sit illius per quem reges regnant et 
principes principantur^ qui dominatur in regno hominum et cui 
voluerit dabit, ego Petrus — tibi — summe Pont, — offero regnum 
pteum, . . . 

' Zurita, Annates de Aragon, ad A. 1204, p. 91. Peter re- 
embarked at Ostia, touched at Cometo, and gave this town a com- 
mercial privil^um, dat, Cometi m, Nov, A,D. 1204 (Codex in the 
Archives of Cometo, called Margarita Cometana, foL 89 t. ). The 
King fell in 12 13 fighting in the Albigensian War, near Castel Maurel, 
where he had gone to the aid of his brother-in-law Raymond of 
Toulouse. 



Ch. II.] PHILIP'S CORONATION. 75 

Conqueror, who had so ironically repudiated Gregory 
VII/s claims to the supremacy of the sacred chair, 
when the King of England himself, as a tributary 
vassal, also received his crown from the hands of a 
papal legate! 



3. Revulsion of feeling in Philip's favour in 
Germany — Philip's Negotiations with the 
Pope — He is murdered — Otto recognised as 
King in Germany — His Journey to Rome and 
Coronation — Battle in the Leonina. 

The fortune of war and public opinion in Germany 
meanwhile turned in Philip's favour. Right, good 
sense, and advantage triumphed over a narrow- 
minded and unpatriotic policy. Several princes of 
the empire, hitherto the most obstinate opponents 
of the Hohenstaufens, made submission or abjured 
the Guelf and English party. 

On January 6, 1205, Philip, re-elected and 
recognised also by the princes of the Lower Rhine, 
was crowned in Aachen by the Archbishop Adolf pwup 
of Cologne, on the very spot where the same prelate ^dhSE?*'' 
had formerly set the crown on Otto's head The J*"- ^i 
opposition of the Pope was now the sole hindrance 
to the universal recognition of the Hohenstaufen 
on the throne. Innocent no longer refused to hold 
negotiations with Philip respecting a peace in the 
empire, and the King answered by a detailed letter. 
This remarkable document, the justification of all 
Philip's actions, bears the stamp of a genuine spirit 
of conciliation and of unadulterated truth. The 



76 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

declaration, that in ever3rthing that the Church laid 
upon him he was resolved to submit himself to the 
sentence of the cardinals and princes, while he 
would keep silence, as religious reverence com- 
manded, concerning all that the empire laid to the 
charge of the Pope, created the most favourable 
impression.^ The Patriarch of Aquileia himself 
and other envoys, who brought fresh proposals to 
the Pope, bore witness to the Catholic disposition 
of the Hohenstaufen. Innocent saw that he had 
already attained the purpose which he had in view 
in the quarrel for the crown, that of transforming 
his post of arbitrator into a papal right recognised 
by all. For Philip also was forced to bow before 
him, as Otto had bowed, The revulsion of feeling 
in Germany compelled the Pope to change his 
policy, and to accommodate his attitude in matters 
of statesmanship to circumstances. His negotia- 
tions with Philip expose him to the reproach of 
duplicity, a reproach with which Gregory VII. had 
Innocent been charged in like circumstances. In the begin- 
din«!to ning of the year 1206 he upbraided John of England 
^IjJ^' ^jj^ and the British nobles for not having given Otto 
was now sufficient support; he exhorted Otto to continued 
^'^ perseverance, and urged the German princes to yield 
him aid. After the middle of the year 1206, how- 
ever, and after the fall of Cologne in August, the 
negotiations with Philip became more active. The 
victorious Hohenstaufen declared himself ready to 
accord a truce to his rival, a measure of all things 
most desired by Innocent In the summer of 1207, 
^ H^, Imp., 136 (of Jnne 1206, Bohmer-Ficker, 134). 



Ch. II,] PHILIP RELEASED FROM THE BAN. JJ 

the cardinal legates Hugolino and Leo consequently 
came to Germany, to arrange the peace between 
the two pretenders to the thrpne. They were, how- 
ever, unsuccessful. But when Philip, a man of 
greater goodness of character than real statesman- 
like capacity, submitted to the conditions imposed 
upon him in affairs ecclesiastical, he was (to Otto's 
profound dismay) released from the ban. For the Herdeaaes 
concerns of Italy it was important that Italian t^ba^" 
princes had received their feudal patents from Philip 
even before his absolution.^ As early as the spring 
of 1208 he appeared as King of the Romans, 
demanded from the Tuscan cities, to which he had 
sent Wolfger of Aquileia as his legate, the rights of 
the empiric, which they had appropriated during the 
interregnum, and obtained entire recognition from 
them.* 

Philip's victory over Otto was decisive, even as 
regards the Pope ; but the most difficult task for the 

^ Thomas of Savoy and Azzo of Este. Bohmer-Ficker, 148, 151. 
The City Archives of Assisi contain a privilegium by which Philip gives 
the commune the liberty of electing consuls, Ulm, July 29, 1205. 
Testes sunt : Heinricus marsccUcus de Kaltndin, Heinr, de SmaUtucke, 
Frid.dapiferdeWalpurc, Wemker' de b&ulande, Diedo de Rabenspurc, 
Dai, ap. Ulmam a. d. Incam, MCCV, Quarto Kl Aug. Ind. VIII. 

* In the Archives of Siena, n. 77, is a treaty between Philip and 
Siena of June 23, 1208, which is important as regards his recognition in 
Italy. All citizens, between the ages of fifteen and seventy, swear fidelity 
to the King, and the restoration of all the property that had belonged 
to the empire at the death of Henry VI. . . . Hac om. suprad. Ego 
Wolfgerus deigr. Aquil. Patriar. tocius lialie legat, nom. et vice D. 
R^gis Philippi Hbijohi Struozi senens, Potestati^promitto . • . una 
cum Henrico de Stnainecge et Eberhardo de Luottere. Wol%er, 
Burggrave of Magdeburg, and these two nobles had been sent by 
Philip as agents to Rome. 



78 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

envoys of both sides remained in the arrangement 
of the imperial rights and the ratification of the 
acquisitions of the Church in Central Italy. Philip, 
who as duke had owned Matilda's estates and 
Tuscany, was reluctant to surrender the rights of 
the empire, as disgracefully as Otto had surrendered 
them. Whether he repeated the proposal to bestow 
his royal daughter on a nephew of the Pope, the son 
of the upstart Richard, and to endow her with the 
disputed lands of Tuscany, Spoleto, and Ancona as 
a marriage portion, is questionable.^ Such a 
promise had been given in 1205, but it better 
accorded with the ambition of the first Pope who 
created a principality for his brother, to make such 
demands, than with the King to grant them. The 
real tenor of the offers made at this time is 
doubtful. It is scarcely likely that they were insig- 
nificant; since the demands of the Pope could not 
have yielded in importance to the concessions 
granted at the Capitulation of Neuss. Germany, 
rent asunder, suffered her most private affairs to be 
brought before the tribunal of Rome, but the voice 
of wounded national feeling still reaches us from those 
distant times in the verses of patriotic poets.* It was 
already foreseen that, in case Otto would not agree 
to an amicable settlement. Innocent himself would 

* The report was current in the world ; the Abbot of Ursperg 
heard it and it was repeated by Frederick II. in 1226 : Hetruriam 
mihi adolescenti stiblaturus per nuptias Philippum patruum deluHt 
(Hist. DipL Frid, II,, t. ii. 933). Promissa Philippi, M, Germ., iv. 
209, for the year 1205, in which Philip expresses himself willing to 
give his daughter to a nephew of the Pope. 

• Walter von der Vogelweide frequently inveighs against the Pope. 



Ch. II.] DEATH OF PHILIP. 79 

consent legally to deprive him of the empire, when 
the result of strenuous efforts and the hopes of 
Germany were destroyed by a cruel sword thrust. 
King Philip fell by the murderous hand of Otto of Murder oi 
Wittelsbach at Bamberg on June 21, 1208. The PhS^, 
death of the young prince after so laborious aJ^^'» 
career, and on the eve of victory, is one of the 
most tragic events in German history. With Philip 
expired the Hohenstaufen race in Germany. Of 
the glorious house of Barbarossa one solitary heir 
survived — Frederick, the ward of Innocent III., 
estranged from the nation even as a child, and de- 
tained amid the storms of misfortune in far-off Sicily. 
An instant changed the fortunes of the world, linked 
afresh the destinies of Italy and Germany, and drew 
both nations, the empire and the Papacy, into a 
labyrinth of strife, which the course of a century was 
not sufficient to appease. 

Innocent was deeply stirred by the event which 
suddenly changed his plans. Nevertheless he failed 
at the time to grasp the immeasurable gravity of the 
moment. To the politician it appeared an accident 
which again made him master of affairs and delivered 
him from a contradictory position ; to the priest in 
the light of a divine judgment pronounced in the 
contest for the empire. 

No choice remained; the Guelf Otto, who had 
been renounced, must be recognised forthwith, innocent 
Innocent at once wrote to him ; assured him of his JiJ^s'ouo 
affection, pointed out his speedy elevation to the ^v. 
imperial throne, but also showed him in the dis- 
tance his enemy, the nephew of the murdered 



80 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Philip.^ A formidable rival existed for Otto in the 
King of Sicily, the lawful heir to the rights of the 
Hohenstaufens, a rival whom the Church could arm 
as soon as she deemed it advantageous. It is highly 
interesting to watch Frederick's youthful figure in a 
menacing attitude in the background, from which 
the Pope himself was soon to summon him, to the 
ruin alike of Church and empire. 

Innocent sincerely desired the settlement of the 
tedious quarrel for the throne and the l^al recogni- 
tion of his ecclesiastical state therein involved. He 
had no doubt of obtaining this recognition from Otto, 
whom he still held bound by the fetters of the 
Capitulation of Neuss. Grermany, longing for peace, 
did homage to the Guelf Sorrow, patriotism, and 
necessity combined to bring about a solemn recon- 
ciliation, in which the ancient quarrel between the 
two houses seemed to be ended, when Otto came to 
Frankfort (on November ii, 1208), was proclaimed 
King by all the states of the empire, and soon after 
affianced himself to the orphan daughter of Philip, 
his hereditary foe.* 

The journey to Rome was announced. Previously, 
however (on March 22, 1209), Otto renewed at 
Speyer the Capitulation of Neuss. The State of the 
Church was recognised in its full extent ; great con- 
cessions concerning the independence of the Church 

* Reg, Imp.f 153 : quamvis nepos ipsius mm tibi adversarium se 
0ppOHat—9L, remarkable presentiment. 

' Otto did not marry the young Beatrice until August 7, 12 12. She 
gave her hand to the enemy of her house while he was under the ban, 
and died four days after on August 1 1. 



Ca. n.] OTTO, KING OF THE ROMANS. 8 1 

from the power of the State, by which the Con- 
cordat of Calixtus II. lost its force, were added,^ 
Of the imperial rights in the provinces now ceded 
to the Church Otto retained nothing, beyond the 
miserable Foderum on the journey to Rome, embodied 
in the treaty as it were in derision. For the first time 
in the history of the empire, a king of the Romans 
called himself " elect by the grace of God and of the 
Pope." Otto was forced to acknowledge that he 
owed his election to the Pope alone. The King swore 
to that which the emperor was not able to perform. 

Italian envoys coming to do homage appeared at 
Augsburg in January with the keys of their cities, 
among which were those of great Milan, which hailed 
with joy the accession of a Guelf Otto had appointed 
the Patriarch Wolfger as his legate in Italy, in order 
that he might watch over the rights of the empire 
in Lombardy, Tuscany, Spoleto, the Romagna, and 
the Marches.2 For even after the peace of Constance 
and the treaties with the Pope, a semblance of 
supreme authority remained to the emperor in the 
cities of Italy, as also several fiscal rights even in 
the Romagna and the Marches. The popes did not 
deny this authority. Innocent himself exhorted the 

^ Liberty of electing the chapter to the clergy. Right of appeal to 
Rome. Renunciation of the jus spoliu Extermination of heretics. 
Mon. Germ^y iv. 216 ; Reg, Imp.y 189 ; Ficker, Forsch,y ii. n. 365. 

' Augsburg, January 13, 1209. Bohmer-Ficker, 259. I note two 
more documents in the Archives of Siena, n. 83 and 84. On July 3, 
1209 : the Siennese declare to the Patriarch, as Otto's legate, that 
they would remain fidthful to the Emperor and would preserve the 
estates of Henry VI. for him. On July 4, 1209: the Patriarch 
refuses the provisional protection of the property. 

VOL. V. F 



82 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

cities in Lombardy and Tuscany to obedience to 
the royal envoy, but reminded this envoy that 
according to treaty he only occupied Matilda's estates 
on behalf of the Church. 
Otto's When Otto, coming from Augsburg through Tyrol, 

^!^ej *° descended with a great army on the plain of the Po 
'*^ in August 1209, no one intercepted the progress of 
the Guelf to Rome.^ It was Italy's misfortune that 
her cities were unable to form a permanent con- 
federation. Had such a confederation existed, no 
German king after the death of Henry VI., would 
have been able to overcome the barrier interposed 
by thickly populated Lombardy. The glorious 
struggle which the Lombards waged for independence 
neither extinguished the tradition of the Roman 
empire, which even in after times inflamed the 
Italians with passionate enthusiasm, nor brought 
any lasting benefit to the nation. In fact after the 
victory at Legnano the Italian republics were as 
utterly incapable of creating a political nation, as 
were the Greeks after the days of Marathon and 
Plataea. While the communes were inflamed by 
struggles concerning their constitution and in civil 
wars, the figures of those city tyrants, who have 
impressed so remarkable a character on the history 
of Italy, began to arise. Ezzelino of Onara and 
Azzo, Margrave of Este, mortal enemies, accusers 
of one another before Otto, were the leaders of the 

* Dux Saxonte — Otto venit in Lonibardiam cum magno exercitu^ 
in cujus terribili adventu tremuit Italia^ et nimio pavore concussa est, 
Monach, Padov. Chron, Estense^ Murat., xv. 301. On August 14 he 
encamped at Peschiera : Bohmer-Ficker, 291 h. 



Ch. II.] otto's journey to ROME. 83 

two parties, who kept the country distracted during 
two centuries. Beside them appeared the Ghibelline 
Salinguerra of Ferrara, their equal in ambition and 
courage.^ 

When for the first time an emperor of the house 
of Guelf advanced through Lombardy, all the enemies 
of the Hohenstaufen may have expected to receive 
his exclusive favour. They were, however, deceived, 
for the friends of the imperial power were no longer 
the enemies of a Guelf who was emperor. Azzo 
saw his rival highly honoured in Otto's camp. The 
Guelf city of Florence was threatened with a fine 
of one thousand marks, and Ghibelline Pisa rewarded 
with charters and induced to sign a treaty. 

Innocent received Otto in September at Viterbo. 
On this, their first meeting, the King of the Romans 
must have told himself that, had it not been for the 
intervention of an assassin, this very Pope would 
have inevitably placed the crown on the head of his 
enemy. We cannot feel drawn to men whose benefits 
are dictated by selfish calculation and are bought at 
the highest prices. The policy of the Pope must 
have left a bitter desire for revenge in Otto's soul, 
and Innocent's glance may perhaps have penetrated 
the mask of grateful reverence behind which the 
King concealed his resentment After difficult 
negotiations Innocent was obliged to renounce his 

^ The scene of the reconciliation effected by Otto between these 
three great captains is a precious episode in Gerhard Maurisius 
(Murat., viii. 20), Salinguerra : Saliens in giurram, Azzo was the 
first city t3rrant, since Ferrara, whence he had expelled Salinguerra, 
entrusted him with the signory in 120S. Muratori, Ant, Est,^ i. 
3S9 ; La Farina, Studj.^ i. 837. 



1909. 



84 ROME IN THE MTODLE AGES. [Bk« iz. 

demand, that before his coronation Otto should Innd 
himself by oath to concede to the Church everything 
irfiich, previous to the year 1 197, had been a subject 
of dispute between her and the empire.^ The Pope 
hastened before him to Rome, and on October 2, 
after a military force, under the Chancellor Conrad 
of Speyer and Grunzelin, high steward of the empire, 
had occupied the Leonina, Otto encamped on Monte 
Mario. There, according to ancient custom, he 
swore security to the Curia and the Roman people.* 
Otto IV. The coronation took place in S. Peter^s on October 
2Sp»or, 4> 1 209. While the army remained in tents, a portion 
^4» of the troops (they were Milanese) held the bridge of 
the Tiber to prevent an attack on the part of the angry 
Romans. The reader will be unable to restrain an 
ironical smile, as he observes how regularly hostilities 
were repeated by the Romans on every imperial 
coronation. As the Germans approached the city 
the Romans barred their gates; the Emperor and 
his retinue cast inquisitive glances on mighty Rome, 
from whose wonders they remained excluded. It is 
a curious fact that only a very few of the emperors 
ever trod the streets of the city itself Otto never 
entered it' The Romans who had proclaimed him 

^ Winkelmann, ii. 194. 

' Ratification of Otto, dot, in eastris in Monte Male ; 4 Non. 
Octbr. Ind. XIII, Mm. Germ., iv. 218 ; Reg, Imp,, Ep. 192. The 
Ckron, Slavar, (Leibnitz, Rer, Brunsw,, ii. 743) gives the numbers of 
the anny : 6000 men at arms, archers, and an innumerable company 
of vasiali. 

' It u not true that Otto advanced crowned through the streets. 
Concerning the occupation of the bridge of the Tiber, see Reineri, 
AnnaUs ad A. 1209, Mon, Germ,^ xvi 662. 



ch. II.] otto's coronation. 85 

in 1 201 would now have willingly recognised him, 
had he condescended to recompense their votes with 
lai^esses. When (eighteen years earlier) Henry VI. 
came to his coronation, he had been obliged to gain 
the votes of the then free and powerful city by a 
treaty. Otto IV. did not require to do so. This 
irritated the people. The Senate and even some 
cardinals opposed the coronation ; the citizens met 
in arms on the Capitol.^ 

The coronation ceremony ended, it was only with 
difficulty that the procession made its way through 
the closely serried ranks of soldiers to the bridge of 
S. Angelo. Here the Pope took leave of the 
Emperor, to return to the Lateran. The following 
day he required Otto to leave Roman territory, a 
request which was an open affiront to the imperial 
majesty.^ Meanwhile a dispute set the hatred of the 
Romans aflame. The traditionary coronation battle 
was fought in the Leonina, and after severe losses on 
both sides Otto repaired to his quarters on Monte 
Mario. Here he remained encamped some days 
longer and meanwhile demanded indemnity or satis- 
faction from the Pope and the Romans.^ 

^ CiffUradtceniib, pro maxima parte Romanis : Rigord, De GesHs 
Phil, Aug,^ p. 51. The Brunswick Rhyming Chronicle (Leibnitz, 
Rer. Brun,^ iii. 120) : Innen des was der Senat zfon Rohm und der 
Raht alU stumal komen iiber eine, Sie wmeten^ dass mil Ine Keine 
Rede were gethan, Dass man da soli han Die Weyhung keyserliek\ 
Des wardtje hertz zomesreich. We have no documents to show who 
was Senator at this time. 

• Ad-'portam Roma (Bridge of S. Angelo), et D, Papa ibi eum 
ienedixit, licentiamt^ et rogamt eum, ut alio die adveniente recedtret a 
territorio Romano, Chron, Fossa Nova, 

There was fighting even during the coronation Geremony. G. 



86 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



4. Breach between Otto IV. and the Pope — 
Innocent is undeceived — Complete Transfor- 
mation OF the Guelf Emperor into a Ghibelline 
— Otto enters Apulia — Is excommunicated by 
the Pope — The Germans summon Frederick of 
Sicily to the Throne — Otto IV. returns to 
Germany. 

Scarcely in possession of the imperial crown, Otto 
IV. found himself placed in a position of entire 
variance with the duties which he had sworn to the 
empire ; above all, Matilda's property formed a 
difficult subject of discussion between him and the 
Church. He withdrew from his camp near Rome to 
Isola Farnese, whence he wrote to the Pope and 
begged for an interview, even were it in Rome, 
whither he would come at the peril of his life. The 
wary Innocent, however, refused, and desired that 
negotiations should be conducted through envoys.^ 
He sent his chamberlain Stephen to the Emperor. 

Langerfeldt, Kaiser Otto IV„ der Welfe^ Hanover, 1872, Chroniclers 
seek the cause of the fighting in Otto's refusal to give the Romans 
expenses t quas ab Imp. Rom. ex debito petebant ; so says Rigord and 
likewise Franc. Pipinus, Murat., ix. 637 ; similarly Chron, Imp, et 
summer. Pontif, (Cod. 5, Plut. xxi., in the Laurentian Library). 
According to Maurisius {Hist, Eccelini^ Murat, viii. 21), Ezzelino 
II. distinguished himself in the combat. The Brunswick Rhyming 
Chronicle erroneously represents the Pope as accompanying the 
Emperor on his departure two miles on his way. 

* Sub periculo persona nra. advos urbem intrare decrevimus, Reg. 
Imp.^ Ep, 193. Answer of the Pope of October ii, Ep. 194 : de 
negotiovero terra ^ unquestionably *'das Landt Frawen Mechtilde," 
as the Rhyming Chronicle calls the first object of the dispute. 



Ch. II.] BREACH BETWEEN OTTO AND THE POPE. 87 

Otto retired further into Tuscany.^ He went to Otto iv. 
Lucca, to Pisa, and to Florence. treaty con- 

He was surrounded in his camp by bishops and ^^e^^p^^*^ 
nobles covetous of fiefs, such as Salinguerra, Azzo, 
Ezzelino, and the Count Palatine Ildebrandino ot 
Tuscany ; ^ Dipold of Acerra soon joined the number. 
Possessed of the imperial crown Otto quickly de- 
veloped into a Ghibelline. He resumed the work 
of his predecessor at the point where it had been 
interrupted by this predecessor's death. He deter- 
mined to recover for the empire all the property that 
Innocent had annexed to the Church. He revived 
the privileges of Henry, enticed Henry's adherents 
to his side, disposed of Italian estates in the same 

* On October 7 he was near Isola Faraese (Bohmer-Ficker, 304). On 
the I2th, adpedem Montis-Flasconis, On 21, Smis, On 25, at Poggi- 
bonsi, where he invested the city of Pisa with Corsica. On 29, at 
S. Miniato, where several German princes took leave of him. I add 
a privilegium for Siena (S. Miniato, October 29), copy in the Archives 
of Siena, n. 85, and KaUffotunjo^ f. 610, in which he remits the sums 
due to the fiscus since the death of Henry VI. Further, an original 
diploma for Siena (Foligno, December 14, 1209) : Gratiose liberalitatis 
. . • Siena received the liberty of electing her consuls under imperial 
investiture, on payment of seventy marks of silver annually, payment 
being made to the imperial bailiff in S. Miniato fifteen days after Easter 
(JCaleffb n., ibid, ). Then a privilegium given to the Bishop of Chiusi, 
to whom the Emperor ceded the town, Foligno, December 13, 1209. 
Among the witnesses is Yadlinus de Trevisio (Orvieto, City Archives). 
On December 24 he issued at Temi a privilegium for S. Maria and S* 
Anastasius in that town. Bohmer wrongly assigns this document to 
January i, 12 10. The deed in the City Archives of Temi says Dot, 
Interamnes A.D, MCCVIIII. VIII. Kal, Jan, Ind, XIII, 

^ At S. Miniato, November i, 1209, Otto IV. confirmed the diploma 
of investiture given to Hildebrandinus palatinus comes Tuscia, by 
Henry VI. on April 27, 1195. Winkelmann, Acia Imp, ined, sac, 
XIII, (Innsbrtick, 1880), 31. 



88 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

way as the Hohenstaufens had done, and en- 
deavoured to restore the German feudal principali- 
ties destroyed by the Pope. In January 12 lo he 
bestowed the March of Ancona, with all the rights 
which Markwald had possessed, on Azzo of Este ; 
at the same time he invested Dipold of Acerra with 
the duchy of Spoleto, which had formerly been held 
by Conrad. This proved an additional cause of 
irritation to the Pope, Dipold being the declared 
enemy of the young Frederick of Sicily.^ Otto gave 
to Ssdinguerra the estates of Medicina and Argelate 
which had belonged to Matilda, and appointed 
Lionardo of Tricarico Count of the Romagna.* In 
April the court .was established in Milan. 

In order to defend himself against Otto's open 
attacks in Central Italy, Innocent again sought pro- 
tection from the Tuscan and Umbrian cities; on 
February 28, 12 10, Perugia promised to defend the 
patrimony of S. Peter.^ 

^ Dipold forthwith assumed the title of : magister capitanem Apulie 
it Terre Laboris, Winckelmann, ii. 232. 

* Azzo's patent of investiture (without Ravenna) is dated Chiusii 
January 20, 12 10 (Murat., Ant, Est., I 392). Innocent had already 
invested Azzo with the March ; Azzo's son Aldebrandino with Ancona, 
Asculum, &C., in November 121 2, for which he was in return to place 
100 troopers at the disposal of the Church for one month in the year 
/«r totum ipsius Eccl, patriman. a mare usq, ad tnare, et a Radicofano 
usq, Ceperanum. The remarkable document of May 10, 1213, is given 
in Theiner, i. n. 56. Aldebrandino died in 121 5, on which his brother 
Azzo VII. became feudal lord of the Marches. Salinguerra's tenure 
was also confirmed by Innocent, on September 7, 1215 (i. n. 59). Con- 
cerning the imperial restoration in Italy see E. Winkelmann, Phil, v, 
Schwaben und Otto IV., ii. p. 205 f. 

' Archives of Perugia, Lib, Summission,, voL f. ^- 102. The 
people of Perugia swore with the consent of their podestiL Pandulfiis 



Ch. II.] BREACH BETWEEN OTTO AND THE POPE. 89 

The awakening was humiliating and terrible. The 
laborious efforts which the Pope had made to place 
a Guelf on the imperial throne were turned to derision 
by his own creature. He complained that he was 
ill-treated by the man whom, contrary to the almost 
universal desire, he had exalted, and that he had now 
to endure the reproaches of those who considered 
that he deserved his fate, since he was wounded by 
the sword which he himself had forged.^ We cannot 
fail to recognise a just judgment in the desperate 
position of the Pope ; for had he not made himself 
the head of a party in the imperial question ? 

The history of Qtto IV, reveals an irrefutable 
truth, which is at the same time the most trium- 
phant vindication of the Hohenstaufens and all such 
emperors, as savage hatred has branded as enemies 
of the Church. If the first and only emperor of 
Guelf race, whom the popes succeeded in raising to 
the throne, became transformed in their hands from 
an obedient creature into an enemy, it follows that 
the transformation must have been necessitated by 
insuperable conditions. Otto IV., as afterwards Otto iv. 
Frederick II., fought against heresy with the sword ^SdSifc 

de Subora : quamdefension^facerepromiseruntacw* Perusit infra usq, 
ad urb, Romanam, The Pope promised : Si venerit adpacem cum 
Imp, — civitaiem Perusii ponet in pace cum Imp,, and to respect the 
customs of Perugia, the liberty of electing consuls and podestsL 

* He exclaimed : pcmitet mefecisse kominem ! Letter to the Arch- 
bishop of Ravenna of Mardi 4, 1210, Ep. xiii. n. 21a — Cum 
Rackele plangimus filium nee possumus consolari — lapis quem ereximus 
in caput anguli , . • in petram scandali est conversus ; thus he wrote 
in November 1 2 10. " Twelve letters of the Pope illustrating the History 
of Frederick 11.," published by Winkelmann, Forsch, «. Deutschen 
Gesch.^ 1875, voL xv. p. 375. 



go ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

and with edicts, and never encroached on the dog- 
matic territory of the Church. As soon as he became 
Emperor, however, he rose against the founder of 
the new State of the Church, the Pope, who claimed 
Italy for himself, and frankly declared that he was 
also supreme ruler ol the empire. It the pane- 
gyrists of papal claims succeed in showing that it 
was the Emperor's duty to yield submission to the 
Pope, as Aragon and England had yielded it, and to 
admit that all monarchs, yea every creature on earth, 
was subject to the Roman bishop, they will silence 
all opponents. Every unprejudiced judge will, how- 
ever, maintain that an exaggerated ideal of the 
Papacy since the time of Gregory VII. had displaced 
the rational boundaries between Church and empire, 
and that the ever-recurring contest was only the 
necessary struggle for the restoration of the balance 
between the two powers. The popes in their struggle 
for European dominion were inspired, first by a moral 
principle ; but since the moral order penetrated all 
practical relations of society, civil law was in danger 
of being swallowed up by canon law, and the ecclesi- 
astical tribunal threatened to become the political 
tribunal also. The emperors rose, in the name of 
the independence of the empire and its laws, against 
the Roman hierarchy. And since the continued 
existence of the empire seemed to demand it, they 
again embraced the ideas of the secularisation of 
the Church, and constantly returned to attack the 
ecclesiastical ascendancy in its temporal possessions 
— its heel of Achilles. They were conservative, since 
they fought for the existence of the imperium, and 



Ch. II.] BREACH BETWEEN OTTO AND THE POPE. QI 

to them the popes appeared as innovators and revolu- 
tionaries. We may lament as a proof of their blind- 
ness, the fact that they were unable to renounce Italy 
or even the Papal State ; this fatal error, however, 
was due to the conception of the empire, which 
endured with such obstinacy as to survive the empire 
itself ; and it in turn found constant nourishment in 
the attacks of the Papacy on the imperial power and 
the rights of the crown. 

Every one must condemn the perjury of Otto IV. ; 
every judicious critic will explain his guilt by the 
pbsition of tragic conflict in which he was involved 
by his vow to the empire and his Concordat with 
the Church. "I have sworn" — thus spoke the un- 
happy prince afterwards — " to preserve the majesty 
of the empire and to recover all the rights which it 
had lost. I did not deserve the ban ; I do not 
meddle with the spiritual power ; on the contrary, I 
will rather protect it ; but as Emperor I will be judge 
of all temporal matters throughout the empire."^ 
Thus spoke an Emperor who was undoubtedly no 
Henry III., no Barbarossa, no Henry VI., one who, 
in order to gain the vote of the Lateran, had re- 
cognised the Pope as arbitrator over the empire, 
and had ceded to the Pope by written agreement 
rights which he now revoked in defiance of the law. 
This was his weakness, his condemnation, and the 
cause of his inevitable fall. Innocent, who with 
Roman astuteness had thrown a network of treaties 

^ Hahn, Collect,, i. 209, n. x. In England the Guelf was defended 
without reserve. Roger of Wendover, iii. 232, and Recueil des Hist, 
(Us Gaules, zviiL 164. 



92 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

over the Guelf, stood at least justified towards the 
Emperor Otto IV. 

Otto would perhaps have advanced less quickly 
over his new path, had he not been dazzled by the 
homage of the Lombard cities and excited by the 
cries of the nobles. During the interregnum both 
nobles and cities had appropriated, here the former 
rights of the empire, there property of the Church 
or estates which had belonged to Matilda ; the con- 
fusion was unbounded, the distinction of claims 
consequently often quite impossible. The Ghibellines 
encouraged Otto to act boldly ; they desired the dis- 
memberment of the new State of the Church and the 
overthrow of papal supremacy in Sicily. Dipold and 
Peter of Celano demanded that the Guelf Emperor 
should restore the rights of the empire in the island, 
and they lent him their weapons against the son of 
Henry VI. The legitimate heir of the house of 
Hohenstaufen must be rendered powerless to harm, 
if Otto wished to secure the future of his own house. 
He first advanced to Tuscany in August, and here 
occupied all the territories which belonged to him as 
Matilda's heir. Some towns, such as Radicofani and 
Acquapendente, as well as Monte-Fiascone, were 
taken by assault ; the district of Viterbo, like the 
territories of Perugia and Orvieto, was laid waste. 
The same Prefect of Vico who had become vassal of 
the Pope now also did homage to the Emperor.^ 
3tto IV. Otto at length resolved to enter Apulia, the kingdom 

;>roceedsto 

'^^^^ ^ He appears among the witnesses of an imperial privilegiam for 

Imola, September i6, 1210, a$iU ViUrbitun, Bohmer-Ficker 439, 
and as early as March 30, 12 10, n. 37a 



Ch II.] BREACH BETWEEN OTTO AND THE POPE. 9 J 

of the boyish Frederick ; he left Rieti in November, 
entered the Marsian territory through Sora, Richard's 
county, and proceeded onwards to Campania. He 
entered winter quarters in Capua.^ 

Since Otto IV. evidently regarded Sicily, the most 
important fief of the Church, as a province of the 
empire, to which he sought to secure it again, 
the Pope excommunicated him on November i8. The Pope 
12 lo, only a year after his coronation. In a trans- municates 
port of anger he destroyed his own creature like^^^pg^^, 
a cumbersome idol.* The crown which he had Nov. 121a 
bestowed on the Guelf, he now determined to snatch 
from his head at any cost whatever. These events 
are so full of political as well as personal inconsist- 
encies, of complications as well as subtle artifices, 
that they must rank among the most memorable in 
history. 

Otto IV. no longer allowed himself to be deterred 
by any hindrance, not even by continued negotiations 
on the part of the Pope, from subjugating South 
Italy. In the following year nearly all the cities, 
even Naples itself, surrendered. He advanced to 
Taranto. The Saracens in Sicily awaited him, and 
Pisan vessels stood ready to convey his troops to the 
island. In Rome, which he had so closely cut off 
that neither messengers nor pilgrims could enter, he 
still had supporters. Peter, the City Prefect, had 

^ Chron, Fossa N,ad A,^ 1 2 10. At this time Peter of Celano held 
Capua and Dipold Salerno. Rich, of S. Germano, ad A, I2ia 

' The excommunication was only proclaimed in all its solemnity on 
March 31, 121 1. Innocent informed the German princes of it in 
April 1211. Bohmer, Acta Imp, Sel,^ 921. 



94 ROME IN THE BfTODLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

seceded to his side ; the malcontents eagerly joined 
the Emperor. Innocent was blamed as the author 
of all the divisions in the empire. He was accused 
of being faithless and inconstant because he had 
first taken part with, and then persecuted, Otto. 
When he was delivering an edifying sermon in 
presence of the Romans, the old popular leader John 
Capocci rose up and cried, " Thy mouth is as the 
mouth of God, but thy works are like the works of 
the devil." i 

Meanwhile Otto's authority was already tottering 
on the other side of the Alps. Fanatic monks 
scoured Grermany as emissaries of the Pope, and his 
legates undermined the throne of the Emperor. 
Scarcely had the excommunication become known, 
when a strong party rose against him. Innocent 
wrote agonised letters confessing his mistake and 
repudiating his creature to the same German princes, 
among whom only a short time before he had 
laboured with such effect to procure Otto's elevation. 
He wrote also to the King of France, who looked on 
with malicious satisfaction. Such was the deep and 
just humiliation of the ambitious priest 

He now summoned the young Frederick himself 
to the throne, from which with cold calculation he 
had on principle excluded him. That he had a can- 
didate ready to hasten Otto's fall satisfied, however, 
his desire for revenge. A number of the German 

* Casar, Heist, Miraculor.^ i 127. In Otto's Regesta the Prefect 
Peter appears for the first time among the Emperor's courtiers on 
March 30, 1210 ; for the last time with his son John in Lodi on 
January 24, 1212, 



Ch. II.] BREACH BETWEEN OTTO AND THE POPE. 95 

princes at Nuremberg declared the Emperor deposed, 
and summoned Frederick of Sicily to the throne. 
Their action obliged Otto to leave Apulia in Novem- 
ber 121 1, and proceed to North Italy, where several 
cities no longer awarded him recognition, and where 
the Margrave of Este had placed himself at the head otto iv. 
of a league against him. As early as the spring of oSn^y^ 
12 1 2 he returned to Germany.^ ""• 

^ On November 22, 1211, at Monte Fiascone he ratified Dipold in 
the duchy of Spoleto, Peter, Prefect of Rome, being among die wit- 
nesses. On January 7, 121 2, he is in Bologna ; in February in Milan ; 
on March 16, in Frankfort. Reg, 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bi 



CHAPTER III. 

I. Frbdbrick resolves to go to Germany — Combs 
TO Rome — Is crowned at Aachen in 12 15 — Vows 
A Crusade — Lateran Council — Death of Inno- 
cent III. — His Character — Temporal Supre- 
macy OF THE Papacy. 

Summoned by the Pope, the young hereditary 
enemy of Otto's house, whom Otto already believed 
to be annihilated, suddenly arose against him like 
David against Saul. A singular destiny ordained 
that Frederick, the chief of the three candidates, and 
possessing the foremost claim, should be the last to 
enter the lists of the great contest for the throne ; 
should restore the house of Hohenstaufen, and should 
endow it with a new greatness. In the hand of 
Innocent III. these three competitors were like the 
pieces in a game of chess, played by the Pope 
against each other, and one after the other. They 
had all experienced the indignity of being the 
servants of another's will. The son of Henry VI. 
imbibed a profound hatred of the selfish policy of 
the priests, a hatred which governed his whole life. 
He never forgot either that he had been obliged to 
purchase the protection of the Church with feudal 
homage and the loss of valuable crown-rights, or 
that he had been excluded from the throne of the 



Ch. hi.] FREDERICK SUMMONED TO THE THRONE. 97 

empire, when the Pope had summoned Otto in his 
place. 

Frederick had grown up, like Henry IV. in his day, 
in the midst of the court cabals, and, like Henry IV., 
had acquired in its fullest measure the art of over- 
reaching others. The difficult relations in which 
from his childhood he had stood towards the Roman 
Curia and its enterprises in the empire and in Sicily, 
had taught him the subtlety which he later displayed 
towards the Church. Its statecraft had been his 
school. 

Otto's adversaries summoned him to Germany. The yomig 
Anselm of Justingen, one of their envoys, came toofsiciiyis 
Rome, where he found the Pope and the Romans ?^hT"^ 
ready to recognise Frederick's claims to the Roman German 
crown ; the fact that he was possessed of such claims 
being now suddenly discovered by Innocent.^ Policy, 
the enemy of all ideal greatness, of religious as of 
philosophic virtue, compelled even an Innocent to 
descend to the commonplace, to change his opinions 
and to deny his own aims. For according to his 
view the last Hohenstaufen should have remained a 
vassal of the Church in perpetual exile in Sicily, 
and excluded from all concerns of the empire. Did 
the Pope believe it possible to avert the dreaded 
alliance of Sicily with Germany? It appears that 
he yielded to this delusion. The moment in which 
he summoned the King of Sicily to conquer the 

* Ibique consilio et inierventu D, Papa obtinuit^ utacivibus et Pop, 
Rom, Fridericus imperator collaudaretur^ et de ipso factam elecHonem 
Papa confirtnavit, Chron, Ursperg,^ p. 239. We see that Otto's 
party in Rome was not numerous. 

VOL. V. G 



98 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Roman crown was one of the most fatal in the 
history of the Papacy : to it may be traced a struggle 
destructive both to Church and empire ; to it were 
due the supremacy of the house of Anjou, the Sicilian 
Vespers, and the exile at Avignon. Innocent forged 
the second and the sharper of the swords which was 
to wound the Church. The constant delusion of 
this Pope, at whose feet kings laid their crowns as 
vassals, is the humiliating proof of the blind ignorance 
of even those intellects that most dominate the laws 
and course of the world. 

When the Swabian envoys appeared at Palermo 
in the autumn of 121 1 to offer Frederick the Grerman 
crown, the Queen and the Parliament rose against 
the dangerous invitation. The Sicilians had suffered 
too much through Henry VI. to regard otherwise 
than with hatred any connection with Germany. 
Frederick himself hesitated, then resolved to plunge 
into the waves of an incalculable future. He was at 
this time scarcely eighteen years old and had been 
married, since August 1209, to Constance, daughter 
of King Alfonso of Aragon, the childless widow of 
Emerich of Hungary. He caused Henry, his lately 
born son, to be crowned as King of Sicily, gave the 
regency into the hands of his wife, took ship at 
He comes Messina and hastened to Rome, where he was 
Aprif MIX greeted by the Pope as King-elect of the Romans 
in April 1 2 12. Innocent saw his impecunious ward 
for the first and last time. The grandson of the 
hero Barbarossa stood as emperor-designate before 
him ; he was his creature in a nobler sense than 
Otto IV. ; the creature of his duty, his adopted son. 



Ch. III.] FREDERICK AND INNOCENT III. 99 

for whose advantage he had striven for years. If 
report had represented the youth as a voluptuous 
fool surrounded by a swarm of courtly troubadours, 
Innocent's keener glance must soon have detected 
the innate power of genius and the early practised 
judgment in the son of Henry VI. The conditions The Pope's 
on which the Church made Frederick's election de- pSieiick. 
pendent were drawn up; above all the separation 
of Sicily from the empire was determined upon. 
The new candidate for the imperial throne was 
candidate under conditions which, to the misfortune 
of the empire, resembled those imposed on Otto 
IV. ; the same fetters, from which Otto only freed 
himself by perjury, were woven round Frederick.^ 
Nevertheless we cannot doubt the sincerity of his 
intentions at this time, filled as he was with enthusi- 
astic hopes of a great future. 

The Pope dismissed Frederick in perfect content 
and even furnished him with money. The young 
Sicilian, " the child of Apulia," reached Germany 
guided by good fortune. The glory of his ancestors 
opened his way, although he was an utter stranger 
to the Fatherland, and was entirely, or almost en- 
tirely. Ignorant of its language. The liberality with 

* As early as February he issued three documents from Messina, 
in which he acknowledged himself as vassal of the Church for Sicily 
and ratified the liberty of episcopal election. Bohmer-Ficker, 651 f. 
Hist. Dipl, Frid,^ i. 201 f. : ne unqtrnm heneficior^ vestror,, quod 
avertat Dominus^ inveniamur tngrati^ cum post divini muneris 
gratiam non solum terram^ sed mtam per vestrum patrocinium nos 
fateamur habere. In April he conceded to the Pope the succession to 
the county of Fundi, after the death of Count Richard. Mon, Germ,, 
iv, 223 ; Hist, DipL^ i. 208, 



lOO ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. nt. 

which he scattered abroad the hereditary possessions 
of his house and fiefs of the empire won the greedy 
nobles to his side, and the figure of the rude Guelf 
emperor served as a foil to the youth, whom the 
foreign graces of a classic island had adorned with 
their fairest gifts. 

On December 5, 12 12, Frederick was elected King 

at Frankfort; on July 12, 121 3, at Eger, recognised 

Frederick's by almost the whole of Grermany, he took the oath, 

^^juiy ^^ which, with the assent of the princes of the 

12, 1213. empire, he was obliged to renew the concessions 

made by Otto IV. to the Pope. The freedom of 

the Church in spiritual matters was acknowledged ; 

the State of the Church, according to the terms 

dictated by Innocent, was ratified; no rights in that 

State were preserved to the empire, beyond the 

Foderum on coronation processions ; and the papal 

sovereignty over Apulia and Sicily was once more 

solemnly proclaimed.^ 

After victorious undertakings against his un- 
fortunate adversary, whose glory set on the field 
Frederick of Bouvines ou July 27, 1214, Frederick II. was 
it'-SSie^ crowned at Aachen on July 25, 12 15, by the Pope's 
Jubr2s, ' l^ate, the Archbishop Signed of Mainz. The 
" Priest-king," as Otto IV. called his rival, took the 

^ Mm, Germ,, iv. 224 ; Iftsi, Dtp/,, i. 269. The Pope is therein 
csXisA protector a benefactor noster. The extent of the State of the 
Church is expressed in the formula of Otto : tota terra que est a Radi- 
cofano usque Ceperanum^ <5r*r. Dipold still ruled in Spoleto : Nos 
Dipuldus dei et imp, gratia dux Spoleti Comes Assisii et Acerre pro- 
vides the consul of Fabriano with estates on October 23, 1213, 
Imperante D, n, 0{ctone) semp, Aug. , , , Ciavarini, Colleg, di 
Docum, Morrhigianif vol. ii. S4. 



Ch. III.] LATERAN COUNCIL. lOI 

Cross for an expedition to the Holy Land after his 
coronation, out of subservience to the Church, but 
perhaps also in an access of chivalrous enthusiasm. 
This vow, which was destined to be the source of 
his greatest misfortunes, was at the time sincere, 
although perhaps his promise to separate Sicily as 
a fief of the Church from his own crown, and to cede 
it to his son Henry as soon as he was crowned 
Emperor, may not have been so. 

The quarrel for the German throne was definitely 
settled at the immense Council which Innocent November 
assembled in the Lateran on November ii, 1215.111 the 
Otto's advocates and Frederick's envoys l-eceived J^^||^* 
the decision that the former was deposed, the latter 
recognised.^ More than 1500 prelates from every 
land of Christendom, beside princes and ambassadors 
from kings and republics, knelt at the feet of the 
mightiest of the popes, who sat as ruler of Europe 
on the throne of the world. This splendid Council, 
the last solemn act of Innocent III., was the ex- 
pression of the new power which Innocent had in- 
fused into the Church, and the unity in which he 
had preserved her. The close of the life of this ex- 
traordinary man was also its zenith. On the point 
of going to Tuscany to effect a reconciliation be- 
tween Pisa and Genoa, and persuade these maritime 
powers to join the Crusade, he died at Perugia on Death of 
June 16, 1 2 16, without having lived too long for his Jn{»ocent 
glory. 16, 1216. 

Innocent III., the true Augustus of the Papacy, 
although not a creative genius like Gregory I. and 
^ AnnaUs Meltemu^ Mm* Germ,, v. 159. 



I02 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Greatnesi Gr^ory VII., was one of the most important figures 
iiL° of the Middle Ages, a man of earnest, sterling, 

austere intellect, a consummate ruler, a statesman 
of penetrating judgment, a high priest filled with 
true religious fervour, and at the same time with un- 
bounded ambition and appalling force of will ; a 
bold idealist on the papal throne, yet an entirely 
practical monarch, and a cool-headed lawyer.^ The 
spectacle of a man, who, if only for a moment, ruled 
the world according to his will in tranquil majesty 
is sublime and marvellous. By astutely turning the 
circumstances of its history to the best account, by 
\ adroitly applying canon laws and fictions, and by 
\ guiding the religious fervour of the masses, he im- 
\ parted such a tremendous power to the Papacy 
that it carried states, churches, and civic society 
irresistibly onward in its mighty current. His con- 
quests, achieved solely by the force of sacerdotal 
ideas, were, like those of Hildebrand, marvellous in 
regard to the shortness of his reign ; Rome, the 
State of the Church, Sicily, Italy, became subject to 
him, or turned to him as to their protector; the 
empire, driven back beyond the Alps, bowed be- 
neath the papal sentence. Germany, France, and 
England, Norway, Aragon, Leon, Hungary, distant 
Armenia, the kingdoms in East and West had re- 
cognised the tribunal of the Pope. The trial of the 
Dane Ingeborg, who had been repudiated, offered 
Innocent the opportunity of making the powerful 

^ His portrait in Hurter is an invention. His biographer says: 
statura mediocris, et decorus aspectu^ medius inter prodigalitatem et 
avariiiam—fortis et stabilis^ magnanimus et astutus, Gesta^ c. i. 



Ch. III.] GREATNESS OF THE PAPACY. IO3 

monarch, Philip Augustus, subject to ecclesiastical 
law, and a dispute about investiture left him feudal 
lord of England. His masterly action against the 
English king, to whose crown rights he did violence, 
his presumption in making free England over to a 
foreign prince, Philip Augustus, the game which he 
played with impunity with this very monarch, his 
successes and victories are things which, in truth, 
border on the marvellous. The wretched John laid 
down his crown in servile fear, and received it back 
as a tributary vassal of the sacred chair at the hands 
of Pandulf, a simple legate, but endowed with 
Roman pride and Roman courage of a thoroughly 
antique stamp.^ The celebrated scene at Dover 
entirely recalls the times of ancient Rome, when 
distant kings renounced or assumed their diadems 
at the bidding of pro-consuls. It shines in the 
history of the Papacy, like the scene at Canossa, 
the pendant of which it was. It deeply humiliated 
England, but no people rose so qui kly and so 
gloriously out of their humiliation as this manly 
nation, who wrung the Magna Charta — the founda- 
tion of all political and civic freedom in Europe — 
from their cowardly tyrant. 

Innocent's good fortune was unbounded. All the 
forces of the world converged on the moment when 
this Pope appeared, to become powerful owing to 

* Cession of England in 1208, and on May 15, 1213 : Rymer, fol. 
III. The King swears the homagium lioium like a Latin baron. 
When the barons wrested the Magna Charta from John, the Pope 
laid the new-bom freedom of the English under a ban. The feudal 
relationship soon expired. The tribute of 1000 marks sterling was 
refused by Edward III. (Lingard, History of England, ii. 626). 



I04 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

their means. He saw realised the audacious dream 
of Hildebrand, — the subjugation of the Greek Church 
to the laws of Rome, — since, after the conquest of 
Constantinople by the Latin crusaders, the Roman 
rite was introduced into the Byzantine Church. No 
pope had ever again so lofty and yet so real a 
consciousness of his power as Innocent III., the 
creator and destroyer of emperors and kings. No 
pope so nearly attained Gregory VII.'s audacious 
aim, that of making Europe a fief of Rome, the 
Church the constitution of the world. Kings headed 
the long list of his vassals ; princes, counts, bishops, 
cities, and nobles followed in succession, all bearing 
feudal patents from a pope.^ He encompassed the 
Church with terror; the fear which the despotic 
command of Rome spread among mankind in the 
time of Nero and Trajan, was not greater than the 
servile reverence of the world before the mild ex- 
hortation, or the threatening thunderbolt of the 
Roman Innocent III., the majestic priest, who 
could address trembling kings in the language of 
the Old Testament : " As the rod lay beside the 
tables of the law in the Ark of the Lord, so lie 
the terrible power of destruction and the gentleness 
of mercy in the breast of the Pope."^ Under 
Innocent the sacred chair became the throne of 
dogmatic and canonical authority, the political 

1 Deeds of this character of Innocent III. and other popes, taken 
from the feudal books of the Church, are briefly registered in 
Cod, Vat,, 3535. 

^ Letter to King John, in which the Pope congratulates him on his 
submission — probably the grandest document of the papal power. 
Rymer, i, foL 116. 



Ch. III.] THE HERETICS. 10$ 

tribunal of the peoples of Europe. During his 
reign West and East recognised that the centre 
of gravity of all moral and political order lay in 
the Church, the moral universe, and in its pope. 
This was the most favourable constellation which 
the Church ever entered in the course of history. 
In Innocent III. the Papacy attained a giddy and 
untenable height. 

2. Activity of the Heretics — Doctrine of Christian 
Poverty — Foundation of the Mendicant Orders, 
S. Francis and S. Dominic — ^The First Monas- 
teries OF their Orders in Rome — Character 
AND Influence of the Mendicant System — The 
Sect of the Spiritualists. 

The thirteenth century was a great and continuous 
revolution ; the civic spirit fought for, and obtained j 
emancipation from feudalism, the empire and the ; 
Church, and side by side with it arose the evan- 
gelical principle to acquire liberty of faith. The 
latter revolution was not at the time successful like 
the former ; its flames, suddenly leaping forth, were 
extinguished by the Church, but its sparks could 
not be quenched. Heretical teaching, in a move- Heresy in 
ment intensely enthusiastic in character, asserted inncx^m^ 
itself against the form of dogmatic authority with ^"' 
which Innocent III. strove to fetter the human race. 
To the sight of this Pope time passed like a tri- 
umphal procession to do him homage, but he was 
nevertheless aware of defiant spirits also, who in- 
spired him with dread. The first assault of heretical 



I06 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

principles against the ^cclesiasticopolitical dc^ma 
precisely coincides with the second foundation of 
the State of the Church and of the universal mon- 
archy of the Pope. While the hierarchic Church 
attained its greatest solidity, the unity of its doc- 
trinal structure was more violently threatened than 
it had ever been before. With Roman resolution 
Innocent resumed the battle against heresy, which 
he strove to exterminate with fire and sword. His 
severity gave an example and an impulse to ecclesi- 
astical intolerance for centuries. The extermination 
of the Albigenses through the first actual war 
against the heretics — a war filled with revolting 
outrages — was the consequence of Innocent's de- 
spotic commands. It left behind a profound im- 
^he pression in the memory of mankind. Sorrow for 

the ruin of a beautiful country, filled with memories 
of ancient culture, chivalrous and romantic sym- 
pathies, a somewhat exaggerated admiration for 
Provencal poetry, and the indignant sympathy with 
humanity and freedom, have bestowed an imperish- 
able glory on the overthrow of the Albigenses and 
a lasting stain on Innocent's memory. If, in the 
lives of nations, sacrifices must fall to historic 
necessity, nevertheless the fate of those destined 
to be the instruments of this necessity is not an 
enviable one. It is not indeed difficult to answer 
the question as to what form our civilisation would 
have taken, if entire freedom had been given to 
heresy and all its degraded Manichaean develop- 
ments in the thirteenth century. The principle of 
liberty of conscience, the most precious jewel of 



Albigenses. 



Ch. III.] THE HERETICS. IO7 

human society, was not intended for that immature 
century ; it sprang victorious from the funeral pyres 
of the victims of the Inquisition — that terrible The 
guardian of the unity of the Church, the appalling ^^^^ *°°' 
power which arose upon the height of papal 
authority attained by Innocent III. 

A fanatical doctrine, at deadly strife with practical 
society and culture, before which men trembled as 
before the pestilence, appeared for the second time 
in the world, in the form of a religious ideal, and 
inflamed pious spirits with enthusiasm. The doctrine J^e 

-,,* « ... ^/-ni. heretical 

of absolute poverty, as the true imitation of Christ, doctrine of 
formed the dogmatic foundation of the heretic sects ^^^y^ 
of this time, of whom the Poor of Lyons or the 
Waldensians were the most dangerous to the Church. 
For these ascetic doctrines made the impression of 
apostolic truth, and furnished a sharp weapon to the 
enemies of the papal monarchy. In face of the 
pomp, the wealth, and the unapostolic power of the 
Church, the longing after the ideals of Christianity 
was awakened, and the evangelical heretics opposed 
the picture of the pure original to the degraded 1 
reality. The Papacy would have been brought into 
the utmost danger in the struggle against an ever- 
increasing consciousness of the necessity of reform 
within the Church, had not the Church been enabled 
to find again within herself the need for Christian 
renunciation, and to foster it as a Catholic principle 
of her own. At the right hour two remarkable men 
arose from within her midst as apostles of this 
poverty, and invested her with a new power. Francis 
and Dominic, celebrated characters of the time, 



I08 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

placed themselves at Innocent's side. L^end 
represents their relations to the Church as fcuretold 
in a vision to the Pope, in which he saw the foiling 
Lateran supported by two insignificant-looking men, 
in whom on wakening he recognised the two saints. 
The sudden appearance of these two men, their 
l^endary existence, their activity in the midst of the 
practical conflicts of the world, their entirely astonish- 
ing influence, are truly marvellous phenomena in the 
history of religion, 
s. Ffands. Francis, the most lovable of the saints, was the 
son of a merchant in Assisi, where he was bom about 
1 182. Seized by an impulse of fanatical devotion in 
the midst of a profligate career, the youth threw 
aside fine clothes, gold, and possessions, and, despis- 
ing the world, clothed himself in rags. He was 
mocked at, he was called insane. But after a time 
reverent crowds listened to his marvellous eloquence, 
and youths, intoxicated by his charm, followed his 
example, while he himself founded a society in the 
chapel Portiuncula near Assisi. The call of Christ, 
" Leave what thou hast and follow me," uttered by 
the mouth of a mendicant apostle, was re-echoed on 
the highways by enthusiasts for poverty, who 
hastened literally to fulfil the command.^ The 
mysterious impulse towards a mystic brotherhood, 
whose principle was the absence of all property, 
whose support was alms, and whose ornament was 
the garb of the beggar, is one of the most curious 
phenomena of the Middle Ages, and a phenomenon 

1 Chapter i. of the *' Rule of the Minorites " in Wadding, Atmai. 
Minor,, I 67. 



Ch. in.] S. FRANCIS. t09 

that forces every thoughtful mind to reflect on one 
of the weightiest problems of society. It was not 
indignation at the too unequal distribution of the 
things of earth that inflamed these Umbrian idealists. 
They were cynics and communists, not from philo- 
sophic speculation, but from a morbid religious 
impulse that stirred contemporary mankind. If the 
seraphic visionary standing on the narrow confines 
of light and darkness had been an ordinary spirit, 
he would have been lost to the world as a hermit ; 
but Francis, like Buddha, was a lovable, happy, 
enthusiastic nature, and consequently attracted all 
men to his side. This prophet was endowed with a 
conception of the Divinity, which in another age 
would have made him the founder of a religion. In 
his own days he could merely become one of the 
saints of the Church, an imitation of Jesus, whose 
wounds his disciples asserted were reproduced on 
him. Even during his lifetime legend gathered 
around his path. His followers were unable to 
penetrate the depths of a poetic spirit, whose super- 
natural ecstasies they could not comprehend. To a 
realm of raptures soaring above the world of sense 
they gave a coarse material interpretation ; they 
demanded that the exaltation of an enthusiastic 
existence in the freedom of the spirit should be 
brought within the limits of monastic discipline and 
made subject to the rules of an order, in which 
Poverty, as a mystic queen, sat on a golden throne 
in the midst of a choir of mendicant brothers. These 
disciples nevertheless could not reform human society, 
since privation is inventive and revolutionary, while 



no ROME IN THE MffiDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

poverty without privation possesses no reforming 
element' They forced their saint, who was no 
theorist, but a naive child of God, to become a law- 
giver. The Church forbade the foundation of new 
rules, since the monastic orders were too numerous 
already, and all had become worldly and effete. It 
was therefore hard for either Francis or his disciples 
to succeed. He found powerful friends, however, in 
Rome; the noble Jacoba de Septemsoliis of the 
house of Frangipani, the wealthy Cardinal John 
Colonna, Cardinal Hugolin, his most zealous de- 
fender, afterwards Pope Gr^ory IX., the highly 
respected Mattheus Rubeus Orsini. Innocent, the 
man of great practical intellect, did not perceive the 
importance of the rising mendicant order. Did he 
recognise perhaps the danger of a theory which was 
decidedly hostile to the secular power of the Church ? 
There can be no greater contrast than the figures of 
Innocent III., throned in the majesty of supreme 
power, and of Francis the humble beggar, who stood 
in his presence — a Diogenes of the Middle Ages 
before an Alexander, in his nothingness greater than 
Innocent — a prophet and an exhorter, a mirror in 
which the Divinity seemed to show the Pope the 
vanity of all worldly greatness. Innocent and 
Francis are in truth two marvellous portraits 
stamped on different sides of the medal of their 
times. For the rest, although the great Pope placed 
no hindrance in the way of the saint, it was only 
Foundftp his successor, Honorius III., who recognised the 
Frandsl^n ^^^^^ ^^ *^ Fratres Minores (Minorites or Humble 
order. Brothers) in 1223, and, placing them under Bene- 



Ch. in.] THE FRANCISCANS. Ill 

dictine rule, accorded them the pulpit and con- 
fessional.^ 

The first settlement of the Franciscans in Rome in 
1229 was the hospital of S. Blasio, the present S. 
Francesco in Trastevere ; Innocent IV. afterwards 
gave them the convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli, from The Fran- 
which the Benedictines were removed.^ Wearing the r^we 
brown cowl, and with the white cord around their Jf f^arla 
bodies, triumphant mendicant brothers entered theinAracoeii 
ancient Capitol, and from the legendary palace of*" "^°* 
Octavian on the summit of the Tarpeian fortress a 
barefooted "general" of mendicants issued commands 
to subject ** provinces," which, as in the time of the 
ancient Romans, stretched from distant Britain to the 
seas of Asia.* 

While the saint of Assisi wandered through 
Umbria with his enthusiastic beggars, as Jesus with 
poor fishermen and artisans in the valley of Gennesa- 
reth, he was unaware that another apostle exercised 
a like influence on the banks of the Garonne. 

^ Bu/iar. Magn, Ram,, i. 93. Bull of November 29, 1223. The 
constitution of the Minorites oi sac, 13 in the Cod. Pal,, n. 571. 

* The bull Lampas insignisy Lyons, June 26, 1250. The Fran- 
ciscans maintained the convent in its full ei^sit, according to the 
Privilegium of Anaclete. They entered on actual possession in 125 1. 
Casimiro, History of Aracoeli^ p. 16 ; Wadding, Annales Minor, ^ 
iii. 250 f. 

' Ex ipso Capitolii vertice doniinatur pauperum primicerius, quatn 
ex Tarpeia rupe Romanor, rexere Monarcha, adplures utique ncUiones 
hujus sodalitii Rectoris pertransit auctoriias, quam antea Romanor, 
diffundebatur Imp. Thus says the annalist of the order in 1251, 
n. 36. Francis died in the Portiuncula in 1226. He was canonised 
in 1228. His life was written by his disciple Thomas of Celano, then 
by the celebrated mystic Bonaventura. Acta SS, Oct,^ t. ii. 545. 
Karl Hase, Franz von Assisi, Leipzig, 1856. 



112 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

& Dominic. Dominic, a Castilian from Calahorra, the learned 
pupil of Bishop Di^o de Azevedo, while journey- 
ing in the south of France in 1205, conceived the 
thought of devoting his life to the conversion of 
those courageous heretics, who opposed their evan- 
gelical ideals to the teaching of the Church. Francis 
and Dominic were Dioscuri, though fundamentally 
different in character. The lovable enthusiast of 
Umbria preached among beggars, held converse 
with trees and birds, addressed hymns to the sun, 
while Dominic, glowing with fervour, but entirely 
practical and energetic, took counsel with the gloomy 
heroes of the Albigensian war, with Bishop Fulco 
of Toulouse, the Abbot Arnold of Ctteaux, the 
legate Pier of Castelnau and with the terrible Simon 
de Montfort, as to the best means of exterminating 
heresy. He had witnessed the destruction of a noble 
people ; he had seen the smoking ruins of B6ziers, 
where 20,000 men had been butchered at Arnold's 
fanatic nod ; he had prayed with ecstatic fervour in 
the church at Maurel, when Simon with his crusaders 
dispersed the army of Peter of Aragon and the 
Count of Toulouse. In the* midst of these horrors, 
from which Francis would have recoiled, the fanatic 
Spaniard felt nothing but an ardent love for the 
Church, nothing but fervent humility, and knew no 
other passion than the desire of converting men from 
views which he believed criminal. He founded his 
order in the nunnery of N6tre Dame de Pruglia at 
the foot of the Pyrenees, and in communities at 
Montpellier and Toulouse. 

He came to Rome in 121 5. Here he attended the 



Ch. III.] S. DOMINIC 113 

great Council at which the Counts of Toulouse were He comes 
forced to cede their territories to the victor Simon. ^ iJi™^ 
Innocent was quicker to recognise the practical aims 
of the fiery preacher against heresy than the hidden 
meaning of the mystic dreams of Francis. After 
some consideration he was disposed to recognise the 
new order under the Augustinian rule, and was only 
prevented by death. Soon after (on December 22, 
1 2 16), when Dominic was again in Rome, it obtained Foun^- 
ratification from Honorius 1 11.^ He conceded the Dominican 
preaching brothers {Fratres Prasdicatores) the right °"*^' "'^ 
of the cure of souls and of preaching in all countries. 
Poverty was a cardinal law in this order also, preach- 
ing and teaching its duties, and by taking the Inquisi- 
tion into its hands — at first in alliance with the Fran- 
ciscans and afterwards alone — it soon enough made 
itself dreaded. The first houses of the Dominicans 
in Rome were, after 12 17, the monastery of S. Sixtus 
on the Via Appia, and after 1222 the beautiful 
ancient church of S. Sabina on the Aventine, where 
monks still show the spot where the founder is said 
to have dwelt Dominic died at Bologna on August 
6, 1 22 1. He was buried in a magnificent urn, adorned 
by Italian sculpture with some of the earliest products 
of her renascence.* 

1 The bull is dated from S. Sabina. {Bullar, Mag, Rom,, i. 
n. 91, and Bullar, Ordinis Frair, Prtgd,^ p. 2.) Legend relates that 
Dominic and Francis met in Rome in 121 5. Jealousy severed the 
two orders, but they still celebrate the memory of the friendship 
between their respective founders by a joint festival. Lacordaire, Vie 
de S. DominiqtUf c. vii. 

* Mammachi, AnnaUs Ord, Prod., 1756, b^^an the history of the 
Dominicans with the year 11 70. 

VOL. V. H 



114 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The two patriarchs of mendicant monasticism, the 
two radiant lights on the hill, as the language of 
the Church calls them, were with Innocent III., the 
apostles of the new ecclesiastical supremacy, as the 
monk Benedict had been in former days beside 
Pope Gregory.^ If earlier founders of orders had 
planted hermitages or abbeys, where monks led a 
contemplative life, while the abbot accumulated 
wealth and ruled over imperial and feudal princes as 
over vassals, Francis and Dominic rejected a system 
through which the Roman Church had been secu- 
larised. Their reform consisted in a return to the 
ideal of self-denying poverty, but also in the rejection 
of a purely hermit-like form of life. The new mon- 
asticism took its stand in the cities amid the stir of 
life; it received laymen in the form of tertiaries. 
This active relation of the mendicant orders to all 
sides of life gave them an immeasurable power. The 
ancient orders had become aristocratic and feudal. 
Francis and Dominic made monasticism democratic, 
and herein lay their power with the people. The 
doctrines of the heretics, the democratic spirit in the 
towns, the upward pressure of the working classes 
and of all the vulgar elements, even in the language, 
had prepared the soil for the appearance of these 
saints. Their doctrines were accepted like popular 
manifestations, and were looked on as reforms of the 
Church, by which the just accusations of the heretics 

* Vunfu tutto serafico in ardore^ 
VcUtro per sapienza in terra fue 
Di chentbica luce uno splendore, 

— Dante, Paradiso^ xi. 



Ch. iil] the mendicant orders. 115 

were reduced to silence. The oppressed people saw 
despised poverty exalted on an altar and placed in 
the glory of heaven. The throng crowding to join 
the new orders was consequently very great As 
early as the year 12 19, at a general assembly at 
Assisi, Francis could count 5000 brethren, followers 
of his banner. The erection of convents for men- 
dicant monks soon became an event of as great 
importance, as would now be a discovery that 
revolutionised life. The rich and the insignificant 
alike entered, and the dying of every class had 
themselves clothed in the Franciscan cowl, in 
order the more surely to obtain entrance to Para- 
dise. 

The mendicant brothers influenced every stratum influence 
of society. They thrust the secular clergy from the men^cant 
confessional and pulpit ; they filled the chairs of s^^°" 
the university; they were the greatest teachers of 
scholastic learning, since Thomas of Aquino, Bona- \ 
Ventura, Albertus Magnus and Bacon were mendicant I 
monks. They sat in the college of cardinals, and 
as popes mounted the sacred chair. Their voices 
whispered to the conscience of the citizen in the 
inmost chamber of his dwelling, and at the most 
sumptuous of courts into the ear of the king, whose 
confessors and counsellors they were. Their accents 
resounded in the halls of the Lateran as in the stormy 
parliaments of the republics. They saw and heard 
everything. They wandered barefoot through the 
land like the first disciples, '' without staff, without 
scrip, without bread, without money." ^ Nevertheless 

^ Quanch fratres vadunt per mundum, nihil portent p€r viam, nee 



1 16 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

these beggar heroes were at the same time organised 
in hundreds of convents according to provinces, and 
were commanded by a minister-general, at whose 
order each individual brother was ready to become a 
missionary and a martyr, a preacher of the Cross or 
of the ban, a justice of the peace, a recruiting officer 
for the popes, a judge over heretics and an inquisitor, 
a silent messenger and spy, a stiffnecked collector of 
taxes or exactor of money for indulgences and tithes 
for the coffers of the Lateran. 

The Roman Church prudently made her own the 
democratic tendencies of these orders, who were in- 
termediaries in her relations with the people, while 
owing to exemptions they were entirely free from 
the control of the ordinary clergy. The popes made 
them into an army ready for battle, whose mainten- 
ance cost them nothing. The principle of the Divine 
power of the Papacy was instilled by a thousand ways 
into the intellects of men by these mendicant monks, 
whose spirit, influenced by scruples of conscience and 
by mysticism, by benevolence, abnegation, and self- 
sacrifice, bent in patient obedience to the command 
of an infallible pope. The democratic nature of the 
Franciscans was nevertheless difficult to rule ; their 
mysticism threatened to degenerate into heresy, and 
the apostolic principle of poverty brought the Church 
into danger more than once. The order divided very 
soon after the death of the founder, since a more 
tolerant party, led by Fra Elia, the most illustrious 
pupil of the saint, demanded that the acquisition of 

satculumy nee peram^ nee panem^ nee peeuniamf nee virgam. Cap. 
xiv. of the Rule of the order. 



Ch. III.] THE SPIRITUALISTS. II7 

property should be conceded to the brethren under 
certain conditions. The command of abject poverty 
overstepped the laws of human nature, which through 
the relations of property alone can give expression to 
individual energy and force of will. The master hand 
of Giotto, it is true, represented the marriage of the 
saint with the glorified figure of poverty, in an ex- 
quisite painting over the grave of the saint in Assisi, 
but the great founder of the mendicant order already 
rested in the cathedral resplendent in gold and marble. 
His mendicant children soon rejoiced in endowed 
convents over the whole world ; poverty remained 
outside, before the convent door. 

A stricter party, however, rose with enthusiastic 
fervour from the ashes of the pious saint, who 
upheld the principle of absolute poverty s^ainst the 
more easy-going brothers and even against the 
supreme Church. The gospel of this sect of the 
Holy Ghost or the Spiritualists were the prophecies The Spirit- 
of the Calabrian Abbot Joachim de Flore, who 
thought that the Church, hitherto existing, was only 
a preparation for the kingdom of the Holy Ghost ; 
and these thoughtful monks held the audacious 
opinion that Francis had assumed the place of the 
apostles, and that their monastic kingdom had taken 
the place of the papal, in order to inaugurate the 
reign of the Holy Ghost, which was bound to no 
form, to no government, to no distinction of mine 
and thine. 

The history of the Church and of civilisation is 
acquainted with the influence of the Franciscans 
and Dominicans over human society, but we can 



Il8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

describe neither their laudable activity at the begin- 
ning of their career, nor the utter decay of their ideaU | 
nor the fetters of stupid servitude which they later j 
imposed on the freedom of thought and of science ; 
nor can we speak of the consequences which the 
doctrine of religious poverty (solemnly recognised) 
has exercised on the property and the industry of 
civil society. 



3. HoNORius III., Pope— The House of Savelli — 
Coronation of Peter of Courtenav as 
Emperor of Byzantium in JR.omb, 121 7 — 
Frederick defers the Crusade — Death of 
Otto IV., 12 18 — Election of Henry of Sicily as 
Successor to Frederick in Germany — Disturb- 
ances IN Rome under the Senator Parentius 
— ^Journey to Rome and Coronation of 
Frederick II., 1220— Imperial Constitutions. 

Cencius Savelli, the aged Cardinal of SS. Giovanni 
and Paolo, became the successor of Innocent III. 
His father's family, in which the name of an ancient 
Latin race reappears, had not hitherto been heard 
of in the history of the city, and its origin also is 
unknown. But since a place called Sabellum near 
Albano, where stood an ancient church dedicated to 
S. Theodore and a Domus-culta Sulpitiana, is noticed 
as early as the eighth century, it is possible that the 
Savelli may have derived their name from the place, 
as the Colonna had taken theirs from the Colonna 
fortress.^ The foundation of the house of the 

^ Anast, P&a Sk^kami, hr. n. 529: S. Theodorus in SabeUo; 



CH.ni.] HONORIUS III. II9 

Savelli, which was probably German (as is shown by 
the names Haymerich and Pandulf), was due to the 
nepotism of their member Pope Honorius, and they 
only rose to power after his time.^ 

Cencius, a highly educated man, had been vice- 
chancellor and chamberlain under Innocent III. As 
such he had compiled the celebrated Book of the 
Revenues of the Church. On July 24, 12 16, he 
ascended the sacred chair at Perugia as Honorius III., Hononus 
but not until September 4 did he take possession of I"i(^^3S^.' 
the Lateran. 

The Romans gladly saw their fellow-citizen Pope. 
Goodness of character and a blameless life had long 
rendered him beloved. He had moreover inherited 
from his predecessor a tranquil rule in the city, with 
whose liberties he never interfered. After the Con- / 
stitution of 1205, the Roman republic was adminis- ; 
tered for six months at a time by a single senator, \ 
who did homage to the pope without opposition.* \ 

The gentle nature of Honorius did not rise to the \ 

again in 1023 : territory Albanese in Jundo et loco qui voc, Sabello 
(Galletti, Del, Prim.^ n. 34). The £unily was called de Sabello, 
The will of Honorius IV., A. 1285, speaks of the castrum as a family 
estate near Albano (Ratti,y2im. Sforza^ ii. 302). Also Panvinius, de 
gente Sabella (Mscr, Bibl, Casanatense), begins the genealogy with 
Haymericus, father of Honorius. His name (Amalrich) points to a 
German origin. 

^ Ste£meschi (Murat., iil 648) gives the Savelli the rare epithet of 
" gentle " : SaJbelHa mitts. This they earned through two popes, 
Honorius III. and IV., and the Senator Pandul£ 

^ No document says who were senators at this period. At the 
time of the Council of 12 15 the Senator was PandtUphus fil, qd Johis 
Petri dejudice, a fsjtX which has hitherto been overlooked. Instrunu 
of 1217, Murat, Antiq. Ital,, ii. 563. 



I20 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

bold ideas of his predecessor, by whose intellect his 
own lesser talents were thrown into the shade. He 
was filled by one solitary passion — the accomplish- 
ment of the Crusade announced by Innocent III., 
and at the head of which he hoped to see Frederick. 
Before inviting Frederick to Rome for his corona- 
tion, he crowned Peter of Courtenay as Emperor 
of Byzantium on April 9, 12 17 — a fresh triumph for 
the Church, which hoped henceforward to dispense 
the crowns of both East and West The French 
count, as husband of lolantha, — sister of Henry, the 
second Frankish Emperor of Byzantium, in whom 
the male line of Flanders had become extinct on 
June II, 12 16, — had been summoned to the throne 
by the Latin barons in Constantinople. Peter, with 
his wife, four daughters, and a large retinue, came to 
Rome on his way to the East. He urged the Pope 
solemnly to crown him emperor. Honorius hesitated 
at first, since the transaction might have been 
interpreted as signifying that the Greek emperor 
had rights over the city of Rome, and the ceremony, 
moreover, appertained to the Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople. Then he yielded. For the first and last 
Crowns time a Byzantine emperor received the crown in 
Coimenay Rome from the hands of the Pope. The impotent 
as Emperor usurper of the throne of Constantine was, however, 

of Byzan- * ,.^ ..▼-» «.t. i 

tium, April not crowned m Constantine s Roman basilica, but 

9> "17. ^^ degraded to the level of the King of Aragon, 

the Pope performing the ceremony in S. Lorenzo 

outside the gate.^ Honorius dismissed the Emperor 

^ CAnm. Fossa Nova ad A. 121 7 ; Du Cange, Hist, de Const, y 
i. 151. 



Ch. III.] FREDERICK'S PROCRASTINATION. 121 

in the company of John Colonna, Cardinal of S. 
Prassede, on April i8. But the imperial progress 
from Brindisi to the great city of the East ended 
in the prisons of the despot Theodore Angelos in 
Albania, whom Peter had promised the Venetians 
immediately to attack. In these dungeons the 
Eiiiperor soon afterwards died.^ 

Frederick meanwhile delayed the fulfilment of a 
vow, which made the Crusade a duty. In urgent 
letters Honorius even threatened him with the ban, 
did he fail to depart at the time appointed and 
hasten to the relief of the crusaders who were 
besieging Damietta.^ The son of Henry VI. felt 
none of the pious ardour of a Godfrey of Bouillon ; 
and, moreover, the chivalrous enthusiasm for the 
Crusades was already regarded as visionary in 
Europe. The world, which had seen a crusade of 
Prankish princes precipitate itself on Christian 
Byzantium, soon afterwards smiled at the curious 
crusade of several thousand children, which testified 
less to the survival of the attraction towards the East 
than to its morbid degeneration. Political motives 
had supplanted the religious impulse in the minds 
of princes ; their enterprises were no longer directed 
towards the possession of the Holy Sepulchre, but 

^ He had sent his wife lolantha before him to Constantinople, 
where she gave birth to Baldwin, the last of the Latin emperors. 
Theodore released Cardinal Colonna from imprisonment in 1218. 
Carl Hopf, "Gesch. Griechenlands " (Ersch und Gruber, Allg, 
EncykLy Ixxxv. p. 248). 

' The first threatening letter is dated February 11, 12 19; the 
second, October i, 1219 ; ^^^' Diph^ i. 691. The date appointed was 
S. Benedict's day (March 21, 1220) ; it was then deferred until May i. 



122 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. iz. 

to Egypt, the key to the East and its Indian trade- 
routes. Can we seriously upbraid Frederick for 
delaying the fulfilment of a vow, which would have 
taken him away from his duties as regent and carried 
him to Syria, where his grandfather had met an 
unavailing death, and where the efforts of a hundred 
years directed towards an imaginary aim had found 
a certain overthrow? Nearer objects were the ad- 
justment of affairs in his Sicilian kingdom, the 
acquisition of the imperial crown and the safe- 
guarding of the hereditary succession to the empire. 
Death of The death of Otto IV. paved the way to the third 
May i^" ^' these objects. The unfortunate Guelf emperor 
laia died, in dreary loneliness, a conscience-stricken peni- 
tent, in the Harzburg, on May 19, 12 18. Frederick 
was now universally recognised as King of the 
Romans. His exertions to get his son Henry 
(already crowned as King of Sicily) elected by the 
princes of the empire as his successor in Germany, 
and further, some events which appeared in the 
light of attacks on the rights of the State of the 
Church, irritated the Pope as early as the begin- 
ning of the year 12 19. The King pacified him by 
decrees which commanded rebellious cities, such as 
Spoleto and Nami, to yield obedience to the sacred 
chair.^ He renewed the Capitulation of Eger; he 
promised all that the Pope desired in order to gain 
the imperial crown.* In the hope of seeing Frederick 

> Theiner, Cod, Dipl.^ I 70. 

• Act of Hagenau, September 12 19. Man, Germ,, iv. 231. y«r«- 
mentum fiUuri Imp. : Ibid., p. 232. The princes ratified the 
Privilegium at Frankfort on May 23, 1220, Themer, i. n. 77. 



Ch. III.] HENRY, KING OF THE ROMANa 1 23 

embark for the East, the Pope submitted to the de- 
ception which was prepared for him in Sicily. On 
the demand of Honorius III., Frederick even renewed 
in 1220 the promise given to Innocent III., namely, 
that the island should not be united to the German 
crown. As soon as he attained his majority, the 
boy Henry was to govern the island as the Pope's 
vassal.* By means of liberal charters, however, 
Frederick gained the spiritual princes of Germany 
to his scheme to elect Henry King of the Romans. Hemy, 
This measure would secure peace to the empire, but Romans, * 
as certainly take it from the Church. The election ^p"! "^ 
took place in Frankfort in April 1220, without regard 
to the Pope, and Frederick thus violated his obliga- 
tions. Having thus acted dishonestly towards Hon- 
orius, he strove to appease the tatter's indignation 
by a diplomatic etter,* and while he promised never 
to unite Sicily with Germany, he demanded that the 
possession of the island should be assured him for 
life, and the Pope, driven by necessity, consented in 
case Henry died without issue. The union of Sicily 
in the person of its ruler with the house of Hohen- 
staufen could therefore no longer be averted. Hon- 
orius, too weak to protest with firmness, must neces- 
sarily foresee the union of the two crowns, and the 
dangers which consequently arose for the State of 
the Church. For Frederick soon looked on Sicily 
as the practical basis of the scheme of the Italian 
monarchy, which he had inherited from his father, 
and as the foundation of a new kingdom, which he 

^ Hagenau, February 10, 1220. Bohmer-Ficker, 1091. 

' Nuremberg, July 13, laaa Winkelmann, Acta imp, in€d,, i8a 



124 ROME IN THE MmDLE AGES. [Bk. ix, 

hoped to rule from the land of which alone he was 
actually monarch. 

In June 12 19 Honorius had already left Rome, 
which was becoming disturbed, for Rieti and Viterbo, 
whence he returned after a short time, once more to 
seek refuge in Viterbo.* The democratic party was 
again astir. The city commune, np longer feeling 
the pressure of Innocent's energetic hand, strove for 
the recovery of its lost rights. In these differences 
Frederick was able to render a service to the Pope. 
He sent the Abbot of Fulda with letters to the 
Romans, which were read aloud on the Capitol ; he 
pointed out his approaching journey to Rome, and 
exhorted them to obedience to the Pope. In his 
Parentiua, answer the Senator Parentius expressed to the 
12x9. ^"^^ King the thanks of the Roman people, invited him 
to come for his coronation, and assured him that 
the city was prepared to maintain peace with the 
Church.2 Honorius became reconciled to the 
Romans and was enabled to return in October.' 

* Rich, of S. Germ., ad A, 1218; propter Romanor, mokstias — 
eoactus est Viterbiam remeare. The year is 1219. After the be- 
ginning of July he is at Rieti ; in the beginning of February 1220 in 
Viterbo ; on June 12, and as late as September 4, in Orvieto ; at the 
end of September in Viterbo ; in October 1220 in Rome. 

' Parentius Parentii was Podesti of Foligno in 121 5 ; of Perugia 
in 12 16 (Jacobelli, discorso di Foligno ^ p. 59 ; and Hist, FulgineUis^ 
Rer, Ital, Script, Fhrmt., L 849) ; in 1203, 1218, 1219, Podestii of 
Orvieto (Liugi Fumi, Cod, dip, della citth di Orvieto for these years). 
His undated letter, Mon, Germ.^ iv. 241 : Gloriosissitno D, F.^ dei 
gr. Regi in Roman. Imp. electo^ semper Aug, et Regi Sicilia^ Parentius 
ead, gr. Alma et Vener, Urbis ill. Senator et Pop, univ. Rom, 
salutem, 

• The Series Cronologica Alma Urbis Senatorum, compiled in 
1736 and preserved in the Archives of the Capitol, begins with the 



Ch. III.] IMPERIAL CORONATION OF FREDERICK II. 12? 

In September 1220 Frederick himself came to 
Lombardy, where he found the cities at variance 
with one another, and neither friendly nor yet openly 
hostile to himself After tedious negotiations with 
the papal legates concerning the concordat of the 
coronation and the future position of Sicily, he pro- 
ceeded to Rome. He came with his wife, with 
several princes of the empire, and with an army of 
moderate size. He issued a manifesto from his camp 
on Monte Mario, which announced that the empire 
possessed no rights over Sicily, and that the papal 
fief should remain severed from the empire.^ Hon- 
orius crowned him and Constance on November imperial 
22, 1220, in S. Peter's in perfect and hitherto un-^^^^^" 
exampled quiet in the city and amid the " immeasur- ^J^®"*^^ 
able" rejoicings of the people.^ The Romans, who 22,' 1220. 
for the first time after a long interval, took a festive 
part in an imperial coronation, hospitably opened 

year 1220. I compared with it the MS. of Giacinto Gigli, who, in 
the seventeenth century, first attempted to reconstruct the Fasti of the 
mediaeval Senate : Cronohgia dei Consoli, Priori e Magistrati di 
Roma^ in the Bibl. S. Croce, His work was continued by Carlo 
Cartari, and corrected by Mandosi (Crescimbeni, Stato di S, M, in 
Cosmedin nel 17 19, c. 4). It was made use of by Zabarella in the 
AtUa Heroum^ and by an anonymous author, whose manuscript 
history of the Senate covers the period from 908 to 1399. This 
uncritical work formerly belonged to the Frangipani library, but is 
now in the possession of the hoise of Colonna. 

* Bohmer-Ficker, 1201 ; after Huillard, Rouleaux de Cluny, 87. 

2 Reineri Annales ad A, 1220. Salimbeni, Chron,, p. 5. The 
Pope writes : cum inestimabili alacritate ac pace civium Romanor, 
solemnissime coronasse (to Pelagius of Albano, December 15, HisU 
Dipl.^ ii. 82). Schmidt, Gesch, d, Deutsch.^ v. 240, well says that, 
apart from this case, the Romans had more respect for a King of 
Sicily than for a German emperor. 



196 SOME IM THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bs. OL 

their gates, and Germans and Latins refrained from 
cooling their national hatred in streams of bkxxL^ 
The presence of various princes and envoys from 
cities gave splendour and importance to the cere- 
mony: the barons of Sicily also appeared to do 
homage and were not prevented by the Pope. The 
function was to dose the long series of imperial 
corcMiations of the ancient system, for the old 
Germrji empire, its greatness and historic signifi- 
cance, came to an end in the grandson of Barbarossa ; 
and henceforward, for nearly a hundred years^ Rome 
witnessed no coronation of an emperor until Henry 
VI L came, amid battle and tumult, to take the crown, 
although not in S. Petals. 

Honorius had consented to the coronation of the 
son of Henry VI^ at the price of valuable conces- 
'The sions ; these constitutions in favour of the Church 

constitu- were, according to the terms of the capitulation, 
^^''^ proclaimed in the cathedral as laws which were 
valid throughout the empire. They accorded full 
liberty to the Church. All statutes issued by princes 
or cities against the clergy, or the ecclesiastical power, 
were pronounced heretical; all persons excom- 
municated by the Church for encroachments on her 
jurisdiction were after a year to be placed under the 
ban of the empire also ; the exemption of the clergy 
from taxation was ratified, heretics were placed 
outside the pale of the law, and the denunciation 
and extermination of them was enjoined on all 

^ Only a dispute between the envoys of Pisa and Florence, about 
the present of a dog, developed into a combat between their respective 
retainers, and thence into war between the cities. Villani, vi c 2. 



Ch. III.] IMPERIAL CONSTITUTIONS. 127 

magistrates. Safety was secured to pilgrims, resti- 
tution of property to the shipwrecked, peaceful 
occupation to the peasant. Laws so humane were 
merely appended as unimportant articles to these 
constitutions, over the darkness of which they shed a 
faint glimmer of a better future.^ In the Carolingian 
period emperors had issued civic constitutions, which 
regulated the legal relations of the Romans or the 
laws of the papal election, and which received the 
authority of the emperor. In the time of Innocent 
III. they merely announced the exemption of the 
clergy from the authority of the State, and promul- 
gated edicts for the extirpation of heresy by means 
of the Inquisition. The empire was devoid of power 
and rights within the city. The romantic boy Otto 
III. had more authority in Rome than Barbarossa or 
Frederick 11. 

The last heir of the house of Hohenstaufen, whom 
the Church but unwillingly raised to the throne 
of empire, had nevertheless ratified her in the 
possession of privileges, which the Guelf Otto had 
only been able to concede. Her victory was com- 
plete. The long quarrel for investitures was decided 
in the recognition of her independence of the State. 

Honorius was in truth satisfied when, on the day 

' Rome, November 22, 1220. Mon, Germ,^ iv. 243 f: z.lexcon' 
stiiutivade abrogatione omn* statutorum et consuetudinum adv, ecclesiaSf 
cUricos vel eccUsiasticam libertatem, et de abolttume omn, heresum. 
The long article against the heretics {CAataros, PcUarenos^ Leonistcu^ 
SperonisUu^ Amaldistas, Circumcises) repeats the edicts of Otto IV. 
The command enjoining the persecution of heretics, which Innocent 
had ordained should be inserted in the statutes of all communes, now 
became an imperial law. 



128 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Frederick of his coronation, Frederick II. took the cross from 

his vow to the hand of Cardinal Hugolino, and promised to 

?he*^*^^^ sail for Syria in the following August He allowed 

Crusade, the important affairs of Sicily to rest ; he continued 

to bestow the title of " King of Sicily " upon the 

Emperor, no doubt after Frederick had tranquillised 

him with the assurance that the personal union of 

the island with the empire would never become a 

real union.^ 



4. Frederick returns to Sicily — Honorius III. in 

PEACEFUL possession OF THE StATE OF THE 

Church — The Romagna ruled by an Imperial 
Count — Disturbances at Spoleto — Rome and 
ViTERBO — Democratic movements in Perugia — 
Rome and Perugia — Flight of the Pope from 
Rome — Parentius, Senator — Negotiations con- 
cerning THE oft-delayed Crusade — Angelo de 
Benincasa, Senator — Hostile attitude of the 
Lombards to the Emperor — Strained relations 

BETWEEN the EmPEROR AND THE POPE — BREACH 

BETWEEN Frederick and John of Brienne — Death 
OF Honorius III., 1227. 

The Emperor remained for three days longer in 
camp on Monte Mario ; ^ then proceeded by way of 

^ On November 10 the Pope had again instructed his l^ates to warn 
the King against the union of Sicily with the empire {in sedis ap, mc 
nonposteritatis sua dispendium^ Mon, Germ,^ iv. 242). On December 
II, 1220, he writes F, Rom, Imp, semper Aug, et Regi Sicilie (WUrdt- 
wein, Nova subsidia^ i. 45). Eid. "Winkelmann, Gesch, Friedrich^s //. 
und seiner Reiche^ Berlin, 1863, p. 146. 

' His celebrated diploma for Pisa is dated in MonU Malo prope 
urbem VIII, KcU, Dec, He gives Pisa all imperial rights a civitate 



Ch. III.] FREDERICK RETURNS TO SICILY. 1 29 

Sutri and Nami to Tivoli, which he reached on 
December 5. The Pope had commanded the towns 
of Roman Tuscany to yield the foderum to the im- 
perial army, but since the coronation procession did 
not touch either the Maritima or Campagna, he dis- 
puted the Emperor's right to levy the same tax on 
these territories. If, as he observed, earlier emperors 
had illegally required the support of their armies, they 
had only done so when hurrying on to invade Sicily. 
Notwithstanding he instructed the Rector of Cam- 
pania to pay the foderum, the last miserable remains 
of the imperial rights.^ 

Frederick continued his way through Latium to 
enter his hereditary kingdom of Sicily as Emperor, 
and this journey it was that disturbed the joy of the 
Curia, which longed to see him occupied in the East. 
He assembled the barons of Apulia in Capua, and 
immediately proceeded to the task of adjusting the 
affairs of the kingdom by new laws. He again con- 
firmed the Pope in possession of the State of the 
Church and the territories of Matilda ; he did not 
follow the example of Otto IV., but conscientiously 
fulfilled his obligations. At the beginning of Febru- 

Vecla tuque ad portum Veneris^ Flaminio del Borgo, p. 42. The 
Hopit<de S, Agathes de Monte Malo, which Honorius III. took under 
his protection, stood at that time on Monte Mario. Lateran, XIV, 
Kal. Maji a, /. {Mscr, Vatican, y 8051, p. 39). Documents of 
Frederick until November 25 are dated in casirisprope Urbem in Monte 
Malo ; in castris Rome op. Mont, Malum ; in prato in imperiali 
parlamento et exercitu, 

^ Letter of December 11, 1220. Nevertheless in the treaties made 
with Otto IV. the land from Radicofani to Ceprano belonged to those 
who were obliged to render the foderum ; so likewise in the Contract 
of Hagenau, 1219. 

VOL. V. I 



I30 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

aiy 1 22 1 Honorius could acknowledge that, with the 
help of the Emperor, he ruled in peace over Spoleto, 
a great part of Matilda's county, as also over the 
entire patrimony from the Bridge of the Liris to 
Radicofani, while the rebellious March of Ancona 
had been bestowed in fief on Azzo of Este, and had 
been reduced to subjection by this vassal in the 
name of the Church.* 

Far removed from the ambition of his predecessor, 
Honorius III. only cared for the preservation of 
peace between the Church and the empire, and for 
the fulfilment of his pious wish to see Jerusalem 
delivered. To him more than to other popes might 
have been granted the peaceful possession of the 
State of the Church. But never has the dominion 
over great empires cost dynasties such arduous 
struggles as the little territory, over which they 
desired to rule as kings, cost the bishops of Rome. 
The genius of a hundred popes, the energy and 
property of the Church, countless wars and excom- 
munications, oaths, and concordats were expended 
to create and uphold the State of the Church, and 
almost every pope was forced to begin the work 
afresh and laboriously to piece together the fragments 
in which the corporate body of the Church had been 
ever again shattered by the sword-thrusts of princes. 
Throughout the entire Middle Ages the popes rolled 
the stone of Sisyphus.^ 

' Universo pairim. B. Petri a pottte Ceperani usq, Radicofanum 
possesso et disposito pacifice et quiete pro beneplacito nore voluntatis. 
Letter Universis . . . February i8, 1 221, from the Lateran. Hist. 
Dipt,, ii. 128. 

' But also the Romans and the emperors. Dante's magnificent 



Ch. III.] discord between pope and emperor. 131 

When by solemn treaties Frederick had confirmed 
the State of the Church according to Innocent's 
definition, he was at first inclined to let it stand. 
This is still proved by the Archives of Capua. Pro- 
found suspicion on the part of the Curia, however, 
accompanied every action of the son of Henry VI., 
while Frederick saw nothing but egoism and intrigu- 
ing schemes in the designs of the Curia. This 
distrust worked more mischief than an openly hostile 
act. The idea of the universal power of the Roman 
empire came into constant antagonism with the 
idea of the universal power of the Church, and Italy 
remained the natural subject of the eternal conflict 
The desire of again subjugating the country, in 
which the roots of the empire rested, laid hold of 
Frederick II., as it had laid hold of Otto IV. The 
strife of the factions which lacerated the cities, aflame 
in fratricidal war, invited the Emperor to step 
between the contending parties and to make his own 
profit from the strife. The permanent principle of 
decay, which lay within the State of the Church, 
induced him to stretch forth his hand towards the 
rights of the empire, which he had already renounced, 
while the Church sought to make valid ancient rights 
which time and the vicissitudes of property, such as 
Matilda's estates, had rendered almost unrecognisable. 

picture of the spirits rolling stones might be applied to all 
three. 

VoUando pesi perforza di poppa : 

Percotevansi incontro, e posciapur li 

Si rivolgeva ciascun, voltando a retro ^ 

Cridando: perchi tienif e perchi burli? 

— Inferno t vii. 



132 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The satisfaction of Honoiius soon came to an end. 

As early as June 1221 the Emperor appointed 

Godfrey of Godfrey of Blandrate Count of the Romagna, a pro- 

^p^^' vince which had been regarded as imperial property 

Coimtofthe from the time of the Ottos. The jurisdiction of 

Romagna, . ,,. . i.,..i i.« 

laai. impenal viscounts m this distnct lasted without 
opposition until 1250 and even later.^ In Spoleto 
(which, like Perugia and Assisi, now for the first time 
completely surrendered to the Church, and which 
was governed by Cardinal Rainer Capocci) Berthold, 
a son of the former Duke Conrad, aspired to the 
recovery of the extinct dukedom of his father. He 
formed an alliance with the Seneschal Gunzelin ; 
they appeared at open enmity with the cardinal 
both in Spoleto and the March, incited towns to 
rebellion, expelled the papal officials, and appointed 
their own. Thus here also the imperial rights came 
into conflict with the new papal rights, and although 
Frederick imposed a check on the transactions of 
these lords, suspicions of his honesty were entertained 
in Rome.2 
The The Romans meanwhile were again at war with 

make^war Viterbo ; disputes concerning the possession of for- 
on Viterbo, tresses offered a constant opportunity for the out- 

* Tonnini, Storia di Rimini (Rimini, 1862), p. 31. Since the Pope 
did not complain of this appointment of the count, it is evident that 
he recognised the rights of the empire. For the installation of Godfrey 
on June 13, 122 1, see Hist. DipL^ ii. 186. Ugolinus de Juliano had 
already been comes Romaniola. 

* The long correspondence concerning these events is given in 
Raynald, ad Ann, 1222. With regard to the Dukes of Spoleto, 
Reinold and Berthold, the sons of Conrad of Uerslingen, see Stiilin, 
^Urttemb, Gtsch,, ii. 586. 



Ch. III.] WAR WITH VITERBO. 1 33 

break of inextinguishable hatred. In September 
1220 the city of Viterbo acquired Civita Vecchia 
by purchase. Viterbo was now a large and wealthy 
trading town, Corneto being her only rival in the 
Tuscan Maritima. She was able to put in the field 
eighteen thousand armed men.^ As in every other 
commune nobles and citizens fought for power, and 
families arose who usurped it The rival houses of 
Gatti and Tignosi drew the Romans, who had again 
lost the rights acquired in 1201, into their quarrel.* 
Thus war broke out in 1221 and was long continued. 
Honorius himself was involved in the strife, and his 
attitude of mediator, or of sympathiser with the 
Viterbese, whom he strove to protect from the hatred 
of the Romans, provoked a revolt.* 

Events in Perugia also filled the Romans with 
suspicion. This flourishing city had done homage 
for the first time to Innocent III., and from him had 
acquired recognition of its municipal statute. The 
Pope, as protector of Perugia, had unsuccessfully 
striven to appease the bitter warfare between nobles 

^ Cronica di Viterbo^ ad A, 1225, Cod. Bibi, Angelica^ B. 7, 23. 
It numbered 60,000 inhabitants; the district belonging to the city, 
however, was probably included in the reckoning. For the treaty of 
purchase between Viterbo and Centumcellae (Civita Vecchia), see 
Pina, Sioria di Viterbo, 1887, i. 276 f. 

^ Concerning these two ^eunilies, Pinzi, i. 266 f. I find the first 
mention of the name Tignosus in the Regesto di Farfa (Rome, 1879), 
ii. n. 633, A. 1044 : Egojohes qui dicor Tiniosusjil, cujusd, Tebaidi, 
The Tiniosi are foimd in the Sabina, in Viterbo, in Rome. 

' According to these Chronicles the Romans appeared before 
Viterbo in 1221, and again in 1222. Richard de S. Ger. : Romam 
super Viterbium vadunt. More details in Bussi and in the latest 
history of Viterbo by Pinzi, vol. !., 1887. 



134 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

and people {Raspantt) \ the popular party strove to 
The sever itself again from the Church, and in 1 220 it 

inPo^^ was only with difficulty that the papal rector was 
able to retain Perugia. While in Rome there was 
nothing to show that the guilds or Artes were 
already powerful corporations, in Perugia they formed 
armed leagues under rectors and consuls, who 
aimed at setting up a democratic government The 
popular party issued statutes against the liberty of 
the clergy, whom they taxed, and, irritated by the 
unjust distribution of imposts, made war on the 
nobles and knights. John Colonna, Cardinal of S. 
Prassede, was sent by the Pope to Perugia with 
extraordinary powers, stepped between the parties, 
and arbitrarily suppressed the associations in their 
political form ; a measure which Honorius ratified 
in 1223.^ It must not, however, from this case be 
supposed that the popes generally suppressed the 
communes. This they were too weak to do. On 
the contrary, they allied themselves with the demo- 
cratic element, in order to find a support against 
Frederick. In face of Frederick, they might have 
said of the papal rule, that its yoke was easy and 
benign, for this Emperor of strong monarchical 

^ In Theiner, i. n. 127. The factions {pars) are milites and Popu- 
lares, SocietcUes, communitates seu fratemitates cedonum^ ptlliparior, 
lanificum et (ilior, artificum were abolished. On November 27, 
1223, however, Honorius restored to the merchants the liberty of 
electing rectors, even with the faculty /orw ineantfedera. lb,, n. 128. 
The cardinal did not abolish the guilds, but only their political com- 
panies. Milites and populus were at strife even in Latium ; thus in 
Anagni where the Pope himself effected a peace on August 11, 1231 : 
n. i6x. The conflicts in Perugia were continued under Gregory IX. 



Ch. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF ROME. I35 

principles, who determined to bend all political in- 
dividualities to his law, was the determined enemy 
of every form of democracy, and in his kingdom of 
Sicily forbade the election of podestis and consuls 
under pain of death.^ 

That besides the war with Viterbo, these occur- 
rences contributed to foster the irritation in Rome 
is undoubted, since Perugia formally recognised the 
authority of the Roman Senate. Throughout almost 
the entire course of the thirteenth century the office 
of podesti was here administered by noble Romans.* 
The ancient Roman colony of Perugia still piously Pemgia 
honoured even papal Rome as her illustrious mother Se°«ipre^ 
and mistress, the all-transforming centuries having ^*^^°^ ^*-* 
failed to efface a hallowed tradition. In public deeds, people, 
even in the oldest statutes of the commune of 
Perugia of the year 1279, we find the formula of 
respectful recognition ol the supreme rights of the 

^ In 1232 he suppressed all the corporations in the episcopal cities 
of Germany : Mon, GemUj iv. 286 ; the city magistrates in Provenfe 
in October 1226 : Ibui,^ 256. Although he gave a greater represen- 
tation to the communes of Sicily, and for the first time summoned 
their syndics to Parliament in 1240, he nevertheless permitted no 
jurisdiction to the tovois. The royal bajulus always presided over 
their ** Consigli.** (Gregorio, Considerazioni sopra la storia di 
Siciiia, iii. c. 5.) 

' See the list in Mariotti, better in Franc. Bartoli, Storia della 
Citth di Perugia, 1S43, vol* i* "^^ podesti does not appear there 
before 11 74. The first Roman was Stephen Carzullus. Capocci, 
Papa, Bobo, Gregorii, de Judice, Pandulf, Parentii, Oddo, Anibaldi, 
&c., appear there as podest^s. The formula nob, et pot, mil. D, 
Joannes . . . Dei et Rom, Populi gr, honorab. Potestas Civitatis et 
Comm. Perusii was still used in 1289. (Pellini, Hist, di Perugia^ 
P* 305.) Thus again in 1292 D, Paulus Capoccini de Capoccis de 
Roma Proconsul per Senat, Popque R. Potestas Perugii (Mariotti, i.). 



136 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Roman people, and the invocation " in honour " of 
the Pope and the saints is followed by that of the 
Alma Mater Roma.^ The authority of the city of 
Rome was recognised far beyond her territory, in 
Umbria and the duchy of Spoleto, where in many 
districts, and especially in Orvieto, the office of 
podest^ was frequently filled by Romans. When 
still later, in the year 1286, Perugia, Todi, Narni,and 
Spoleto formed a forty years' league, they expressly 
inserted in the treaty the formula, " in honour of our 
Mother, the illustrious city."* Likewise a formula 
" in honour of the illustrious city of Rome " is found 
in the draft of a treaty between Orvieto and Perugia 
in 1313.8 

In the disturbances which soon afterwards broke 
forth in Rome, the same Richard Conti who formerly 

* The first statutes in the Archives of Perugia begin : Ad laudetn — 
Dei — S, R, E»f Summi pont.^ suorumque fratr, Cardinalium^ ei 
Altne urbis ei Coinm, et P. Romani, — In 1214 an instrument 
declares that the levying of taxes was only admissible in Perugia 
pro servitio Eccl, Rom.^ Populi Romania Imp, ve/ nuntt't sui {Theiaer, 
i. n. 58). These cases were in 1234 engraven on the Petrajiistitia^ 
an inscription still remaining built into the wall of the cathedral of the 
city. Perugia and Orvieto formed a league on August 5 : ad Hon. 
nuUris nostra Alme Urbis (Archives of Perugia, Lib, Somtniss. C. , fol. 
21). Bonaini justly recognises the relation of dependence {Archivio 
storicOf xvi. p. L, p. xxxviii.). Nevertheless it was more honorary 
than actual. 

' Ad. hon, niatris n, Altna Urbis, Act of November 28, 128b. 
City Archives of Todi, Regist, Vetus^ fol. 200. Todi and Perugia 
concluded an alliance on August 11, 1230; they excepted from their 
attacks D» Papam^ Imp, et Cvoitatem Alma urbis Roma. Ibid,^ fol. 
23. After 1200, Romans are almost invariably found as podestiLs of 
Todi. List of the podest^ of Todi by Ottaviano Ciccolini. 

• Act of October 14, 13 13. Fumi, Cod, Dipl. di Orvieto, p. 411, 



Ch. III.] discord between pope and emperor. 137 

played so laige a part in the civic feuds once more 

appears. Frederick had recovered Sora from this 

powerful count. Richard had gone to Rome, had 

found no support from the Pope, and now began, 

with his adherents, to make war on the Savelli, and Hononus 

III 
other friends of Honorius. The Pope escaped to banished 

Tivoli in May 1225, and thence to Rieti.^ Parentius fromRome. 

was now again Senator. Although this Roman Parentius, 

numbered a martyr among his relatives, he was 1225. ' 

nevertheless a determined enemy of the priesthood. 

Already as podest^ in Lucca he had taxed or 

banished the clergy, and in consequence had drawn 

upon himself the anathema of the Pope, from which, 

however, he had since been absolved Honorius may 

possibly have refused to confirm him in the office of 

Senator, and his violent installation by the populace 

may have been one of the actual causes of the revolt.* 

Relations between the Pope and the Emperor 

were already strained to the utmost The Emperor 

* Chronicle of Tours ^ Recueil xviiL 311 : Rickardus Comes 
Soranus — aliique Romani contra nepotes Papa H. de die in dietn-^ 
assaltib, dimicarent, H, Papa ab urbe egreditur, Richard had 
acquired the island of the Tiber at Ostia, the third part of the sea- 
coast and the river banks as far as the Marroorata, which had formerly 
belonged to the Bishop of Ostia. Honorius recovered these territories 
from Richard, and gave them back to the bishop. Document, Cod, 
Vai,f 6223, dot, LcUeran, Non, Aprilis a X, Two nobles, Cincio 
and Bobazano, in order to oppress Ostia, had built a fortress there, a 
portion of which, perhaps, still exists as the Tor Bovacciana. Registri 
dei Card, Ugolino (T Ostia e Ottaoiano degli Ubaldini^ ed. G. Levi, 
Rome, 1890, p. 127. 

' Richard a S. Germ., 1225. H, urbem exiens propter seditiones et 
Seila, quce in eafiunt sub Parentio Senatore, apud Tiburim se contulit, 
I cannot from documents reconstruct the series of senators up to 1225, 
Honorius was in Tivoli on May 15. 



138 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

refused to interrupt the progress of his reforms in 
Sicily to set forth on the Crusade, about which he 
was incessantly tormented, while he cunningly evaded 
his obligations. The fall of Damietta (on September 
8, 1 221) had filled the West with terror. Emperor 
and Pope had spent fourteen days together at Veroli 
in April 1222, where a congress had been agreed 
upon in Verona ; the congress, however, did not take 
place. At another meeting in the beginning of 1223 
at Ferentino, at which John of Brienne, King of 
Jerusalem, the Patriarch, and the three grand-masters 
were present, the undertaking had been deferred 
until the summer of 1225. In order to bind 
Frederick the more firmly, the Pope persuaded 
him to accept the hand of lolantha, the only 
daughter of the titular King of Jerusalem, his first 
wife Constance having died on June 23, 1222.^ The 
year 1225 came, without the ardent wish of the Pope 
being realised, for the kings of the West refused 
their support The envoys of Frederick, who desired 
a yet further delay, among them Brienne himself, 
found the Pope an exile from Rome in Rieti. 
Necessity compelled him to accede to their pro- 
posals, and on July 25 the Emperor, in the presence 
of the papal legates at S. Germano, swore under 
penalty of excommunication that he would set forth 
on the Crusade in August 1227.^ 

* John, brother of Walter of Brienne, was a valiant man of great 
strength, iia ut alter Karolus Pipini fil, crederetur, Salimbene, 
Chron.t p. 16. The marriage with lolantha to9k place at Brindisi 
on November 9, 1225. 

' Document in Mon. GemLf iv. 255. 



Ch. III.] THE LOMBARD CITIES. 1 39 

Honorius spent the winter in Rieti, while negotia- 
tions were pending for his return ; for the Emperor, 
who had attained his desires, now stepped forward 
as a mediator. Peace was concluded between the 
Church and the city in the autumn. Parentius re- 
nounced his office and Angelo de Benincasa took Angeio de 
his place.^ The Pope was now able to return tosenatOTtn' 
Rome in February 1226. He lived a year in the^^^^^*^" 
city in such painful agitation that his misunder- 
standing with the Emperor approached an opeft 
rupture. Meanwhile Frederick had overcome all 
obstacles in Apulia and Sicily, had subjugated the 
rebellious barons, subdued the Saracens on the 
island and settled them in Lucera on the mainland, 
had founded the university of Naples, and by a 
better administration had increased the resources of 
the magnificent country. Various circumstances, 
however, combined to make him violate the peace 
with the Church and to force him into the terrible 
wars which were to accompany his entire life. 

The Lombard cities refused to recognise the rights Resistance 
which the peace of Constance had left to the empire, the Lom- 
A relic of ancient imperial supremacy, indefinite in ^^^^** 
its limits, afforded to them an opportunity of render- Emperor, 
ing less than was their due, and to the Emperor 
occasion to demand more than was his right. It soon 
became his avowed intention to restore the imperial 

^ Probably in November (1225) when the new election usually took 
place. Rich, a S. Germano, ad A, 1225. Andrew, brother of 
the Senator, escaped to Spoleto, where a branch of the £unily 
continued to flourish, while another remained in Rome. Olivieri, del 
Senato^ p. 210. Parentii are foimd as podestiis in Siena, Orvieto, and 
Foligno until 1286. 



I40 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

authority on the Po, and to claim the recovery of 
the whole of Italy as "his inheritance." Towns 
which had grown powerful, filled with national pride, 
fought as in the time of Barbarossa for freedom and 
independence.^ Their heroic resistance deserved a 
better reward ; although to their disunion was due 
the failure to achieve any lasting success. The 
Lombards, hearing of Frederick's speedy approach 
from Apulia, renewed their old league for twenty- 
five years in the treaty of Mosio, in Mantuan territory, 
on March 2, 1226. The news met with the Pope's 
The glad approval. The threatening attitude of the 

proscribes cities, which prevented King Henry from crossing 
in*he**^ the Alps to reach the imperial diet summoned at 
simmer 6i Cremona, drew upon them the ban of the empire. 
A compromise proposed by the Pope, to whom 
appeal had been made by both sides, was little cal- 
culated to satisfy Frederick, for Honorius showed 
himself, as was but natural, a partisan of the 
Lombards.^ 
Discord The tension was further increased by quarrels 

Emperor Concerning the episcopal investiture in Sicily, which 
and Pope. ^^^ claimed by the Pope and disputed by Frederick, 
who no sooner felt himself master of his hereditary 
dominion, than he wished to make it entirely inde- 

^ Avisos et patemas prosequimur injuriasy et productam jam ad 
alias regiones libertatis insidiose propaginem nitimur supplaniare : 
thus spake Frederick in June 1236. Hist, DipL^ iv. 873. 

' The ban (pronounced in S. Donino on June 11, 1226) fell on 
Milan, Verona, Piacenza, Vercelli, Lodi, Alessandria, Treviso, Padua, 
Vicenza, Turin, Novara, Mantua, Brescia, Bologna, Faenza. Rich, 
a San Germ., ad A, 1226. Modena, Reggio, Parma, Cremona, 
Asti, Pavia, Lucca, and Pisa were imperialist. 



Ch. III.] DEATH OF HONORIUS III. I4I 

pendent of the Pope. The Curia watched with in- 
creasing suspicion the wise reforms of the Emperor, 
who transformed the kingdom into an independent 
monarchy. It was here that Frederick laid the 
foundations of his power, and from here he strove 
to reach his goal, that of creating a united monarchic 
Italy, by the annihilation of the Italian federations, 
of the freedom of the cities, and of the State of 
the Church. Such at least were the fears already 
entertained at the papal court 

There too John of Brienne appeared as an ac- 
cuser. For scarcely had Frederick married lolantha, 
who through her mother Maria was heiress of 
Jerusalem, when he assumed the title of King of 
Jerusalem, and his father-in-law, betrayed in all his 
hopes, brought his complaints before the papal 
throne. Honorius made use of the abilities of the 
chivalrous ex-king — a brother of that Walter who 
had formerly served under Innocent III. — while he 
entrusted him with the temporal government of a 
great part of the ecclesiastical State.^ The miserable 
result of all the Pope's passionate efforts to institute 
a Crusade was, that the successor of Godfrey of 
Bouillon entered the service of the Church, to spend 
the remainder of his life as rector of the patrimony. 

Honorius died in the Lateran on March 18, 1227. Death of 

Honorius 
* Bull to the inhabitants of the ecclesiastical territories in question, HI., March 
issued on January 27, 1227, Raynald, n. 5. Totum patrimon, quod * ^^^' 
kadft K, E, a Radicofano usque Romam^ excepta Marchta Anconitana, 
ducatu Spoleti, Reate ac Sabina^ cura regimini et cusiodia ipsius regis 
duximus comitiendum ; the list of the places follows. In the letters 
of Gregory IX. John of Brienne is called simply Rector patritnonii 
B, Petriin Tuscia, 



142 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



CHAPTER IV. 

I. HUGOLINUS CONTI AS PoPE GREGORY IX.— SUMMONS 

THE Emperor to start on the Crusade — De- 
parture, Return, and Excommunication of 
Frederick, 1227 — Manifestos of the Emperor 
AND THE Pope — The Imperial Faction drives 
Gregory IX. from Rome — Crusade of the 
Emperor — The Pope invades Apulia, 1229 — 
Return of the Emperor and Flight of the 
Papal Army. 

To one of the most peace-loving of popes succeeded 
a man of strong passions and an iron strength of 
will. Hugolinus, Cardinal-bishop of Ostia, already 
elected in S. Gregorio on the Septizonium and pro- 
Gregory claimed as Gregory IX. on March 19, 1227, belonged 
1227-1241! to the family of Conti of Anagni, and was related to 
Innocent in the third degree.^ He had outlived the 
reigns of several popes, and in his youth had been 
deeply stirred by the great events which had taken 
place under Alexander III. Innocent, his perhaps 
younger relative, had made him Bishop of Ostia, 
and he had fortified this seaport with new walls. 
During many years he managed the affairs of the 

^ His descent from the Conti is established, but it is not certain 
that Tristan (his father) was the brother of Innocent III. His age 
can only be reckoned from a statement of Matthew Paris who says 
that he died nearly a hundred years old. 



Ch. IV.] GREGORY IX. 1 43 

Church in Italy as well as in Germany, where as 
legate he conducted the difficult negotiations in the 
quarrel for the succession. We have seen him as 
the earliest protector of the order of Minorites. A 
flame of the fire of Francis and Dominic glowed 
within his breast, moulded his innate strength of 
character, and made him indomitable and defiant to 
the point of utter scorn of all opposition. An aged 
and eloquent man of blameless life, of intimate 
knowledge of both civil and canon law, and of 
earnest faith, he presented, both in form and aspect, 
the appearance of a patriarch, while his unimpaired 
memory diminished the impression of age.^ 

When Hugolinus (who had looked with indignation 
on the yielding character of Honorius) ascended the 
sacred chair, it was felt that he would not emulate 
the patience of his predecessor, and precisely on this 
account had he been chosen by the cardinals.^ He 
was consecrated in S. Peter's on March 21. The 
Romans accompanied him with acclamations to 
the Lateran, and amid the solemn procession were 
seen both the Senator and the Prefect of the city. 
The third day after his consecration Gregory IX. 
announced his elevation to Frederick, with whom he 
had long been on friendly terms, and summoned 

^ Forma decorus^ et venustus aspectu^ perspicacis ingenii et fidelis 
memorie prerogativa dotatus^ liberalium et utriusq. Juris peritia 
instruciuSf fluvius eloquentie Tulliane, Contemporary Vita (Mur., 
ui' 575)' ^c is praised as a cedrus Libani prelatus in Ecclesie paradiso^ 
in the bull of Honorius of March 4, 1221. Honorius appointed him 
legate : Registro del Card. Ugolino d* Ostia^ ed, G. Levi, Rome, 1890, 
p. 138. Frederick H. also praised his eloquence. 

' Gregorius IX. Papa, vehU hilgor meridianus egreditur. Ibid. 



Crusade. 



144 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

He re- him immediately to set forth on the Crusade, since 
??^ck August, the latest date appointed, was drawing 
indCTtake ^^^^'^ ^^ ^^ fr^™ Gregory's hands that the 
the Emperor had taken the Cross on the day of his 

coronation. Frederick immediately announced that 
he was ready to depart, and numbers of crusaders, 
chiefly Grermans, assembled at Brindisi, where, at the 
most unhealthy time of year, they awaited the signal 
to embark. An epidemic, which resembled a pesti- 
lence, broke out and carried away thousands. At 
length the Emperor arrived from Messina, and 
probably no crusader ever stepped more unwillingly 
on board his vessel than the grandson of that 
Barbarossa who had died in Syria. 

When, on September 8, he at last set sail from 
Brindisi, the Te Deum resounded in all the churches, 
and the prayers of the Pope accompanied him on the 
sea But in the course of a few days the strange 
report arrived, that the Emperor had returned, had 
disembarked, and had deferred the Crusade. And 
this was indeed the case. Frederick, either actually 
or ostensibly taken ill at sea, had ordered his galleys 
to turn and had landed at Otranto, where the Land- 
grave of Thuringia, the husband of S. Elizabeth, fell 
a victim to fever. When the Pope received the 
letters which confirmed and excused the unexpected 
tidings, he was overcome by a transport of in- 
dignation. He would listen neither to promises or 

^ Dated on March 23, Lateran, Cod, Ottobon,^ n. 1625, fol. 69. 
Likewise his encyclical with the appeal to the clergy to labour for the 
Crusade. Joseph Felten, Papst Gregor IX, in seinem Verh. zu Kaiset 
Friedrich IL (van 1 227-1236), Freiburg, 1886. 



Ch. IV.] FREDERICK EXCOMMUNICATED. I4S 

explanations. On September 29 he mounted the 
pulpit of the cathedral of Anagni in full pontificals, 
and, in conformity with the treaty of S. Germano, 
pronounced sentence of excommunication on the The Pope 
Emperor, while the priests ranged at each side of municates 
the high altar threw their burning tapers to the^^pg^jj^ 
ground. After the impotent threats of Honorius Anagni on 
fell the actual thunderbolt. 1227! 

Gregory's sudden audacity appeared to some as 
grand, to others merely as the overhastiness of anger, 
pardonable on the score of exhausted patience, but 
not on that of prudence. The aged Pope, one of 
those characters that tolerate no half measures, 
challenged the man, in whom he only saw the most 
crafty enemy of the Church, who had played upon 
the weakness of Honorius. He violated uncertain 
and therefore intolerable relations, preferring open 
warfare to a worthless peace. The masks fell. The 
two heads of Christendom, through their manifestos 
to the world, announced that the harmony between 
the ancient hereditary enemies was an impossibility. 
Was Frederick's real offence in the eyes of the 
Church the postponement of the Crusade ? Assur- 
edly not. His power, which was becoming too 
formidable, the union of Sicily with the empire, 
his dominion over the Ghibelline cities in North 
and Central Italy, which menaced the Lombard 
league, were his actual sins. No emperor has ever 
had so many and so strong foundations of practical 
dominion in Italy as Frederick II., the absolute 
King of Sicily. To eradicate the Hohenstaufen 
power remained henceforward the aim of papal 

VOL. V. K 



146 ROME IN TH^ MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix, 

policy, an aim which it prosecuted with admirable 
perseverance. 

In his encyclical to all the bishops, Gregory 
painted Frederick's ingfratitude in the blackest 
colours — mercilessly branded him in sight of the 
world. The violence of the attack roused the fierce 
indignation of the Emperor, and forced him to a no 
less ruthless reply. He ably justified his return 
Manifestos from the Crusade, and then issued a manifesto to the 
Po^^and kings. This celebrated document contains the first 
Em*^ r P^^*^* ^f secular authority against the Papacy of 
Innocent. The Emperor arose with the clear 
consciousness that he was the representative of the 
secular power, which he had to defend against the 
threatening absolutism of Rome. From the examples 
of the unfortunate Count of Toulouse and of the 
King of England, he pointed out to princes and 
peoples what they had to expect ; he drew an un- 
sparing picture of the secularisation of the Curia, of 
the lust of power of the popes. The supreme head 
of the State made the sins of the Church a subject 
of discussion for the whole world, and the Emperor 
of Christendom seemed to ratify the views of the 
heretics concerning the unapostolic nature of the 
Papacy.^ Roffred of Benevento, a celebrated jurist, 

* Ingenious justification, Capua, December 6. Hist. Dipl, , iii. 37. 
In addition the celebrated letter to England (49). Ecce mores 
Romanor.t ecce laquei pralator,^ quib. universos ac sing, quarunt 
illaquearef nummos emungere, liberos subjugare^ pacificos inquietare^ 
in vesiiL avium cum sint intrinsecus lupi rapcues. At the end he 
appeals to the kings : Tunc tua res agiiur paries cum proximus ardet. 
Cherrier, Lutte des Papes et des Empereurs^ ii., says : cette lettre 
remarquable^ qui^ trois siicles avant Luther, fait dijd pressentir ce 
refomuUeur, . . 



Ch. IV.] FREDERICK GAINS THE ROMANS. I47 

even brought the imperial manifesto to Rome, where 
it was read on the Capitol amid shouts of approval. The 
An imperial party immediately formed, since the pianifesto 
quarrel between Church and State appeared to the SJS^on 
Romans highly welcome for their own position. theCapitoL 
Gregory IX. had acted with severity in the city ; he 
had caused some towers at the Lateran belonging to 
the nobility to be pulled down, and the commune 
was irritated at the dispute concerning Viterbo, a 
town which he protected. The factions were joined 
by the heretics, who, even in Rome itself, raised their 
heads from among the pyres with ever increasing 
boldness. An example serves to show the d^ree 
of anarchy that prevailed in the city. During the 
sojourn of the Pope in Latium in the summer, nobles 
and citizens, even monks and clergy, ventured to put 
forward as papal vicar in the Vatican an impostor, 
who for a sum of money released the crusaders 
journeying to Brindisi from their vows. This in- 
solent trick was openly performed for six weeks in 
the portico of S. Peter's, until the Senator put an 
end to it.^ 

Noble Romans accepted gold from Frederick ; Frederick 
even John of Poli, the son of Richard Conti, was seen the^"'" 
in his camp.2 The Emperor, who invited these nobles ^°™*^ 

^ Rich. Sangerm., p. 1003. 

■ John, the founder of the house of Conti-Poli, was invested with 
Alba by Frederick in 1230. Rich. Sangerm., p. 1024. The 
adherents of Frederick who were banished by the Pope in August 
1229 were, Egidius de Palombara, Petrus Gregorii Pagare, Nicol. de 
Arcione {Hist. DipLy iii. 157). The family de Arciontbus received 
their name from ancient aqueducts. The Via in Arcione was so 
called from the Aqtta Virgo^ or from the Alexcmdrina. There were 



148 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

to accompany him to Campania, seduced the Frangi- 
pani into selling him their estates, their fortresses in 
the city, and everything that they held in fief from 
the Pope, to receive these possessions back at his 
hands and thus to acknowledge themselves imperial 
vassals.1 Jt was important to Frederick that he 
should create a party in Rome itself, should raise up 
enemies to the Pope, and should bring the Colosseum 
under his power. A revolt was the consequence of 
his measures. Gregory had again pronounced the 
anathema on the Emperor on Maundy Thursday of 
the year 1228. When, at the celebration of mass in 
S. Peter's on Easter Monday, he addressed a violent 
denunciation against Frederick to the people, he was 
interrupted by the Ghibellines with angry shouts; 

several fortresses of this name in the Ager Romanus The largest 
still stands by the Via Tiburtina, 

1 Chron, Ursperg,^ p. 247. The marriage of Oddo Frangipani with 
Anna Commena (1170) had bestowed lustre on this house; the 
Empress Constance had conferred Taranto and Hydruntum on the 
same Oddo ; the investiture of Walter with Taranto irritated the 
Frangipani. The eulogy of Pope Honorius : devotto tndefessay quam 
magnifici viri antiqui Frangipani a progenie in progeniem erga Rom, 
Ecc. habuerunt (Bull, Rome, May 7, 1218, Raynald, n. 31), was 
exaggerated. The genealogical tree, according to the MS. of Panvinius 
and contemporary documents, is as follows : — 
Otto II. of Terracina. 

! 

I I I I I 

Oddo III., Manuel. Cencius. Adeodatus. Jacobus. 

invested with I I 

Petrus, Henricus 

Chancellor of inherits Taranto 

the city, and Hydruntum. 

I 
Jacobus. 



Taranto and 
Hydruntum. 



Ch. IV ] FREDERICK'S CRUSADE. I49 

they overwhelmed him with insults at the altar, and 
drove him out of the sanctuary. The city rose in Gregory 
arms, while the fugitive Pope, under the escort of a froin 
band of faithful Guelfs, hurried to friendly Viterbo. f^°™^ 
The Romans followed him with a military force; 
they drove him on to Rieti and Perugia, cooled their 
hatred of Viterbo by a wanton devastation of the sur- 
rounding fields and conquered the disputed fortress 
of Rispampano.^ From his place of exile Gregory 
IX. hurled his excommunication on his persecutor, 
and anxiously awaited the date of his return. 

Meanwhile the Emperor actually prepared to set 
forth on his Crusade. Thus employed he not only 
refuted the assertions of the Pope, who had accused 
him of never having entertained any serious inten- 
tions concerning this object, but even placed him in 
grave embarrassment. Under the existing circum- 
stances Frederick's departure for the East was a 
master-stroke of diplomacy, all the greater since the 
Pope, to the perplexity of many devout minds, 
placed serious obstacles in his way. The Emperor 
of the West set forth towards what was then 
reputed the holiest object of the Church, but set 
forth under her ban. He embarked at Brindisi on Frederic 
June 28, 1228. The Church called after him in anger ^rth*^ 
that he departed for Jerusalem not as a crusader ^"^^ 
but as a pirate. Instead of her blessing he was 1228. 

* Matthew Paris, after Rc^er of Wendover, p. 349 : ilium ejecerunt 
ex urbe, . . . Rich. Sangerm. , p. 1004. Chron. Ursp, : fecerunt^ ut 
a populo pelUretur turpiter extra dvitatem. As early as April the 
Pope was in Rieti ; at the end of May in Assisi, in June in Perugia, 
tvhere he canonised Francis on July 9, and where he remained until 
1230. Pollhast, Regesta. 



1 50 ROME IN THE MmDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

followed by her curse, which reached him at the very 
grave of the Redeemer. One and the same Pope 
represented Frederick as a malefactor both because 
he had not, and because he had, undertaken the 
Crusade. Had Gregory IX. released his enemy from 
the ban when the latter actually departed for 
Jerusalem, he would have vanquished not only 
Frederick but himself, and would have shown him- 
self in triumphant grandeur to the world. Such 
glaring inconsistency, however, diminished the belief 
in his sincere anxiety for the deliverance of Jerusalem, 
and Gregory thus destroyed the dream of two cen- 
turies. It was at least henceforward no longer possible 
to induce Germany to join in the enterprise.^ 

Rainald, son of the former Duke Conrad, appointed 
Vicar of Italy during the absence of the Emperor, 
forthwith irritated the Pope by an attack on Spoleto, 
and Gregory was no less eager to profit by Frederick's 
absence to render Apulia subject to the Church. He 
had raised an army shortly before the departure of 
the Emperor. He now called on Lombardy, Spain, 
France, and England, and even on the whole of 
Europe, to give him church-tithes or troops, and the 
people listened to a Crusade preached against the 
Emperor, who himself had gone under the banner 
of the Cross to fight against the infidel. They saw 
armies in the name of the Pope invade the territories 
of the absent Frederick, territories which, as the pro- 
perty of a crusader, should have been held inviolable 

^ When at a later time Liewis IX. undertook his Crusade, no one 
would any longer sell his property : the King was obliged to pay the 
crusaders. Cherrier, ii. 376. 



Ch. IV.] CRUSADE AGAINST THE EMPEROR. I51 

according to both the law of nations and to canon 
law.^ The papal crusaders, bearing the keys of S. The Pope 
Peter on their banner, were commanded by John of aCnisade 
Brienne, father-in-law of the Emperor, by Cardinal ^^^" 
John Colonna, and by Pandulf of Anagni, chap- 
lain to the Pope.*-* While a portion of the troops 
entered the Marches, which had been invaded by 
Rainald at the head of a band of Saracens and 
Apulians, Pandulf advanced across the Liris into 
Campania on January 18, 1229. Here John of 
Poli successfully defended Fundi; several towns, 
however, surrendered to the papal army. The 
Romans were spared during this war; the Pope, 
whose eyes were directed towards Apulia alone, did 
not once make an attempt to reduce the city to 
obedience by means of his crusaders. He hastened 
to conquer the kingdom, the towns of which, op- 
pressed by taxation, he enticed to rebellion by the 
bestowal of charters. Gaeta also surrendered to 
him, and Gr^ory IX. now hoped to retain a city 
which had long been claimed by the Church.^ 

The Emperor, summoned by the news of these 
proceedings, now suddenly returned from the East 
With his own hand he had set the crown on his head 

^ Contra legem Christianam decretrit vos m gladio inncere : Thomas 
de Acerra to Frederick in Syria. Math. Paris, p. 353. In 6rder to 
prosecute the war against the Emperor, the legate Stephen extorted 
large sums of money from England in the form of church-tithes. The 
English chronicler speaks of his conduct with great indignation. 

^ lolantha, the Emperor's second wife, had already died in April 
122S, after the birth of Conrad. 

' He wrote to the inhabitants of Gaeta: cwn igitur reducti sUis 
adfidelitatem et dominium Rom. Ecc. , ad guam non erat dubium vos 
speciare: Perugia, June 21, 1229 {^Hist, Dipl,, iil 143). 



152 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The in Jerusalem on March i8, 1229, had by treaty re- 

iJSrns^*^ stored the Holy City to the Christians, and, in spite 
2^*^® of all the obstacles of fanaticism, had achieved a 
glorious work. The Roman Curia declaimed against 
him as against a blasphemer of the Christian religion ; 
it took no heed either of the genuine services which 
he had rendered in the East, or of the practical 
reasons which, on account of the great traffic of Sicily 
with the Levant, made it his duty to establish friendly 
relations with the sultans of the East This was 
natural ; since the Emperor in the first instance had 
made the Crusades an affair of temporal policy, had 
ousted the Pope in the East, and had established 
political and economical relations between the East 
and the empire.^ 

When he now unexpectedly landed at Brindisi on 
June 10, 1229, he requested a reconciliation with the 
Pope and sent him emissaries of peace. But as 
He drives these envoys met with no success, he drove the papal 
trwps^ut troops, almost without a struggle, out of his dominion, 
of Apulia, 'pjjg banner with the cross stood confronting the 
banner with the keys, and men looked on in astonish- 
ment while Frederick's Saracens, ranged under the 
symbol of Christ, advanced against the papal troops, 
who meanwhile had retreated in disordered flight 
across the Liris. Gregory again thundered his ex- 

^ Frederick procured a ten years* truce and the cession of Jerusalem 
and other cities. The Saracens, however, were to guard the temple 
and to be allowed to pray there. Transcriptum of some chapters of 
the peace with the Sultan Kamil, Epist. sac. XIII, e regestis Ponttj,^ 
collected by Pertz, edited by Rodenberg, 1883, Mon. Germ.^ i. n. 380. 
R. Rohricht, Die Kreuz^ahrt Kaiser Friedrich^s II. 1228 bis 1229, 
Berlin, 1872. 



Ch. IV.] GREGORY RETURNS TO ROME. 153 

communications against the Emperor and even 
against his adherents in Rome. He had already 
expended vast; sums of money in a senseless war, 
and he again required the world to supply him with 
fresh resources. The Emperor congratulated the 
envoys of the Roman Senate at Aquino; ^ in October 
he marched against the frontiers of the State of the 
Church, and after Sora had been destroyed by fire 
and sword, the Pope gave ear to his overtures of 
peace. 

2. Inundation of the Tiber, 1230— The Romans re- 
call Gregory IX. — Peace of S. Germano, 1230— 
First general Trial of Heretics in Rome — The 
Senator Anibaldo issues an Edict against Heresy 
— Persecution of Heretics — The Inquisition. 

Gregory IX. spent the winter in Perugia, without 
any prospect of returning to Rome, beyond that 
offered by a reconciliation with the Emperor. Before, 
however, this had been effected, unhoped for circum- 
stances conducted him back to the Lateran. " The 
cataracts of the heavens" opened and discharged 
themselves over the " godless " city. The Tiber rose 
on February i, 1230; the Leonina and the Field 
of Mars were flooded ; the Bridge of the Senators 
{Ponte Rottd) was swept away, and the inundation 

^ Nobiles quidem Romani ad Imp, apud Aquinum veniunt ex parte 
S, P. Q. R,y cum quo maram per irtduum fadentes ad Urbem reverst 
sunt. Rich. Sangerm., p. 1016. In the Pope's bull of excommuni- 
cation of August 1229 the following Romans are excommunicated by 
name : Egidius de Falumbaria, Nicol. de Atdone, and Petr. Gregorii 
Pagare cives rom. {Ep. sac, XIIL , by Pertz-Rodenberg, i. n. 399). 



154 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

was followed by famine and pestilence. Chroniclers 
describe this pestilence as one of the most terrible 
that Rome ever endured.^ The Romans who, forget- 
ful of their Pope during his long exile, had robbed 
the clei^ and had harboured heretics, now re- 
membered with superstitious dread that the Holy 
Father was their territorial ruler. Envoys hastened 
to Perugia; Peter Frangipane, Chancellor of the 
city, and the aged and valiant ex-senator Pandulf of 
I the Suburra threw themselves at the feet of the Pope, 
I implored mercy for the people who had been led 
astray, and begged him to return to the orphaned 
Gr^ory city, Gregory, arriving on February 24, received 
to R^c[°* with exultant cries by the Romans, and led to the 
Feb. 123a Lateran, may have bestowed a glance of contempt 
upon a people who for more than a century had been 
accustomed to drive away their popes, in order to 
receive them back with songs of rejoicing.* When 
these popes returned from their exile to the " city 
of blood," it was only by means of gold that they 

^ Albericus, ad A, 1230 : RonM ulira 7 miUia horn, dicuntur 
submersay which is exaggerated. Vita Greg,^ p. 578; Rich. 
Sangerm., p. 1017 ; Bonincontrius, Hist, Stc,^ 307. The height 
which the water reached during inundatioDs was marked on marble 
tablets. I discovered the oldest of these tablets built into the wall 
of an arched gateway to the Banchi di S, Spirito : HVC TIBER 
ACCESSIT SET TURBIDVS HINC CITO CESSIT A.D. 
MCCLXXV. IND. VI. M. NOVENB. DIE V. ECCLA 
VACANTE. 

' Vita Gregoriif p. 577 : Qui Cancellarium^ et Pandulpkum de 
Suburra ProconsuUs (note the new title), et Le^aios ad Perusium ad 
pedes S,P, pro impetranda venia — destinarunt, — In urbem cum ghria 
et inastimanda iatitia Populi extUtantis intravit. The chronology 
in the Vita is fiedse. 



Ch. IV.] PEACE BETWEEN EMPEROR AND POPE. 1 55 

purchased a brief interval of rest The biographer j 
of Gregory IX. conscientiously enumerates the many j 
thousands of pounds that this Pope distributed among 
the Romans whenever they consented to his return.^ 

Gregory found Rome in misery and barbarism, and 
filled with " the weed" of heresy, a number even of 
the clergy being heretically inclined. He therefore 
resolved to issue a severe decree as soon as peace was 
concluded with the Emperor. After tedious n^o- 
tiations with Hermann, Grand-master of the Teu- Ptace con- 
tonic Order, and under conditions so favourable for tween the 
the Pope that it was easily perceived how little f;™i^ 
Frederick had undervalued the power of his adver- at s. 
sary, peace was arranged at S. Germano on July 23, juiy 23, * 
1230. The State of the Church was restored, even '^^' 
some towns of Campania (among them Gaeta) were 
retained by the Pope for a year as hostages; the 
freedom of election and the exemption of the clergy 
were, moreover, not to be interfered with in Sicily.^ 

After the Emperor had been released from the 
ban in the chapel of S. Justa near Ceprano, on 
August 28, he was escorted by the cardinals to the 
Pope at Anagni.^ There, on September i, the two 
adversaries greeted one another with courtesy. 
During the first three days of September they 
dissembled their hatred, and dined and conversed 
together in the family palace of the Conti. But 

^ In the time of the Senator Joh. Poll he gave 20,000 pounds. The 
Vita adds : Sanctius judtcans vttsa viventia^ quam metalla servare. 

• See the Acts, Mm. Germ.^ iv. 269 f. 

' Gregory congratulated the Emperor on his reconciliation with the 
Church, Anagni, August 28, 1230 : Baumgartner, Formelbuch^ n. 36. 



156 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

notwithstanding their professions of friendship, they 
parted with the conviction that there was not room 
in Italy for two men such as themselves. 

Returning to Rome in November, Gregory sought 
to gain over the Romans by a series of benefits. He 
caused the Bridge of the Senators to be restored, the 
cloacae to be cleansed ; he procured supplies of grain, 
distributed money among the people, and built a 
hospital for the poor in the Lateran. These 
measures gained him the favour of the masses and 
facilitated his blow against the heretics, from whom 
he desired to purify the city. Innocent III.'s war of 
extermination against the heretics, his orders for their 
eradication from all cities, appear to have only in- 
creased their numbers. Thousands girt their loins 
with the cord of S. Francis, but many more fell 
away from the faith. Heretics were numerous in 
the State of the Church, in Viterbo, in Perugia, in 
Orvieto.^ Lombardy was filled with them, the 
Guelf city of Milan was the seat of their principal 
church. Pyres blazed in vain. During the exile of 
the Pope the heretics had collected in Rome itself 
Political views easily made common cause with 
religious views, and among the Roman heretics the 
Ghibelline sect of the Arnoldists was assuredly more 
numerous than that of the Poor of Lyons. Further- 
more dogmatic heresy was not distinguished from 
political heresy ; for the Church regarded the 
attacks upon the freedom and property of the clergy, 
such as the edicts of the civic magistracy, who strove 

^ Some years later they raised up a pope in Viterba Vita^ p. 581. 
Gregory caused their houses to be pulled down. 



Ch. IV.] TRIAL OF HERETICS IN ROME. 1 57 

to impose taxes upon them and to render them 
subject to the civil tribunal, as rank heresy.^ 

It was the first time that a trial for heresy on a Trial of 
large scale was held in Rome, and that pyres blazed Roma* * 
publicly. The inquisitors erected their tribunal in 
front of the doors of S. Maria Maggiore ; the car- 
dinals, the Senator, and the judges took their places 
on the tribune, and the populace, open-mouthed, 
surrounded this terrible theatre, in which unfortunate 
creatures of both sexes and of every class received 
their sentence. Many priests, convicted of heresy, 
were, after a repentant confession, unfrocked and 
condemned to penance in their convents. Other 
heretics were burnt on piles of faggots, probably 
on the piazza of the Church itself.^ This hideous 
spectacle, a reflection of the Albigensian war, follow- 
ing on the inundation of the Tiber and the pesti- 
lence, must have wakened profound agitation in 
Rome. If a chronicler of the fourteenth century 
speaks truth, the Romans even beheld the unex- 
ampled and appalling sight of a Senator executed 
for heresy. But the statement is a fiction.^ On his 

^ In October 1220 Honorius wrote to Frederick that heresy was 
getting the upper hand in Lombardy, quod apparet ex iniquis stcUuHs- 
que plereque iilius provincte dvitates contra dei eccl, ediderunt contra 
hereticos statuas — aliquid dignum regia majestcUe^ ipsaque statuta — 
contra iibert, eccUsiast, attempfatay generaliter casses (Theiner, i. n. 
91). On this followed the imperial edicts of the coronation. 

* Vita Gregorii: muUos presbyteros^ clericos et utriusq, sexus laicos 
— damnavit. Rich, a S. Germ. : eod, mense (Febr,) nonnulii 
Paiareftor, in Urbe inventi sunt : quor, cUii sunt igne cremati. 

' Bonincontrius, Hist. Sicui,, p. 307 : Romani AnibcUdi supplici§ 
indignati a Pontifice rebellarunt. This does not agree with the edicts 
of the same Senator. The accounts of this chronicler must be 



158 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

return Gr^ory must have appointed a new Senator, 
Anibaido and this was Anibaldo Anibaldi, a Roman of sena- 
Scnator,*' torial family, which precisely at this time rose to 
"3°- prominence, and which founded a powerful and 
richly dowered house in Latium. The celebrated 
name of Hannibal reappears in the Middle Ages in 
a noble family, which for centuries gave birth to 
senators, generals, and cardinals, but never to a pope. 
The Anibaldi were related to the Conti and the 
house of Ceccano, were like them of German origin, 
and were settled on the Campagna and in the 
Latin Mountains, where the Field of Hannibal 
above Rocca di Papa still recalls the once influential 
family.^ If in 1231 this Senator Anibaldo issued 
the edict against heresy, which is still preserved, the 

accepted with caution. The same confusion prevails in the Vita of 
Gregory, which, moreover, mentions the Senator's presence at the 
trial of heretics, but does not give his name. 

^ In 1227 Anibaldo was seneschal of the Pope. Gregory wrote to 
the commune of Siena, which had burnt Grosseto, that at the request 
of the (unfortunately anonymous) Senator he granted it absolution : 
^ia nob. vir Senator nod, viros Cancellarium urbis et Anibaldum 
Senescalcum nostr, propter hoc — ad nosir. presentiam destinaint 
(Archives oj Siena^ n. 210). The same man is designated by the 
Pope as A{nibaldus) senator urbis and senescalcus noster in a brief to 
the rectors of the city, Rieti, July 23, 123 1 (Ep., sac, xiii., Mon, 
Germ,f i. n. 446). The fiimily was German. In vol. ii. p. 345, note, I 
mentioned a Count Anualdus (Anwald). This name is the origin of 
the Roman Anibaldi. There were several fiimilies in Rome whose 
names ended in bald : Tebaldi, Sinibaldi, Astaldi or Astalli (from 
Austuald, Ostwald). A dux Austoald in 916 (vol. iii. p. 269, and 
note). The history of the Anibaldi begins with Peter, son of the 
sister of Innocent III. But an Anibaldo Anibaldi, who owned Rocca 
Priora, Monte Porzio, and Molaria, appears in the Chron, Subl. as 
early as 109a Nerini, p. 527. The Anibaldi believed in their 
descent from Hannibal : Petrarca, Cartn,^ ii. ep. 12. 



Ch. IV.] EDICT AGAINST HERESY. 1 59 

measure had assuredly been made one of the con- The 
ditions of the Pope's return. It was thereby estab- l^lbSdo's 
lished that, on his entrance into office, every ^*:^ 
Senator should pronounce the ban against the heresy, 
heretics in the city and their adherents, should seize **^'* 
all heretics pointed out by the Inquisition, and 
should execute them within eight days after sen- 
tence had been pronounced. The property of 
heretics was to be divided between the informers 
and the Senator, and was to be devoted to the 
repairs of the city walls. The houses which had 
sheltered them were to be pulled down. Persons 
who had concealed heretics were sentenced to fines 
in money or to corporal punishment, and to the loss 
of all civic rights. Every Senator was to swear to 
this edict, and was not to be regarded as installed 
in his office until he had taken the oath. Should he 
act contrary to his oath, he was sentenced to the 
payment of two hundred marks and was pronounced 
incapable of holding any public office.^ The punish- 
ment incurred was to be inflicted by the college of 
judges called after the church of S. Martina on the 
Capitol.2 

The edict whetted the zeal of the informer by the 
prospect of acquiring property ; and we may judge 
how busy avarice and private enmity were in the 
discovery of heretics. The Pope drew the civic 
commune into the interests of the Inquisition and 

^ The edict, which has been frequently printed, was first published 
by Raynald, ad ann, 1 231, n. xvi., but inaccurately. Vitale, p. 90. 

' The dvic college of judges appears to have made use of a hall on 
the site of the ancient Senate house as its court. 



l6o ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

obliged the Senator to lend it the secular arm. He 
was the legal executor of the sentence against 
heretics, as other podestis were also in other cities. 
If this transference to him of the former penal 
judicature of the prefect increased his civil power, 
it nevertheless degraded him into acting as the 
servant of the spiritual tribunal ; the solemn oath 
which he took to punish heretics was binding on 
himself, and over his own head hovered the terrible 
sentence of the Inquisition, which could accuse him 
of infraction of the duties of his office and conse- 
quently of heresy. The most important attribute 
of the senatorial office was consequently the execu- 
tion of sentence upon heretics, and it is significant 
of the spirit of the age, that the duty of persecuting 
heretics was accepted as the first fundamental article 
in the statutes of Rome and of other cities in the 
State of the Church.^ 

For the rest the senatorial decree only brought 
the edict issued on the imperial coronation into 
force in Rome, where it had hitherto probably been 
The resisted. For the Inquisition now became another 

I'nSi^** instrument in the hands of the Pope for the sub- 
jugation of the people. Henceforward there were 
inquisitors in Rome, men who in the beginning were 
appointed from the Franciscan order. When con- 

^ The manuscript of the statutes, of the year 1469, in the Capitol 
Archives, says in tiie introduction : Statuta quoque D. AnibcUdi dudum 
Senatoris urbis approbantes statuimus quod heretici credentes etfautores 
eorum sintperpetuo diffidati et eorum bona publiccUa. So also in the 
printed statutes of 1580, where immediately after the profession of 
fiuth follows the " Diffidatio " of the heretics ; then de Senatore 
eliffendo. 



Ch. IV.] THE INQUISITION IN ROME. l6l 

demning heretics the inquisitor stood on the steps 
of the Capitol and read the sentence in presence of 
the Senator, of his judges and of several deputies 
or witnesses from among the clergy bf the city. 
He then left the execution of the sentence to the 
Senator under threat of excommunication in case of 
delay or neglect.^ 

We shrink back appalled from a time of which 
Gregory IX/s edicts were the expression, an age 
which made the detection of heresy the first duty of 
the citizen, and when public or private conversation 
on the articles of religion was regarded as a crime 
punishable with excommunication. In these rude 
times of new tortures and a new fanaticism, when 
religious fervour found amends for the fall of 
Jerusalem and a waning zeal for the Crusade in 
the persecution of heretics, and when, after the 
reign of Innocent III., religious intolerance reduced 
Christianity to the standard of the fanatical laws of 

^ The oldest document of the Roman Inquisition knovm to me b 
dated January 22, 1266 {Gttfm, Arcad.^ t. 137, 261). Benvenuto of 
Orvieto, Ordinis frcUr, Minor., Inquisitor heretice pramtcUis, con- 
demns the Roman Petri Riccardi de Blancis for having given shelter 
to heretics. His family to the third degree is declared infiunous. 
The bones of his wife and father are ordered to be burnt. He himself 
is sentenced to wear a red cross \\ foot long and 2 palms wide on 
the breast as a mark of disgrace. The vicar of the Senator is 
entrusted with the execution of the sentence sub pena excomm. Lecta 
et pubi, fuit hec senientia per diet, frair, Beneventum Inquisitorem in 
Urbe, in scalis Capitolii, The Senator was Charles of Anjou. In 
1 301 Symon de Tarquinio was ord. minor. Inquisitor her, et seism, 
pravitatis in Roma et Romana prov, (Gaetani Archives, xxxvii. 
n. 31.) The Dominicans consequently had not yet obtained exclusive 
possession of the Inquisition. 

Vr)L. V. L 



l62 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Judaism, princes and heads of republics themselves 
emulated the clergy.^ Kings laden with crimes now 
rarely bestowed property on the Church ; they 
found it more convenient for the salvation of their 
souls to bum heretics, whose property they con- 
fiscated. To the minds of some monarchs the glare 
of the blazing faggots seemed like the aureole of 
piety, while others, through fear or calculation, 
endeavoured to prove their orthodoxy by the most 
cruel persecution of heretics. Even Frederick II., 
whose culture and liberal opinions raised him so far 
above the level of his century that he was afterwards 
called a predecessor of Luther, issued in 1220 and 
1232 laws so severe that they differed in no d^^ee 
The from the papal edicts. *'The heretics" — thus he 

^Ss^* decreed — ^**wish to sever the undivided coat of our 
Lord ; we command that they be delivered to death 
by fire in the eyes of the people." * He issued these 
decrees on every occasion when he made peace with 
the Pope, or whenever he required his aid ; and such 
politically motived persecutions as these redound 
more to his disgrace than any blind or sincere 
religious fanaticism would have done. His laws 
against heresy form the harshest contrast to the wise 

* On the Palace of Justice at Milan we may still read an inscription 
by the Podestil Olradus of the year 1223: Qui soiium struxit^ 
catharos^ ut dehuit, uxit. The popes, from political motives, dealt 
leniently with Lombardy, though it swarmed with heretics. 

' Incansutilem iunicam Dei nostri dissuere conantur hareiici, . . . 
Constit, Regni Sicilia ap, Melfiam edita, i. 63. When Frederick 
punished Messina in 1233 he caused several citizens to be executed on 
pretext of heresy ; the Pope complained of his conduct. Hist. DipL^ 
iv, 444. 



heresy. 



Ch. IV.] DISTURBANCES IN ROME. 163 

legislation — a legislation far in advance of his age — 
which he gave to his kingdom of Sicily in the 
August of the same year (1231).^ 



3. Fresh Disturbances in Rome — John of Poli, 
Senator, 1232 — The Romans wish to remove 
the Campagna from Papal dominion — The 
Emperor effects Peace between Rome and the 
Pope — Vitorchiano fedele — Another Rebel- 
lion OF THE Romans — Their Political Programme 
— They rise in 1234, in a serious attempt to 
obtain their Freedom. 

The great trial of heretics made so little impres- 
sion on the Romans, that no later than June i 
(1231) they forced Gregory IX. to return to Rieti, 
where he remained until the summer of 1232. For 
disturbances caused by the war with Viterbo broke 
out in the city. Viterbo was the Veii of the Middle 
Ages to the Romans ; they hated the town with a 
hatred bordering on frenzy; they determined to 
conquer it entirely and to make it a domain of 
Rome. With the consent of the Pope, the Viter- 
bese placed themselves under the protection of the 
Emperor, who sent Reinald of Aquaviva to their 
aid. The Romans immediately revenged themselves 
by imposing taxes on the churches, and with un- 

* His letter to Gregory, Taranto, February 28, 1231. Frederick 
himself sanctioned the introduction of the Inquisition into Germany, 
where Conrad of Marburg exerted himself in its favour. Conrad, 
however, was murdered. Aibericus Trtum Foniium (Leibnitz, Access, 
Histor,^ ii, 544). 



164 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[6k. IX. 



lohnof 
Poll, Sena- 
tor, 1232. 



Hostile 

expedition 

of the 

Romans 

against 

Latium. 



abated fury continued their warlike expeditions 
against Viterbo, even during the year 1232, when 
John of Poli was Senator. Although related to 
Gregory IX., the son of Richard Conti had espoused 
Frederick's side, and it is scarcely probable that he 
had been elected with the Pope s consent. He called 
himself at this time Count of Alba, having been 
invested with this Marsian territory by Frederick.^ 

The attempt made by the Romans to render 
Latium subject to the Capitol deserves more atten- 
tion. A new spirit animated the Roman people. 
As in ancient times, in the days of Camillus and 
Coriolanus, they undertook conquering expeditions 
against Tuscany and Latium. The Roman insignia, 
the ancient initials S.P.Q.R. on a red and gold 
banner, and the Roman national army, formed of 
the citizens and the vassals of the Campagna under 
the command of senators, were seen once more in 
the field.* In the summer of 1232 the Romans 
advanced to Montefortino in Volscian territory ; the 
Pope, who had gone to Anagni in August, was even 
menaced from beneath the walls of his ancestral 
city. Gregory sent thrde cardinals with large sums 



* A deed of July 3, 1233, in which Romans acknowledge the 
receipt of compensation for the injuries inflicted on them by the 
Viterbese, says : vocamus quUtos D. Gregorium S, Pont, et Eccl, 
Rom, et D, Jo<mnim Comitem AlbiB et Alme Urbis Senatorem. Cod, 
Ffl/.,6223, fol. 92. 

* The colours of the dty of Rome are still red and gold. They are 
of great antiquity. They were also the colours of the Church ; and 
the papal leaden balls were always affixed by threads of red and gold 
silk. Not until the beginning of the nineteenth century did the popes 
adopt white and gold as the colours of the Church. 



Ch. IV.] WAR WITH LATIUM. 165 

of money to the enemy's camp, but they still con- 
tinued their hostile interference with his enterprises 
in the Campagna.* For Gregory IX. was as active 
as Innocent III. in increasing the patrimonies of 
the Church. He took communes under his pro- 
tection, and demanded the oath of fealty from their 
podestis.^ He paid the debts of free communes, 
made them in return vassals of the Church and ac- 
quired the right of planting fortresses within the 
circuit of their walls.* He relieved barons who were 
in debt, and thus obtained possession of their for- 
tresses, which they willingly received back as fiefs, in 
order that they might not fall into possession of the 
city of Rome. The like happened in Latium, where 
he bought two fortresses, Serrone and Paliano, which 
belonged in part to the Colonna, and then fortified 
them as papal strongholds. The Roman civic com- 
mune, which claimed jurisdiction in the Campagna, 

^ Rich. Sangerm., p. 1029: Montefortino (the ancient Artena) 
probably abeady belonged to the Conti. Nibby, Analist, Gregory 
had spent the spring and summer at Temi and RietL On May 12, 
1232, while he was at Temi| he took this town under his protection. 
The original bull is in the Archives of Rieti, which are very rich, but 
unfortunately in utter disorder. 

' The formula of oath taken by the podest^s of several cities is given 
in Cencius, foL 160. I always quote from the Florentine Cod. 
Riccardianus, 

' He paid 1300 pounds due to Nami for Otricoli, on which all the 
possessions of Otricoli were pronounced the property of the Church, 
and the Pope had permission palatium turrem atque munitionem 
fdcere ad opus Rom, Eccl. Deed of July 13, 1234 (Cencius, foL 184). 
The usual way in which the Church obtained possession of a place 
was by payment of its debts. Thus Civita Vecchia for the same reason 
ceded to the Church ih» plenum dominium intus et extra on December 
9, 1224. Ibid.ffoL 139. 



l66 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

forbade the Pope to continue these proceedings ; 

They they even threatened to destroy Anagni, but Gregory 

Pope in continued the building of these fortresses even dur- 

^"^^ ing the winter, and made Serrone, Paliano, and 

Fumone castellanies of the Church.^ 

The Romans finally returned to the city, while 
Gr^ory remained at Anagni. He sought the inter- 
cession of the Emperor, in order to arrange a peace 
with Viterbo, and to effect his own reconciliation 
with the Romans. Frederick could not render any 
effective aid, since the revolution in Messina de- 
manded his presence in Sicily. The Romans, how- 
ever, obeyed his exhortations, and the Senator John 
of Poli came to Anagni in March 1233 to invite the 
Pope to return. Timid cardinals tried to dissuade 
him from venturing into "the city of the roaring 
^egory beasts," but Gregory came and was received with 

returns ' o • 

to Rome, respcct on March 21.* The populace offered a 
reconciliation in exchange for money, and he made 
his peace with the city without the knowledge of 

* Vtfa of Gregory IX., p, 579. Instrum, refutaiionis de castro 
Fumone^ in 1233, Cencius, fol. 155. The deed of sale of Paliano and 
Serrone of December 21, 1232, ibid.^ foL 160. Ego Oddo de 
Columpna domin, OHbani (Olevano) — vendo — tibi — ad opus et nomen 
D. Gregorii — et Rom. EccL in perpet, totam et integr, partem meam 
Rocce et Castri Paliani et R,(uC, Serroniscum omnijure etjurisdict, 
et actione^ &*c,, for 400 pounds of senatorial denarii. The family 
received back as feudum the property sold, et exinde ipsius dni. Rape 
et Rom, Eccl, vassalli simus perpetuo et fideles, et eis prestemus 
homagium personale. Agreements concerning estates in Paliano and 
Serrone follow. A statute of Gregory allotted all the payments made 
by Serrone to the papal Curia. Cencius, fol. 182. 

• Rich. Sangerm., p. 1031. On April 29, 1223, the Pope was 
back at the Lateran. 



ia33. 



Ch. IV.] GREGORY RETURNS TO ROME. 167 

the Emperor, who had intervened in the affairs of 
Viterbo and Rome, and who afterwards reproached 
him on this account, as with a breach of faith.* 
A treaty was also made with Viterbo in April; 
the city of Rome obtained the recognition of her 
supremacy; and she also remained in possession 
of Vitorchiano. This fortress was henceforth re- 
garded as a domain of the city, received the honour- vitorchiano 
able title of " the faithful," and the right of filling Lid™?*'* 
the office of the Capitoline beadles, who were hence- ^^"^ 
forward called "Fideli."^ 

A demon, says the biographer of Gregory IX., was 
happily banished from Rome, but seven others 

* Celebrated letter of Frederick to Richard of Cornwall, Treviso, 
April 20, 1239 ; in Matthew Paris, ad A, 1239, and Peter de Vineis, 
i. 21. 

' Bussi, ad A, 1233, p. 122. Two marble tables may be seen in 
the Palazzo dei Conservatori ; one bears the representation of a 
fortress with the inscription Vitorclana Fideie Del Popolo Romano; 
the other the likeness of a vestment vnth the inscription Vetustum 
Capuiium in Vestibus Fidelium Capitolii Ne Mutanio VII, Id, 
Martii MDCXIIL The original of the Statuta et Leges Munictpales 
Terra Viturclani auctor. Inclyti S,F,Q,R, adita et reformata^ Roma^ 
1614, was preserved in the Capitol. Vitorchiano, Barbarano, and 
Cori remained until recent times domain lands of the city of Rome ; 
their podestiL was always ex nobilib, et civib. Alme Urbis. On July 3, 
1233, the Pope and the Senator compensated Romans for the losses 
suffered in the war with Viterbo with 2500 pounds Provins, Wit- 
nesses : Dom. AnibalduSy Petrus Joannis Ilperini, Petrus Manecti^ 
TrasmunduSy Maiheus Scriniarius, Petrus Bulgaminus^ Bobo Joannis 
Bobonis . . . {Cod, Vai,^ 6223, fol. 92 ; and Murat., Antiq, Ital,^ 
L 685 ; iii. 231). On July 20, Ji^St/oAes Poli Comes Albe^ Deigr, 
alme Urb, ilL senator . . . decreto et auctoritate Sacri Senat, et P, R, 
drew up the decree of reconciliation with the commune of Viterbo 
(from the Margherita Codex of the Archives of Viterbo, in Pinzi, 
i. 322). 



l68 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGE& [Bk. ix. 

eoterecL No later than 1234 the Romans rose in an 
actual stru^le of despair against the civil power df 
the Pope. They would perhaps have been happier, 
but scarcely more deserving of respect, had they 
abandoned their undoubted claims. At this period, 
however, when every dty was a state, the relation of 
Rome to the Pope could not be apprehended in the 
same way as in later centuries. The Romans were 
constantly struggling to obtain the freedom from 
episcopal power which other cities had lor^ since 
acquired. They saw these cities flourishing in two 
great leagues and ruling over what had formerly been 
counties. If Viterbo gloried in a great number of 
fortresses, which paid their tribute and received their 
laws in her town hall, we can understand that Rome 
could not endure her own civic impotence.* The 
perpetual war with Viterbo was merely the symbol 
of the efforts of the Romans to subjugate Tuscany. 
Their relations to the empire had now completely 
changed. Since the imperial rights in Rome had 
been ceded to the popes, and since the popes had 
acquired the right to bestow the Roman crown, the 
point of dispute was whether or not imperial election 
still belonged to the Roman republic. This privilege, 
which even in Barbarossa's time the Romans had 
demanded, weapon in hand, was carried away in the 
current of the new papal power. The Romans only 
made war with the Papacy as with the supreme 
territorial power ; their principal object was to erect 

1 The MS. ChrmicU 0/ Viterbo by Nicola della Tucda (ad A. 
1268) reckons the number of fortresses at 150; unquestionably an 
exaggerated estimate. 



Ch. IV.] THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMANS. 169 

within the limits of the ancient duchy a powerful 
free state such as Milan, Florence, or Pisa, whose 
example encouraged while it shamed them. In the 
treaties of the Emperor which ratified Innocent's 
State of the Church, this duchy appears for the first 
time as united under the formula, '* all the country 
from Radicofani to Ceprano," and, as the ancient 
foundation of the new State of the Church, opens 
the list of the papal provinces. The Church could 
not trace the possession of this territory, where it 
had owned provinces from of old, from Prankish 
diplomas, but from actual facts which are lost in the 
obscurity of history. Within her administration she 
embraced three provinces, the patrimony of S. Peter's 
(Roman Tuscany), the Sabina, the Campagna, and 
the Maritima, although she was not actually mistress 
of all the cities within this district. Only a few of 
them acknowledged her feudal supremacy and, after 
having transferred the " plenum dominium " to the 
Pope, received magistrates at his hands ; others only 
recognised his authority as protector.^ 

The city of Rome now pronounced all these The city 
ecclesiastical provinces to be within the district of claims 
the city .2 She made good her claims on every ^vCTThe" 

^ Such as Civita Vecchia, A. 1224. After 1291, this town paid 50 J®^*** 
libra Paparinor, of yearly tribute (Frangipane, Star, di Cvuitav.), If 
a pound of this kind corresponded to 12^ pauls, the sum amounted to 
less than 100 thalers. In the time of Innocent III. it would appear 
that the average rent of a fortress in the Sabina was 6 pounds provins, 
Theiner, i. 30. 

^ A document of May 3, 1261, executed on the Capitol, says : 
prasentib. ambasciatarib, civitaium Perusdi^ Urbis Veteris^ SpoUH^ 
Nargne^ Reate^ et Anagme^ aliarumque civiiatum atque cmniiatum 
disirutut urbis, (Giam. Arcad,, t. 137, aoi.) 



170 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

occasion when energetic men stood at the head of 
her commune and were opposed by feeble popes. 
She then sent her judges to the provincial towns, im- 
posed ground rents upon them, seized the monopoly 
of salt, obliged them to yield military service and to 
send their representatives to the public games.^ 
The claims of the Capitol were disputed not only by 
the Pope but also by the free cities, such as Tivoli, 
Velletri, Terracina, and Anagni in the Campagna, 
and by the hereditary landed nobility, who knew 
quite as well as the Pope how to buy the dominion 
of the cities.^ The barons bought this dominion 
from the communes themselves, or became milites 
of the Pope or of the ecclesiastical corporations for 
a yearly rent, which was often insignificant At 
this period consequently the entire country from 
Radicofani to Ceprano was split into several little 
and frequently hostile states, and within the limits 
of a short journey a traveller could traverse a district 
governed here by the papal Camera, here by the 
city of Rome, here by a free republic, a baron or a 
Roman convent, while in many cases it happened 
that all these various rulers were endowed with 
sovereign rights. 

In 1234 the city of Rome, at an unfavourable 
time, made the attempt to throw off papal dominion 

^ After the thirteenth century this was a sign of subjection. 

^ The formula customary in the thirteenth century for the cession 
of places to a baron ran : iV. . . , tradidit in perpet, viagnifico mro 
, . . totum Castrum — cum toto suo territorio^ pertinentiis et districtu, 
et cum Roccha^ fortellitia^ domibus^ terris cultis et incuUis^ VasscUiis 
et juribus vassalor., Dominio, Jurisdictione^ Causar, cognitiom^ 
punitiane maleficior. . sanguinis etforfaciure^ mero et mixta imperio, . . • 



Ch. IV.] THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMANS. 171 

and to form a free state within her boundaries. 
Had she succeeded, she would have extended her 
territory, nearly to the limits of what she had 
possessed shortly before the Punic war. It is sin- 
gular that in this most serious revolt the Romans 
should have revived an ancient custom, in erecting 
boundary stones {termini), furnished with the inscrip- 
tion S.P,Q,R., which denoted the civic jurisdiction.^ 
They demanded from the Pope the right of 
electing the Senate, the right of coining money, of 
imposing various taxes, and the established tribute 
of 5000 pounds. They abolished the jurisdiction 
and the immunity of the clergy, as did many, even 
tiny, republics at this time. They required that the 
Pope should never pronounce sentence of excom- 
munication on a Roman citizen, alleging that the 
illustrious city possessed the privilege of exemp- 
tion from ecclesiastical punishments. Although the 
Romans may have taken no offence at the excom- 
munication of their emperors, nevertheless in their 
civic pride they considered the papal censure as 
entirely inapplicable to themselves, as the scourg- 
ing of a Roman citizen had been considered in 
antiquity.^ 

^ Fraterea comitaium suum {quod itiauditum est) — metis novis ct 
amplis — voluerunt sibi appropriarey et — tniituiare ncvis supra" 
scriptionibus. Math. Paris, ad A. 1234, p. 279, calls nteta what the 
Romans called termini. Nee terminos in patHmonio d. Petri— poni 
/aeiatis, writes the Pope in the instrument of peace of the year 1235. 
Novi comitaius adusum, sajrs also the Vita of Gregory IX., p. 579. 

' Usurpant sibi cives memoraii^ ex antique jure, quod Rom, Pont, 
non potest aOquetn ex civib, excommunicare, vel urbem pro quolib, 
excessu supponere interdicto. Math. Paris, p. 279. 



172 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



4. Lucas Savelli, Senator, 1234 — The Romans de- 
clare THE Patrimony of S. Peter the Property 
OF THE City — ^The Pope invokes the aid of 
Christendom against them — ^The Emperor comes 
to his assistance — Defeat of the Romans near 

VlTERBO — AnGELO MaLABRANCA, SENATOR, 1 23 5 — 

Rome submits by Treaty to the Papal Govern- 
ment. 

Lucas Savelli, a man of great power, nephew of 
s^ator, Honorius III. and ancestor of a celebrated family, 
"s*" no sooner became Senator (in 1234) than he issued 
an edict pronouncing Tuscany and the Campagna 
the property of the Roman people.^ He sent judges 
of the Senate into both territories to receive the oath 
of homage, yielded either voluntarily or under com- 
pulsion, from the cities. Roman soldiers occupied 
Montalto in the Maritima, where a huge fortress 
was erected as the symbol of Roman supremacy. 
Corneto itself was obliged to do homage to the 
Drives the Senate. The Pope with all the cardinals fled once 
Rome"*'" more to Rieti at the end of May.^ What would 
have been the fate of the Papacy, had the city 
succeeded in becoming a civic power such as Milan 
or Pisa? To prevent her attaining this position 
was the task of the Church, and among all the cares 

^ The Senators issued edicts like the ancient praetors. Per ea 
Umpara Pop, Rom, antique more usus est. Nam cum Senatus legem 
rogaretf Populus scvuerat. Ex quo factum est^ ui dvitates finitima 
Romanis parereut : Bonincontrius, p. 308. 

* On May 20 he was still in the Lateran (Savioli, Annales Bolog,^ 
III. ii. n. 600) ; on June 26 at Kieti (Raynald, n. 49). 



Ch. IV.] FLIGHT OF GREGORY IX. 1 73 

of the Pope the subjugation of the Capitol was not 
the least The flight of Gregory, the excommuni- 
cation which he thundered against the Senator 
and the Communal Council, roused the Romans 
to such fury that they sacked the Lateran palace 
and the houses of the cardinals.^ They raised an 
army and vindictively marched against Viterba 
The Pope meanwhile was not left without allies ; 
many barons and cities of Latium, such as Anagni, 
Segni, and especially Velletri, remained faithful to 
him, and, jealous for their own liberty, opposed 
a strenuous resistance to the Romans. Gregory 
fortified Radicofani and Montefiascone in Tuscany, 
while Viterbo, reduced to despair, was his surest 
support.* 

* Reg. of Gregory IX., viii. n. 167 ; Math. Paris, p. 280. Excom- 
municamus — Lucam dictum Senatorem, Parentium ei Joannem de 
Cinthio vestararios et consiliarios Urbis etjusiitiarios^ quar. connlio 
— a Montalto ohsides recepti sunt — et turris edificata — et juramenta de 
novo exacta — inprejudic, E. R, tarn in Campania et Maritima quam 
in Thuscia (Papencordt-Hofler, p. 296 ; Pertz-Rodenberg, L n. 591). 
He excommunicated Paulum Petri Judicis^ Petrum de Stephana 
Sanguineum^ et Pandulfum Joannis Crassi, The £unily of Sanguigni 
here appears for the first time. One of their towers still stands 
in the Field of Mars. P. Adinolfi, La torre d^ Sanguigni (Rome, 
1863). 

' Gregory absolved Viterbo from the oath of vassalage it had 
sworn to the Romans, Perugia, March 5, 1235. Bussi, Append, ^ p. 
404. Likewise, on March 18, Toscanella, Comuto, Sutri, Civita- 
Castellana, Nami, Montalto, Amalia, Orta, Nepi, and the Sabina : 
Pertz-Rodenberg, n. 632. The Pope found refuge in Perugia, but 
the city would not lend him troops against the Alma mater Roma, — 
Faliscorum mans : from the "mountain of the Falisci," was derived 
in the vulgar tongue the ''mountain of the flasks " {Monte Fiascone), 
Gregory ratified the privileges granted by earlier popes to the 



174 ROME IN THE MmDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The popes invariably summoned foreign aid to 
quell their rebellious country, and never has Christen- 
dom refused them money or soldiers. Gr^ory IX. 
implored the Catholic world to lend him weapons 
against the defiant city. He wrote to the vassal 
kings of Portugal and Aragon, to the Count of 
Roussillon, to the Duke of Austria, to the bishops of 
Germany, Spain, and France^ Even the Emperor 
was prepared to help. The revolt of his son Henry 
in Germany and his treacherous alliance with the 
Lombards would have proved fatal to Frederick 
The had Gr^ory favoured Henry's cause. Frederick 

^^l^l^cc consequently hastened unasked with his second son 
p^^J^ Conrad to Rieti, to offer his troops to the Pope 
aff^«t against the Roman populace.* The weaker was 
sacrificed for the sake of the stronger. Gregory and 
Frederick had need of one another ; necessity made 
them unwilling allies and placed the city of Rome 
at war at the same time with both Emperor and 
Pope. 

commune of Velletri, on January 3, 1235, Perugia : Borgia, p. 268 ; 
PerU-Rodenberg, n. 619. Velletri rendered the duty of vassalage to 
the Curia in return : unius comestumis pabulum, parlamentum etittm, 
necnon hostem per Maritimam et Campaniam facietis, 

' Annal. Erphord, {Mm. Germ,, xvi.) A.D. 12^$ dam. papa in 
Alemannia nunciis ab omnibus episcopis — milites ad subsidium ad 
Romanes impugnandos posiuiavit For the Pope's efforts to obtain 
aid, see Raynald, A. 1234, n. 7. 

^ Godefrid. Monach., ad A, 1234; Rich. Sangerm., p. 1034; 
Conrad Ursperg., p. 357. The Vita: Reate concitus, nee iwuitatus, 
advenit. On July 3 the Pope from Rieti exhorted the Lombards 
to allow the German troops, who were coming to the defence of 
the Church, a passage through their territories. Hist, Dipt,, iv. 
473. 



Ch. IV.] THE POPE MAKES WAR ON ROME. 175 

The papal troops were led by the Cardinal legate 
Rainer Capocci, a Viterbese, a man of restless 
activity and military talent, whom the Pope had 
appointed rector of the patrimony in Tuscany. 
Rainer heads the not insignificant series of cardinals, 
who won themselves glory as generals of the Church. 
After having effected a junction with Frederick's The 
troops, he marched to Viterbo, to strengthen thede^Sid^ 
town and to drive the Romans out of Castel Ris- Rispam- 

pano. 

pampano. This fortress was stoutly defended by 
the Romans, while the impatient priests reproached 
the Emperor, that instead of raising his eagle in 
serious war against the Romans, he had been flying 
his falcons in the Tuscan Campagna. They shouted 
of treason when he returned to his kingdom in 
September.^ He had, however, left troops under the 
command of Conrad of Hohenlohe, Count of Roman - 
iola, with the cardinal in Viterbo. Many German S^*^*"^^ 
knights remained in the service of the Pope. Capocci, 
Crusaders lent their talents and their swords to 
the Church s^ainst Rome; even Englishmen and 
Frenchmen, believers and adventurers, placed them- 
selves under the banner of the cardinal. Raymond 
of Toulouse hoped, by fighting against the Romans, 
to discharge the vow which had been imposed upon 
him of making a Crusade, and the wealthy Bishop 
Peter of Winchester, exiled from the English court, 
offered his welcome services.* 

^ Viia^ p. 580. In September he issued from the neighbourhood 
of Montefiascone a document for Raymond of Toulouse, in which 
the Prefect of Rome appears as a witness. Bohmer-Ficker, 2057. 

^ Math. Paris, p. 2S0. From the time of Innocent III. the popes 



176 



ROME IN THE MmDLE AGES. 



[Bk. IX. 



DCmttgta. 

m Vfterbo 
bfthe 



Defeat 

of the 

Romans 

txfore 

Viterbo, 

1234. 



Angelo 

MJa- 

bianca, 

Senator, 

1235. 



On the Emperor's departure the Romans valiantly 
advanced to the attack of Viterbo. Seldom had 
they been inspired by such military ardour, or been 
under arms in such numbers. An assault of the 
Germans and the citizens of Viterbo developed into 
a bloody battle which was lost by the Romans. 
Many men of noble family, and not a few Germans, 
remained on the field.^ Since the ill-fated day of 
Monte Porzio, the Romans had not suffered any 
such severe loss in open battle ; and now, as then, 
they saved themselves behind their walls. The 
victors followed them, and the result of the battle 
was the recovery of the Sabina and of Tuscany by 
the Pope. The thankless priests were now forced to 
acknowledge that so decisive a victory was solely 
due to Frederick's aid. 

The Romans, it is true, continued the war, pro- 
nounced Cardinal Rainer under the ban,and proclaimed 
the Pope banished from Rome for life, unless he gave 
compensation for their losses. They even once more 
attained some success in the field ; but their strength 
was consumed ; their finances, in spite of the taxes 
levied on the churches, were exhausted. When, in 
the spring of 1235, Lucas Savelli retired from office 
and Angelo Malabranca succeeded him as Senator, 
three cardinal legates prevailed on Rome to make 
peace. The city did not attain the object of her 

employed foreigners in their most important offices. Bishop Milo 
of Beauvais had been made Rector of Spoleto and the March by 
Gregory IX. in 123 1. 

' According to Math. Paris the Romans set forth on October 8. 
Ho exaggerates their number to 100,000 ; that of the slain on both 
sides to 30,000. On this point see Pinzi, L 336 f. 



Ch. IV.] TREATY OF PEACE. \^^ 

heroic struggle, but, about the middle of May 1235, 
again recognised the supremacy of the Pope. 

The document containing the treaty of peace, 
which reveals the form and nature of the Roman 
republic in an attractive manner, runs in substance 
as follows : — 

" We, Angelo Malabranca, by God's grace Grand He 
Senator of the illustrious city, empowered by the ^^"^fh 
exalted Senate, and in virtue of the mandate and *e Pope, 
acclamation of the renowned Roman people, who are 
assembled to the sound of bells and trumpets on the 
Capitol, and acting on the proposal of the venerable 
Cardinals Romanus, Bishop of Portus and S. Rufina, 
John Colonna of S. Prassede, and Stephen of S. 
Maria in Trastevere, with reference to the quarrel 
between the Holy Roman Church, the Holy Father, 
and the Senate and people of Rome, promise in the 
name of the Senate and people : That according to 
the mandate of the Pope we will give satisfaction for 
the tower and the hostages of Montalto, for the oath 
of homage demanded from the Senator Luca Savelli 
and the boundary stones erected in the States of the 
Church. Also for the judges who demanded this 
homage in the Sabina and in Tuscany, and who 
occupied the estates of the Church ; for the sentence 
of outlawry passed on Cardinal Rainer of S. Maria 
in Cosmedin and on the notary Bartholomew ; for 
the sack of the sacred palace of the Lateran and 
the houses of some cardinals ; for the indemnity 
for damages exacted from the bishoprics of Ostia, 
Tusculum, Praeneste and other estates of the Church ; 
and for the statute which decreed that the Pope 

VOL. V. M 



178 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

should not return to the city, nor that we should 
make peace with him until he had repaid the loan of 
five thousand pounds lent him, and registered by 
deed at Rocca di Papa, and had made good to the 
Romans all their losses. Empowered by a faculty 
granted by the Senate and people, we pronounce 
these sentences of outlawry and these decrees null 
and void. 

" And to remove every cause of dispute between us, 
the Church and the Pope (whom we honour as pious 
sons out of reverence to Christ, of whom he is the 
representative on earth, and to the Prince of the 
Apostles, whose successor he is), and especially be- 
cause it is demanded by the fame of this noble and 
illustrious city, we command as follows: That no 
ecclesiastical person within or without Rome, neither 
the households of the Pope nor those of the cardinals, 
shall be brought before the secular tribunal, or shall 
be constrained by the destruction of their houses or 
otherwise molested. That, however, which is said 
with regard to the households of the Pope and the 
cardinals shall not hold good with reference to the 
Roman citizens of lay condition who have houses 
and servants in the city, although they be or call 
themselves members of the household. No priest, 
no member of an order, or layman whatsoever, while 
going to the apostolic seat or to S. Peter's, or re- 
maining there, or returning thence, shall be brought 
before the secular judge ; on the contrary, he must 
be protected by the Senator and the Senate. No 
tax shall be levied on churches, clergy, or members 
of orders. We give perpetual peace to the Emperor 



Ch. IV.] PEACE BETWEEN ROME AND THE POPE. 1 79 

and to his vassals, to the people of Anagni, Segni, 
Velletri, Viterbo, the Campagna, Maritima, and 
Sabina, to Count William (of Tuscany), to all other 
counts of the Patrimony, and to all friends of the 
Church. We command, and, by this present decree, 
ratify, that henceforward no Senator, be it one or 
several, shall act contrary to this our charter. He 
who acts contrary thereto shall incur the severest 
anger and hatred of the Senate, and shall moreover 
be liable to pay one hundred pounds of gold towards 
the restoration of the city walls, after payment of 
which fine this privilegium shall none the less con- 
tinue in full force." ^ i v*^ ^ 

This peace thus ended one of the fiercest wars that 
the republic of Rome ever waged against the papal 
power. The republic did not lose its civic autonomy, 
but was thrust back into the limits assigned it by 
Innocent III. It was found impossible to render 
the clergy subject to civil law, or the civic district to 
the jurisdiction of the Capitol. Owing to the aid of 

1 Nos Angelus Maiabranca deigr. Alma Urbis ill, Senaior^ decreto 
et auctor, Sacri Senatus, mandato quoque, et instanti acclamatione 
inclitiPop. Rom, adsonum Campana^ etbuccinar. publice^ etplenissime 
in Capitolio congregati . . . act, per man. Romani scribe Senatus 
precepto et mandatis Angeli McUahrancce Senatoris et Pop, Romani 
publice in Capitolio A, 1235 Ind, VIII, medio Aprilis die XII, Ray- 
nald, ad A, 1235, n. 4, and the authors concerning the Senate. The 
document is given more completely in Hofler's extracts in Papencordt, 
and, with the assistance of these last, in Pertz-Rodenberg, i. n. 636 ; 
also in Panvinius's MS. History of the Hotise of Savelli. The 
offidab of the Senate swore to the peace on different days. Laurentius 
Johannis Balli, Senescalcus Senatus, swore on May 16, likewise the 
Senator. The formulae of the oaths of the individual officials of the 
Senate were drawn up together in one instrument by Matthseus Petri 
Judids, Scriniar of the Church, between May 16 and 28. 



l8o ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk n. 

^e^P|ope the Emperor, the temporal dominion of the Church 
was held erect, and mihappy Rome remained as be- 
fore, a sacrifice to the greatness of the Pstpacy.^ 

' On SepCeniber 15, 1235, the Senator Bfahbnmat issncd an edict 
lor the protectioo of the Peiegrini and Romipetae, dedaring that 
tbcf riioald ahra^ leaMin nfafect to the fonm of the Canons of S. 
Peter"! (Vitak, p. 98). Giegpry now protected Vlterbo against tlie 
Romans, who demanded vatsaM^gufm from this dtj; he mevdy 
conceded fidOitas, Bull to the Viterfaese, July 22, 1236, Assisi, 
Gitmak ArcmUcf^ u 137, 203. 



Ch. v.] i8i 



CHAPTER V. 

I. Frederick II. in Germany and Italy— He resolves 
ON War with the Lombard League — The Com- 
munes AND THE Pope — League of Umbrian and 
Tuscan Cities — ^Views of the Pope concerning 
his right over Italy, and his Claim to Univer- 
sal Supremacy— The Proconsular Title among 
THE Romans — Peter Frangipane — John Poli and 
John Cinthii, Senators — Return of the Pope, 
1237 — Battle of Cortenuova — The Carroccio 
OF Milan in Rome — John de Judice, Senator. 

Gregory IX. had already spent a year in exile in Gr^ory 
Tuscany, and in spite of the peace he remained mains in 
two more years in banishment It would have been ^^®' 
impossible for him to have enjoyed a moment's repose 
in Rome. Elements of hatred and strife were suffici- 
ently abundant, and were fanned by Frederick in 
order to weaken the Pope's relation to the Lombard 
league. The Emperor had been summoned to 
Germany in the summer of 1235 by the revolt of 
King Henry. Here his misguided son surrendered 
himself a prisoner ; and here, on July 1 5, Frederick 
married his third wife, Isabella of England, and 
thereby allied himself with the power which had 
been the support of the Guelfs. When after a year's 
sojourn in Germany he had successfully set in order 



1 82 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES [Bk. ix. 

the affairs of the country, he assembled his army at 
Lechfeld, near Augsburg, in June 1236, and returned 
through the Tyrol to Italy to punish the Lombards. 
He stood at the summit of his power. " Italy," he 
wrote to the Pope, ** is my heritage, as is well known 
to the whole world." ^ This haughty saying of the 
Emperor was a manifesto which revealed his rejec- 
tion of the principles adopted at Constance and Eger. 
Frederick wished to transform the entire peninsula 
into his monarchy. 
Jjred^i His patience was exhausted Tedious n^otiations, 



the war in which the Pope invariably showed himself on the 
15^2^ side of the Lombards, had only increased the defiance 
of the cities. The valiant burghers barred the com- 
munications between Italy and Germany, prevented 
the assembly of the imperial Diet in the cities of 
Northern Italy, and no longer permitted any German 
troops to cross the Alps. This was too much for the 
pride of the great Emperor. As he mounted his 
horse in September, to advance against Mantua and 
to enter on war with the confederates, he seized the 
imperial banner and shouted : " Pilgrims wander free 
throughout the world and I may not move within 
the confines of my empire." Fully convinced of his 
right, Frederick opened the war against the same 
Lombard league before which his grandfather had 
succumbed. To a principle of legal right, to a tragic 
error was due the overthrow of his glorious house. 
Is not the wise moderation of Barbarossa thrown 
into the clearer relief by the delusion of his gifted 

* Ifal$a kereditas mea est^ et hoc notum est toti orbu Hist. Dtpl, 
iv, 881 (Tune 1236). 



Ch. v.] FREDERICK 11. AND THE LOMBARDS. 1 83 

grandson, who flung himselt against the current of 
his century and perished in it? The germ of the 
future lay in the communes; they, and not the 
empire, contained the principle of civilisation ; their 
victory was in harmony with the spirit of the age ; 
through them, the victory of the Papacy also was in 
harmony with that spirit, since the Church, as in the 
twelfth century, immediately made herself protectress 
of the burgher class and its liberties, and from these — 
the sources of the power of the age — drew forces to 
re-invigorate herself. In the great war of principles, 
which was now beginning afresh, the practical and 
the most immediate object was the relation of the 
investiture of the cities to the empire ; the higher The 
was the independence of the Italian nation, which no theclties, | 
longer acknowledged the claim made by the German ^^ *® • 

o f^ ' Papacy, 

emperors, who asserted that Italy was their hereditary 

kingdom. Beside the communes stood the Papacy, I 

which had now become national, fighting for the ! 

territorial foundations of its power, the Italian State 

of the Church, which it expressly regarded as the 

symbol of its universal supremacy ;^ fighting also for 

its emancipation from the authority of the State, 

anxious to bend the empire beneath the tribunal of 

the sacred chair, and thus to realise the demand 

made by this chair to universal dominion. The city 

republics afforded the popes the pretext and the 

* According to the dictum of the Pope himself ; Patrim. d. Petri 
quod inter cetera imperii jura qua seculari principi tanquam defensori 
sacros, commisit Ecd,, ditioni sua in signum universalis domimii 
reservavit. Hist, Dipt,, v. 777. Letter of Gregory in February 
1240: Attendite ad petram. 



I $4 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

means for prosecuting tfadr own aims, which in 
essence had nothing in common with the Italian 
citizen class, with which, nevertheless, through the 
principle of nationality, they were closely interwoven. 
yniggie The whole of Italy was drawn into the new war 
u^ between the empire and the Church; both powers 

^*^ strove after Italian dominion ; the former through 
Cbnrch. the Ghibelline principle of monarchic unity; the 
latter through a hierarchical ideal, supported by the 
Guelf tendencies towards national independence: 
The historic centre of gravity still rested in Italy, 
the home of those contrasts, which perpetually 
agitated the human race. The struggles which 
shook the beautiful country constitute the grandeur 
of her mediaeval life ; her most glorious age and her 
greatest acts of patriotism belong to the period of 
the house of Swabia. The strong civic spirit of 
the Italians, as expressed in their confederations, a 
splendid, though brief and ephemeral, phenomenon 
of civilisation, did not survive the age of the Hohen- 
staufens. The great ideas of the Guelfs and the 
Ghibellines degenerated soon afterwards into petty 
local quarrels between nobles and burghers, and the 
glorious republics finally became the prey of heredi- 
tary tyrants, devoid of any feeling for nation or 
country. 

If Frederick II. had subjugated the Lombards, he 
would have united Italy under his sceptre. The 
popes were consequently the natural allies of those 
federations, in which, after the loss of Norman sup- 
port, they recognised the only bulwark of the Church. 
They also found protection in the league of the Tus- 



Ch. v.] the empire and the republics. 185 

can and Umbrian cities, where Guelf Florence, — ^the 
steadfast enemy of Italian unity, — where Viterbo, 
Orvieto, Assisi, and Perugia, at this period the con- 
stant asylums of the Pope, rendered tiiem invaluable 
services.^ The Pope set to work with great fore- 
sight, and without any open violation of the law ; the 
Emperor showed equal prudence. Each feared the 
power of the other. But nothing could prevent the 
renewal of open war between the two opponents, one 
of whom aimed at restoring the ancient imperial 
authority, while the other continued to maintain that 
the imperium, both by civil and by ecclesiastical law, 
belonged to the sacred chair. 

" Kings and princes," wrote Gregory to Frederick, Exagger- 
" kneel at the feet of priests, and Christian emperors Series 
must subordinate their actions not only to the °^^^ 
Roman pope, but even to other clergy. The Lord power, 
has reserved to himself alone the right of judging 
the sacred chair, to whose sentence he has subjected 
the world and all things hidden and revealed. The 
whole world knows that Constantine, the monarch 
of the universe, with the consent of the Senate and 
people of the city and of the entire Roman empire, 
recognised it as law, that the representative of the 

* On December 5, 1236, the syndic of Perugia swore in presence of 
the sub-deacon Alatrinus to defend the patrim. b, Petri in Tuscia et 
ducatum Spoletanum for the Church. Acta in palatio communis 
Tudertini (Archives of Perugia, Lib, Sommis,, vol. B. fol. 53). On 
October 19, 1237, Spoleto, Perugia, Todi, Gubbio, and Foligno 
formed a Guelf alliance. (Archives of Perugia, Contraiti^ t. i. AA. 
1237.) On September 3, 1237, Gregory IX. at Viterbo conceded the 
town of Assisi the privilege of the free election of the podestsk. and of 
other officials, (Bull in the City Archives of Assisi.) 



1 86 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix 

Prince of the Apostles should rule over all the uni- 
verse, over the priesthood, and over all souls, and 
should also receive the supremacy over all temporal 
things and bodies. Since, therefore, he held that he, 
to whom God had entrusted the divine power on 
earth, should rule as judge in temporal matters, he 
AppUca- surrendered to the Pope of Rome the sceptre and 
s^ous^ insignia of empire, the city with its entire duchy 
of Coti°" (which thou triest to seduce from us by thy gold), 
stantine to and the empire, for all time. Esteeming it godless 
oAhe^'^ that the emperor of this world should exercise 
^^^ authority in the city, where the head of the whole 
power. Christian religion had been installed by the emperor 
of heaven, he left Italy to the rule of the Pope and 
sought a residence for himself in Greece. Thence 
the sacred chair transferred the empire to the 
Germans in the person of Charles (who humbly took 
upon his shoulders a burthen too heavy for the 
Roman Church); but while the Pope conceded to 
him the tribunal of the empire and the power of 
the sword, through the coronation and unction of 
thy predecessors and thee, he thereby yielded noth- 
ing of his rights of supremacy. Thou, however, 
ofTendest against this right of the pope, and no less 
against thine own honour and fidelity, when thou 
failest to recognise thine own Creator." ^ 

In the face of such exaggerated theories, can we, 
in defiance of all justice, lay the sole burthen of the 
schism upon the Emperor? When Gregory IX. 

* Long and important letter from Rieti, October 23, 1236 {Jfisi, 
Dipi., iv. 914), in reply to Frederick's justification from Mantua 
(September 20), 



Ch. v.] parliament at piacenza. 187 

openly asserted that universal monarchy belonged ^^ 
to the pope, that the possession of the State of the |^ 
Church was merely the symbol of this monarchy, can \ 
it surprise us that Frederick II. undertook to destroy 
this symbol ? 

The Emperor summoned an assembly of envoys The 
of all the cities at Piacenza in the summer of 1236. sumiMms 
The Romans, justly irritated, failed to attend. * P^o*"jjjg 
Frederick consequently upbraided them as degener- cities at 
ate, and taunted them with the reproach, that Milan ^ 

— the defiant enemy of the empire — was now greater 
than Rome.i Whenever the emperors had need of 
Rome, they flattered her with recollections of her 
ancient greatness, as were the majesty of the empire 
still inseparably associated with the city. Frederick 
even appealed to the Lex Regia^ in order to derive 
from it the universal juridical authority with which 
he had been invested by the Roman people, while 
the Pope derived his seignorial rights over Rome, 
Italy, and the West from the mythical generosity of 
Constantine, and his supreme authority over emperors 
and kings to the absolute power of Christ* Precisely 
at this time the Roman nobility added another 
ancient dignity to their titles. Romans of noble 
birth, if already invested with any high magisterial 

^ To the Senator, Senate, and the people of Rome. Hist, Dipl,^ 
iy. 901. 

* He wrote to the Pope, on the occasion of a disputed episcopal 
election : cum a nobis tantummodo publica Meant officia postulari^ 
in quern lege regia prodita Rom, Pop, auctoritcUis et justitie publice 
contulit potestatemt September 20, 1236. Hist, Dipl,^ iv. 912. Re- 
markable with regard to this order of ideas is his letter to the Sicilians, 
at the end of the year 1236 : ibid,^ p. 930. 



l88 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ofBce in city or province, or if sitting as podestis in 
the Palazzo Communale of a republic, or governing as 
rectors any papal district, gravely called themselves 
TJ^^^ Proconsuls of the Romans. The theatre which was 
or the too small for the ambition of the nobles had attained 
*^*'"**^ larger dimensions since the time of Innocent III., by 
the circumstance that the popes sent Roman nobles 
occasionally as legates, endowed with civil power, to 
a province, and still more frequently to fill the office 
of podesti in the cities of Central Italy. True, the 
ancient title Consul Romanorum^ once borne by the 
nobility when they formed a political corporation 
hostile to the commune, still remained in use ; but 
since the disappearance of the consuls who ruled 
over communes, and since the adoption of the title 
by the presidents of the guilds, it had lost its value, 
which was now transferred to that ol pro-consul^ borne 
exclusively by the higher nobility. It is not im- 
probable, moreover, that the most prominent of the 
nobility began to adopt the epithet as the title of an 
actual dignity in the Senate, where they may have 
formed a sort of house of Peers.^ After the first 
thirty years of the thirteenth century their new title 
was officially recognised by the popes as well as by 
the emperors.^ 

^ King Manfred wrote to the Romans about 1261, that the right of 
the imperial election belonged to Rome auctor, sui senatus^ Pro- 
c&nsulum et Communis (F, Pipin^ Murat., ix. 681). The Senator 
and his Curia, the proconsuls, and the commune of the people are here 
distinguished. By proconsuls, however, we may understand simply the 
nobles. I have nowhere discovered proconsuls as a corporate body. 

3 Valesius (Essay, Archives of the Capitol) holds that Innocent III. 
had usurped possession of the consulate in Rome, and had appointed 



Ch. v.] PETER FRANGIPANI. 189 

The imperial faction at this time found their head 
in Peter Frangipane, the son of Manuel, and the 
grandson of Oddo. Frederick was reproached with 
having bribed this proconsul and other nobles, in 
order to excite disturbances which again assumed 
the form of a civil war. The papal party, however, 
found a powerful support in the Senator. The 
Turris Cartularia^ Peter's fortress at the Arch of 
Titus, was attacked and pulled down, and Peter 
sought safety in flight. Quiet had scarcely been 
restored in March 1237 when the re-election of John 
of Poli as Senator produced fresh disturbances ; for 
John Cinthii, an adherent of the Emperor, was put 

Paoli Conti to be the first proconsul as his vicar. I have not, however 
discovered such a proconsul as a civic official in any document. I 
find the new dignity for the first time in a deed of 1220 : Roffredus 
Joannis Cencii dei gra, Romanor, proconsul ac Urbevetanor, poUstas 
(Archives of S. Fortunato at Todi, Registr, vetuSy fol. 129). On the 
other hand, the Podesti of Orvieto in 121 7, the Roman Giovanni 
Giudice, is called Consul, Roman, in a document. L. Fumi, Cod, 
Dipl, d Orvieto, Flor., 1884, p. 79. Ibid,, A. 1239, Petrus Anibaldi 
podesth of Orvieto, Consul, Rotn,y and in 1240 the same proconsul 
Rom,, p. 374, and again on May 24, 1301, Roffredo (a member of the 
Gaetani fiimily) is called per graz. di Dio proconsole de* Rom, e ora 
podestii di Orv. The Vita of Gregory IX. gives the title for the first 
time to Pandulf of the Suburra and to Peter Frangipane in 1229. 
Again in March 1221 and in 1224 the latter calls himself merely 
Consul, In 1230 : Andreas Roffredi Romanor. proconsul potestas 
Tuscania (Turiozd, Memor, di Tuscania, p. 117). In 1235 Oddo 
Frangipanidei gr, Romanor. proconsul {Cod, Vat,, 8049, p. ^^5)* ^'^ 
1238 : Paulus de Comite Romanor, Proconsul (Contelorio, Hist, famil, 
Comit,, n. 6), A. 1239 : Nos Dom, Parentius Parentii dei gra, Rom, 
Proconsul et Senar, potestas (Archives of Siena, n. 373). In 1240 
Frederick wrote to the Romans : send me proconsules vestroSy that I 
may bestow high dignities upon them, namely prasidiatus regionum, 
regnor. ac, prouinciar,^ Petr. de Vineis, iii. 72. 



igO ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

forward by the popular party. The factions fought 
in the city, until Poll, besieged in the tower of the 
Conti, agreed to his rival remaining Senator.^ John 
johnCend, CinthU repressed his adversaries by force of arms, 
X237.**' kept watch at the gates of the city, and tried to pre- 
vent the return of the Pope, which was eagerly desired 
by a number of the wearied Romans. An attack 
on the Capitol forced him to yield, when Jacopo 
Capocci, son of the celebrated John and brother of 
Cardinal Peter, was sent to Viterbo, to invite Gregory 
The Pope IX. to retum. The Pope came in October 1237. 
J^^SSSie, The populace received him with the accustomed re- 
«a37. joicings, and the Senator himself went solemnly to 
meet him.* Vessels brought to the famished city 
wine and com, which was distributed according to 
the regions by the priests. His return and recon- 
ciliation with Rome cost the Pope more than ten 
thousand pounds of hard cash. The misery of the 
city increased. Innocent III. had already been 

^ Rich. Sangerm., p. 1038 : Romani plebei popuH communitates — 
Joannem de Poli Senaiorem urbis — Senatoria dignitati cedere com- 
puleruntf et Joannem de Centio subsitiuerunt. . . . This name 
appears in the &mily of the Frangipani ; nevertheless I also find in 
documents y^?^^ Cinthii Malc^rance, zxAJohes, Cinthiide Paparescis. 
The new Senator seems at this time to haye been in possession of 
Molaria, a fortress which soon after appears as the property of the 
Anibaldi. He himself may have belonged to this &mily. 

^ Cum eod Senaiore incredibili malitia exeunte^ says the Vita^ p. 
582. If malitia be an error of the pen for militia^ then was never 
one more apropos, Annai. Stadenses {Mon, Germ,, xvi. A. 1237) : 
Papa Romam rediity et pacem inter Romanes fecit. Rich. Sangerm., 
p. 1040 : m, octobris S, Papa — rediit ad urdem, ubi ncvi confutati 
sunt Senatores DD, Joannes de Poli^ et , . . here the text is unfor- 
tunately interrupted (we may fill the gap with the name oi Jokes, de 
Cinthio), 



Ch. v.] the emperor in ROME. I9I 

forced to revive the distributions of money and com 
by tickets, according to ancient custom ; and his 
biographer on the occasion of a famine already 
enumerated eight thousand public beggars.^ A 
numerous crowd of nobles, impoverished and in 
debt, formed the essential element of a civic revolt 
in Rome ; and, generally speaking, the people were 
reduced to such an extremity, that they could not 
any longer endure the absence of the papal Curia 
and its wealth. The Romans, rejoicing in the 
return of Gregory IX., perhaps actually issued an 
edict that henceforward no pope should leave the 
city.* 

Meanwhile Frederick II. was victorious in his 
wars with the Lombards. On November i, 1236, he 
had taken Vicenza by assault, and had made the 
audacious head of the Ghibellines, Ezzelino, son of 
Ezzelino the monk, Signor of the city. The same 
winter the affairs of Austria recalled him to Germany, 
where his second son Conrad was elected King of the 
Romans in Vienna in place of the disinherited Henry, in Vienna 
In August 1237 the Emperor assembled his army at 
Augsburg to march on Italy. He announced his 
return to the Senate, the Consuls and the people of 
Rome.* He came in September, after Ezzelino had 
already entered the powerful city of Padua. Mantua 

^ Dabat Hits sigiUa^ ut qui ipsa referrent singulis hebdomadib, 
pecuniam acctperent ad victum ; et sapissinu talib, 15 libras pet 
hebdorn, impendebat (that is to say, particularly to the nobles). Vita 
Innocentiiy p. 567. 

* Math. Paris, ad A, 1237. 

' Augsburg, September 1237. Winckelmann, Acta imp, hted,^ 340. 
Frid. imperatar senatorib. consulib, et P, i?. 



192 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

victoiy surrendered on October i, and the great victory at 
Emperor Cortenuova on November 27 avenged the disaster 

at 



nperor 
Cor- 

JV. 

1237. 



tenuova, ^^ L^^ano. The imperialists dispersed the val- 
Nov. 27, iant Milanese forces and their allies to the war-cry : 
Miles Roma! Miles Imperatarl The empire again 
triumphed. On the bloody field of Cortenuova the 
cause of the Italian burghers, the peace of Constance, 
and the gains of an entire century seemed utterly 
lost The Emperor made his entry into Cremona 
with the car of the banner, which he had taken from 
the Milanese, drawn by a white elephant, while Pietro 
Tiepolo, son of the Doge of Venice, Podesti of 
Milan, was led as a prisoner, chained to the mast or 
flagstaff of the Carroccio in sight of the people. 
Roman envoys were witnesses of the Emperor's 
triumph. They had come to announce the return of 
the Pope, and Frederick commissioned them to work 
for his interests. 

In the pride of victory he sent the remains of the 
Milanese Carroccio and several military trophies, 
which he had acquired, to the Roman people, to be 
preserved on the Capitol. The Carroccio was re- 
garded as the palladium of the cities. A richly 
decorated waggon, drawn by oxen, carrying the 
flagstaff, which bore the gilded representation of 
the crucifixion and a bell, was drawn in battle as 
the sacred symbol of the republics, and was guarded 
by a select body of warriors, resolute to defend it 
to the death. Its loss was regarded as the direst 
misfortune or the greatest disgrace which could 
befall the honour of a city.^ Frederick accompanied 

^ Platina's History oj Mantua^ Murat , xx. 660, gives an illustra- 



CM. v.] THE CARROCCIO OF MILAN. I93 

the singular gift with a letter to the Romans, in 
which he speaks, after the manner of an ancient 
triumphator, in pompous verses written by some 
court poet present in the camp.^ 

The Pope saw with displeasure the entry of these Frederick 
trophies, but could not prevent their solemn recep- ST*" * 
tion at the hands of the imperialists.^ The spoils of ^^^^ 
Milan were placed on antique columns which had of Milan to 
hastily been erected on the Capitol.^ Below it was Rom^^ 
placed an inscription which, built into the wall 
above the staircase of the Palace of the Conservator!, 
may still be read* The Romans thus again adorned 

tion of the Carrodum of Cremona. The Carrocium was not used in 
Rome, where I haye found no trace of it. 

^ Urds decus orHs ave vtctus tibi desttttor ave Currus ah Augusta 
Fridertco Casarejusto, Fie Mediolanum^ jam sentis spemere vanum 
Imperii vires proprias tibi tollere vires. Ergo Triumphorum potes 
urbs memor esse priorum^ Quos tibi mittebant Reges^ qui hella gerebant, 
(Ricobaldy Mur., ix. 259. Francis^ Pipin, ibid,, p. 658.) Frederick's 
letter of January 1238, Hist, Dipt,, v. 161.— In December 1237 
Petrus de Vineis writes to the German princes, that Frederick was 
sending the Carrocium to the Roman people. According to the 
Annal, Placentim» Mon, Germ, , zviii. 478, it was brought by mules 
by way of Pontremoli to Rome in January 1238. 

* Quod carocium cum apud Romam duxissent, dom. Papa usque ad 
mortem doluit, Annal, Plac. Gibeiini, as above. The chronicler 
even says quod positum fuit in Capitolio per CardinaUs, 

^ Bike von Repgow, Bibl, des Liter, Vereins, xlii. 487. Gahnm, 
Flamma Manip, flor,, p. 673 : rotas et asseres in unum conjunxit, et 
Romam misit, quod super columnas adperpet, reimem, erigi mandavit. 
The Caroccio was placed in claustro cancellaria Capitolii supet 
columnas^ that is to say, in the court of the Capitoline prison in the 
ancient Tabularium. 

* Cesaris Augusti Friderici Roma Secundi 
Dona tene currum princeps in Urbe decus, 
Mediolani caputs de strage triumphos 
VOL. V. N 



194 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk. IX. 



The 
Romans 
place the 
trophy 
on the 
CapitoL 



their moss-grown Capitol with trophies of victory; 
these trophies, however, the bell of the commune, 
the chain or the bolts of one of the city gates of 
Tusculum, Tivoli, or Viterbo, and finally the wheels 
of a Carroccio, would have provoked the derisive 
laughter of one of the ancient conquerors of the 
world. 

The imperial party temporarily gained the upper 
hand, when the Pope again returned to Anagni in 
July 1238.^ Henceforward there were occasionally 
two Senators in Rome, so that we may conclude that 
one was put forward by the Ghibelline faction, a 
custom which afterwards became the rule.* The 
Guelfs meanwhile made such successful resistance 
that Gregory IX. was able to return in October 1238 
and compel his opponents to obedience. The Sena- 

Casaris ut referat inclita preda venit, 
Hosiis in opprobrium pendehity in urbis honorem 
Mictitur hunc urbis mittere jussit amor. 
This inscription, one of the few monuments of the German emperors 
in Rome, was discovered on the Capitol in 1727 (Mur., Antiq, Itai., 
ii. 492). It was afiixed to the wall over the staircase in the time of 
Benedict XIV. 

^ Among them the Vita mentions Bobacianus and ^£gidius Boetii, 
and in a document of June 2, Jacopo Girardi, in presence of Peter 
Frangipane, swears to maintain the fidelity of a vassal to the Emperor. 
Hist, Diphy V. 209. 

' A passage of Matt Paris, noted by Curtius, p. 318, £Eivours this 
opinion; I add a second (p. 521), in which the chronicler says in 
1240: creatus enim erat unus Senator Roma auct, Imperiali^ anno 
tertio precedentif which is 1238. The dual number was afterwards 
introduced owing to the schism between the factions. The Capitoline 
Register gives for the year iz'fijoh, de ComiHbus^ Proconsul Rom, et 
Toh, dejudice. For August 21, 1238, at least, I can establish : Dom^ 
Oddo Petri Gregorii dei gr, Alme Urbis III, Senator ac Perusinor, 
potestas (Archives of Perugiar Lib. Sommiss,, vol A. fol. 133* 



ch. v.] Frederick's demands. 195 

tors at this time in office, John of Poli and Oddo 
Petri Gregorii, resigned, and John de Judice, a 
member of the papal faction, was installed as sole 
Senator.* He took a decisive part against the John de 
Ghibellines and overthrew their towers, thereby Senator, 
destroying many monuments of antiquity, and, as it "38. 
would appear, a part of the Palace of the Caesars.* 



2. Exorbitant demands made by the Emperor from 
THE Lombards — The Pope Excommunicates 
Frederick, 1239 — Frederick writes to the 
Romans — His Manifesto to the Kings — Counter 
Manifesto of the Pope — Difficult position of 
Frederick II. in relation to the times — Con- 
tradictions IN HIS own Character — Impression 
created by his Letters on the World — The 
Curia hated on account of its Extortions — 
Grouping of Parties — Frederick carries the 
War into the State of the Church. 

The victory at Cortenuova CoJied to produce the 
expected results. True, the dismayed inhabitants of 
Milan and of other cities offered full recognition of 

^ He is designated by the Vtfa as tunc Senator^ but before the 
return of the Pope, which is incorrect His election must have taken 
place in November. The &mily de Judice belonged to the Papareschi. 
John de Judice had been podestii of Orvieto in 1209, 1216, 1226 ; 
podestii of Florence in 1234. In 1240 he became poddstii of Perugia, 

' Gregory's biographer suddenly evinces a feeling for antiquities, 
quorum (of the imperialists) sokdt coUigationes iniqucts et per devotum 
Joharmis de Judice tunc SencUoris obsequium^ turres hostium^ et operosi 
marmoris tabulata Palatia^ nobile vestigium prioris atatis, in oppro- 
brium mine redegit (p. 582). It appears that here he really means 
the Palatine of the Frangipani. 



196 



ROXE IN THE MSDDfLR AGES. 



P&.OC 



T he 



i^ 



the imperial pcnrer, vassalage, tiie lenimciation ot 
tfaeaftides of Coostance^aiid the dissotntioo of the 
league: The dazzled Emperor, hofwcrer, required 
ooconditirwial snnender; ooiriiiditheiioblebufghers 
fonned the heroic rcsolutioo to defend their freedom 
to the last man. The resistance of the cities saved 
the Papacy once more; and the Emperor, iriio now 
appeared to the Italians as an overbearing despot, 
saw Fortone avert her face Even King Conrad's 
reinforcements in Jmie 1238 failed to compel Brcsda 
to sorrender ; the citizens not only endured a cruel 
siege, but even obl^;ed the Emperor to retire, a step 
which diminished his prestige. At the instance of 
the Pope the great maritime cities of Genoa and 
Venice formed an alliance, whfle the Guelf party 
again ruled in Rome. 

These combined events induced Gregory to make 
war on his powerful opponent for the second time, 
and, although he had no right to interfere in the 
struggle between the Emperor and the rebels against 
the empire, openly to pronounce in favour of the 
Lombards. At an apparentiy favourable moment, he 
provoked the bitterest war between the Church and 
the empire, and, as the aggressor, compelled 
Frederick to defend himself. Without any valid 
grounds he again excommunicated the Emperor on 
March 20, 1239, and this time the Romans did not 

„ interfere. He announced the excommunication of 

Maidi 24, the Emperor to Christendom by means of a manifesto, 

'^*^ and released his subjects from their oath. The 

laboriously compiled lisUof sins chained against 

Frederick was headed by the accusation of having 



Gregory 
IX. ex. 
oommttiii- 
cates the 



Ch. v.] manifesto and counter manifesto. 197 

incited Rome to rebellion against the Church, while 
in reality he had saved the supremacy of the sacred 
chair in 1234.^ 

The Emperor, on receiving in Padua the news of 
the declaration of war, assembled a parliament and 
caused his chancellor Peter in a brilliant speech to 
explain the justice of his case and the injustice of the 
Pope's. He forthwith issued his manifesto to the 
world. He reproached the Romans that they had 
not prevented the precipitate action of the Pope. 
" It pains us," he wrote to the Romans, " that even in 
the city itself the Roman priests presume insolently 
to calumniate the Roman Emperor, the creator of 
the city, the benefactor of the people, without the 
citizens offering any opposition. It pains us that in Manifesto 
the whole race of Romulus, among all the nobles and eimctof 
quirites, among so many thousands, not a single ^^^^^ 
dissentient voice has been raised in disapproval of 
the injustice which has been done us, though we have 
just now added to the spoils of ancient triumphs in 
the city the new trophies of our own victories." He 
summoned the Roman people unanimously to rise 
and avenge their common disgrace and to defend 
the Emperor, under threat of his displeasure.^ 

The same day he sent letters of weighty import to 
all the princes of Christendom, in which, by the pen 

^ The bull of excommunication in Matthew Paris for the year 1239, 
p. 329. Sardinia also formed one of the grounds of the sentence ; 
Frederick having married his son Enzio to Adelasia, the heiress of 
Gallura in the island, of which he had made him king. Raumer, 
Cherrier, and Schirrmacher, Kaiser Friedrich II, ^ Gottingen, 1864. 

'/^ . . . Senatori urbis et suis Conromams saiuUm, . . . Treviso, 
April 30 (Matt Puis, pi 333). 



198 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES [Bk. n. 

of Peter de Vineis, he justified himself against the 
accusations of the Pope, represented the injustice 
which he had experienced firom the Church since the 
death of his father, depicted Gr^;ory IX. as an 
ambitious and rapacious priest, a false prophet, and 
unworthy of the Papacy, summoned the princes to 
oppose his assumptions with their united powers, 
Tbe and appealed to a Council which he convoked.^ 

I^SJ^to ** A beast rose from the sea filled with names of 
aCoanciL blasphemy, furnished with the claws ol the bear, the 
jaws of a lion, and in body resembling a panther. It 
opens its mouth to utter blasphemies against the 
name of God, and does not hesitate to hurl similar 
projectiles against his tabernacle and the saints in 
heaven." With similes taken from the Apocalypse 
such as these, Gr^ory opened his counter manifesto 
EncycUcai of June 21. This celebrated encyclical, in which 
ofx^fregory ^ j^.^^^^ hatred IS veiled in the pomp of Old Testa- 
ment diction, is one of the most remarkable monu- 
ments of the great quarrel between the empire and 
the Papacy ; a monument of Roman arrogance and 
of the passion of the priesthood, intoxicated with 
hatred, of its sonorous oracular language, and of 
its vehement energy. Gregory strove to refute all 
Frederick's charges, but it was here for the first time 
that he accused him of aiming at the spiritual power, 
and openly stigmatised him as an atheist.^ 

* Levate in circtUo oculos vestros. . . . Hist, Dipt. , v. 295. 

^ Ascendit de mare bestia blasphemie plena nominibus . . . from 
the Lateran, June 20, 1239. Hist. DipL^ v. 327. The expression 
of his opinion de tribus impostoribus was laid to the Emperor's charge. 
His answer to the cardinals is given by Peter de Vineis, i. 31, and 



Ch. v.] theory of FREDERICK II. I99 

The new position which the Papacy had acquired 
by the foundation of the State of the Church created 
by Innocent on the one hand, the new position which 
the house of Hohenstaufen occupied in Italy by its 
hereditary possession of Sicily on the other, were, 
next to Lombardy, the practical causes of the terrible 
war; the State of the Church was the expression 
not only of the Guelf and national tendency of the 
Papacy, but also of its civil power in general ; Sicily 
was the foundation of the Ghibelline imperial idea. ^ 
The popes demanded the feudal sovereignty of the 
kingdom, and the Emperor made it independent oi 
feudal ties with the Church. The popes thwarted 
his aims ; in alliance with the Guelf nationalists they 
strove to destroy the Hohenstaufen scheme for the 
unity of Italy. From such causes as these the battle 
between the new papal monarchy, created by 
Innocent III., and the new imperial monarchy broke 
forth with increased violence, and the ancient quarrel 
between the tiara and the crown waxed more than 
ever formidable, assuming, as it did, the guise of the 
rivalry between the political and the ecclesiastical 
spirit in general. It was necessary that this contrast, 
pushed to its extremest limits, should be fought out 
to the end. The question for Frederick II. hence- 
forward was, to sever the political power from the 
spiritual, to deprive the Pope of all political influence, 
the Church of her earthly possessions. The separa-* 
tion of these two powers, the great Ghibelline prin- The 
ciple, on which rest all civil and political liberty, as S^"** 

Hist. DipL, V 348, in which he professes his belief in the Catholic 
fiuth. 



200 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix, 

all liberty of the individual conscience, in short 
the entire development of human civilisation, was 
proclaimed with great decision by Frederick II., and 
this was the reform to which he summoned Europe. 
It was impossible, however, that he should win the 
victory; since the burgher class and the popular 
feeling in general were on the side of the Papacy, 
while the monarchic spirit in Europe had not yet 
reached maturity. 

Had the great representative of temporal rights, 
who summoned the kings to his aid, but found a sup- 
port in the burgher class, the Papal power would have 
been already ruined ; had the ideas of the evangelical 
heretics been able to penetrate the consciousness of 
the age, the scattered elements of heresy would have 
been already united in a great stream of reformation. 
Frederick, however, was the enemy of the democracy, 
and at the same time he burnt heretics at the stake. 
No spirit of reform, in the sense of later ages, guided 
his conduct. That such a spirit could be cherished 
by mankind was impossible in an age governed by 
the dogma of the Papacy, by the Inquisition, and 
by enthusiasm for Francis and Dominic ; in an age 
when a vain preaching friar, such as Peter of Amiens 
or Fulco of Neuilly, celebrated triumphs of eloquence, 
when the words of men like these were able to move 
many thousands of citizens (bitterly hostile to each 
other) to reconciliation, when they even touched an 
Ezzelino and were regarded as the laws of an oracle 
by powerful cities ; ^ at a time when Frederick in un- 

^ The history of John of Vicenza and of the Parliament of Peace 
at Verona (August 29, 1233) present a remarkable picture of the 



Ch. v.] OPINION IN ENGLAND. 20I 

critical naivete, and even in the midst of his fiercest 
warfare with the Pope, accepted as a fact the simile 
of the two lights in heaven, the greater and the lesser, 
the priesthood and the imperiunu The spirit of his 
age, more than his own tone of mind, explains the 
curious discrepancies in the character of this great 
Emperor, who undertook a Crusade under the ex- 
communication of the Church, and entertained 
Saracens and bishops at the same table ; who caused 
Minorites and Dominicans to be burnt as friends of 
the Pope, and put heretics to death as his enemies ; 
who had himself solemnly enrolled a member of the 
congregation of the Cistercians at Casamari ; who with 
his own hand crowned the corpse of S. Elizabeth at 
Marburg ; who like Arnold of Brescia denounced the 
wealth of the Church as unchristian, but whose 
Regesta are filled wiUi diplomas in favour of churches 
and convents and with charters of episcopal juris- 
diction. 

An English chronicler has described the impres- impression 
sion which Frederick's manifesto created in Germany, by the 
England, and France. The British nation felt itself ^^^^* 
deeply injured by its unnatural feudal relation to 
the sacred chair, by the papal condemnation of the 
Magna Charta, and finally by the shameless draining 
of its property through benefices, Church tithes, and 
taxes for the Crusade. Frederick, said the English, 

time. Chronicle of Antonius Godas, Vita Riccardi Comitis^ Pftristus 
de Cereta, Gerard Maurisius, Salimbeni and Verd's History of the 
Ezzeline, Salimbene, as a Minorite, has exposed John's vanity with 
malicious complacency. According to Parisius (Murat., viii. 627), the 
great peac emak er had sixty dtiiois burnt at Verona. 



202 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix, 

had, in his war with Otto IV., rendered the Pope a 
greater service than he owed him. He does not show 
himself a heretic ; he writes full of Catholic humility 
to the Pope ; he attacks his person not his office ; 
the English Church is daily drained by the Romans, 
but the Emperor has never sent us usurers and 
robbers of our revenues.^ The same historian never- 
theless admitted that the influence of the papal 
encyclical had been very great, and had weakened 
that of the Emperor to such a degree, that Christen- 
dom would have risen against Frederick as an 
enemy of the Church, had not the avarice of the 
Curia diminished the reverence of nations. The judg- 
ment of the world was divided; the kings, how- 
ever, gladly saw the power of the empire weakened, 
and, in spite of the resistance of the exhausted 
bishoprics, streams of the gold of Christendom 
again flowed into the coffers of the Lateran. 
Frederick soon unavailingly complained to his 
brother-in-law Henry HI., that the King permitted 
collections to be made in England, which furnished 
the Pope with means to make war upon him.* 

^ Matt. Paris, p. 512. The Pope sent mendicant monks as tax- 
collectors throughout the world. The Cod, Vat,, 4957, fol. 43, 
contains a satire de Pecunia : Pecunia Rontanor, Imperatrix et totius 
mundi semp, Augusta dil, suisfiliis et pracuratib, universis salutsm et 
rore celt et terra pinguedine habundare. Still more ancient is the 
celebrated song of the Carmina Burana : Propter Sion non tacebo, sed 
ruinam Rome flebo. The songs of the troubadours and of the 
Swabian poets are full of satires on the avarice of the Curia. 

* Ha Deus! sustineret hec hodie si viveret Henricus senior rex 
Anglie ? Et recolende memorie rex Riccardus et alii — ? {Hist, Dipl,^ 
V. p. 468). Henry III. justified himself prasertim cum tributarius 
vel feudatarius Papa esse de jure compriibetur ; et sic se excusando 



ch. v.] the emperor makes war on the pope. 203 

The bull of excommunication, it is true, was 
published in France, and even in England, without 
arousing any resistance, but Gregory did not find 
any prince ready to serve him as rival king against 
a great monarch, whose majesty cast a splendour 
over the world. Neither did Frederick conceive 
the thought of setting up an anti-pope. A schism 
was impossible in the Church, which had become 
strong and united under Innocent III. The decision 
of the struggle lay at this time essentially with the 
Lombard league. Milan and Bologna still formed 
the strong defences of the Papacy in Northern Italy ; 
Genoa and Venice were its allies ; Azzo of Este, the Gucif 
Count of S. Bonifazio, Paul Traversari in Ravenna, the^Pope. 
and Alberic of Romano (a brother of Ezzelino who 
had renounced the cause of the Emperor) were 
leaders of the Guelfs. Of the Umbrian and Tuscan 
cities the majority took the side of the Pope. Be- 
sides Ezzelino, Padua, Vicenza, and Verona fought on 
Frederick's behalf, as also did other cities such as 
Ferrara, Mantua, Modena, Reggio, and Parma ; he 
was also supported by the veteran hero Salinguerra, 
who soon retired from the scene, and the Margraves 
Palavicini and Lancia. Now also Enzio, Frederick's 
young illegitimate son. King of Torre and Gallura 
in Sardinia, who was appointed vicegerent of the 
empire in Italy on July 25, 1239, began his short 
and brilliant career. 

turpiter accusavit, says excellently Matt Paris, p. 524. Note what 
he says (pp. 517 and 518) concerning public opinion in France, which 
in the beginning was strongly in fieivour of the Emperor. And of 
Germany : a nuilist vel a paucis meruit Papalts auctoritas exaueUri. 



204 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

On the failure of the negotiations for peace, carried 
on through the German bishops, and on the death 
of Conrad, Grand-master of the Teutonic Order in 
Rome (July 1240), the two opponents entered the 
lists.^ Frederick resolved to regard the Church 
merely as a political force, hostile to himself, and 
entirely to destroy its organisation within the State. 
The opposition of the bishops and of the inferior 
clergy in the Sicilian kingdom was punished by a 
merciless persecution; the political agitation of the 
mendicant monks (who were laid under the imperial 
ban) by death, imprisonment, and exile, while the 
The estates of the Church were everywhere confiscated 

onfi^es or taxed. Such was the fate of the wealthy abbey 



*^* of Monte Casino, which was entirely secularised. 

chm«h While the Emperor confided the administration of 



con 

le 

the March of Ancona to his son Enzio, he resolved 
himself to carry the war into the State of the Church, 
and, like Henry IV. or Henry V. before him, to 
annihilate his enemy in Rome. The city conse- 
quently attained a local importance. The Emperor, 
it was said at the court of Gregory IX., has sworn 
to make the Pope a beggar, to throw the sanctuary 
to the dogs, to transform the honoured cathedral of 
S. Peter into a stable — prophetic threats which, if 
ever uttered, were never executed by Frederick II., 
but which in much later times were to be fulfilled to 
the letter by Charles V.^ 

^ Several German spiritual princes also exhorted the Pope to make 
peace with the Emperor, since they could not desert Frederick and 
since his complaints were not unfounded. Bohmer, Acta Imp, SeL^ 
965 (of the year 1239). 

' Comminaiur apcrU sanctum dare canib, , » , et venertmdam 



Ch. v.] the emperor and the ROMANS. 20$ 



3. The Cities of the State of the Church veer 
TO Frederick's Side — The Emperor makes his 
Residence at Viterbo — Desperate Position of 
THE Pope — ^Why Rome remained Guelf — ^The 
great Procession of Gregory IX. — Retreat of 
Frederick II. — Truce — Its Violation by the 
Pope—Defection of Cardinal John Colonna 
— Gregory convokes a Council — The Priests 
imprisoned at Monte Cristo, 1241 — The Tartars 
— Unsuccessful Negotiations — Anibaldi and 
Odo Colonna, Senators — Matteo Rubeus Orsini, 
SOLE Senator — Frederick blockades Rome — 
Death of Gregory IX., 1241. 

In February 1240 the Emperor entered the State 
of the Church with the avowed intention of uniting 
it to the empire.! Several cities of Umbria, of the Frederick 
Sabina and Tuscany opened their gates to him, and ^m)i«ss 
even Viterbo, hitherto the most faithful ally of the *¥^*** 
Pope (who had restored her walls), deserted the Church, 
Church, less from inclination towards the Emperor ^^^^' 
than from hatred to Rome, which now took the part 
of the Papacy .2 Frederick established his residence 
in Viterbo. Corneto also yielded homage, and the 

Principis Ap. BasiL inprasepe deducere jumentor t—Qui etiam EccL 
Principem in illam immergere ghriatur egestatis injuriam, ut cinerem 
pro corona suscipiat^ spicas pro pane vendicei et pro equor, candideUa 
gloria cogatur qtutrere subjugaU. . . . Vita^ p. 585. 

' In August 1239 he released the March of Ancona and Spoleto 
from their oath to the Church, and annexed them to the empire. 
Hist. DipLy V. 376. 

'^ Entry into Viterbo, February 16, 1240. Frederick raised Viterbo 
to the Aula Imperialis in September. Bussi, Append.^ p. 405 ; . 
Pino, i. 370. 



206 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Ghibelline party in Tivoli stood in alliance with him. 
He wrote to all his adherents, that he had met with 
a joyous reception in his imperial Camera in Viterbo, 
that all the cities in Roman territory and in the 
Maritima had done homage to him, while his son 
Enzio held the March of Ancona in his power. 
" Nothing remains to be done," he said, " but to enter 
the city, where the entire Roman people looks to 
me, in triumph, to restore the ancient imperial power 
and to wreathe my victorious eagle with laurels."^ 
He wrote to the Romans in pompous words, as so 
many emperors had done before him, promised them 
the restoration of their ancient splendour, and ex- 
horted them to send their proconsuls Napoleon, 
John Poli, Oddo Frangipani, and Angelo Malabranca 
to his court without delay, in order that he might 
confer imperial dignities and governorships upon 
them.* The Emperor stood before the object of his 
desires. Only two days' march separated him from 
Rome, where the fate of Gregory IX., as formerly 
that of Gregory VH., entirely depended on the 
attitude of the Romans. The Frangipani (as early 

* Hist Dipl,^ V. 762. From "^terbo in February. 

* Peter de Vineis, iii, 72. Ardent sempet ... in February, 
probably from Viterbo. Winkelmann, Farsch, zur deutsch, Gesck,, 
xii. 287, places this letter in the year 1239, Bohmer-Ficker, 2199, in 
1236; the sequence of events, however, speaks in fevour of 124a 
Napol. Johannis Gaetani was an Orsini. For Giovanni, the eldest son 
of Orso and the brother of Rainaldo, took the name of Gaetano from 
his mother Gaetano Crescenzl He married Stefana Rubea ; and his 
sons were Jacopo, Matteo, and Napoleone. (Gammurrini, /ami/, nob, 
Toscane, ii. 16.) Seals of Frederick also bear the inscription, /^oma 
caput mundi. Gold bulla of the diploma of September 1234. (Title- 
page of the Hist, DipL^ tom. iv.) 



Ch. v.] the ROMANS ADHERE TO THE POPE. 207 

as 1239 the Emperor had caused their tower at the 
Arch of Titus to be restored, and had rewarded Oddo 
and Manuel with estates in Neapolitan territory) 
headed the GhibelHnes in the city ;^ the papal party, 
however, retained the upper hand, since the Conti, 
Orsini, and Colonna «tood unanimous on Gregory's 
side. The Pope had consequently been able to 
return quietly to the city in November 1239, and 
had again pronounced the anathema on Frederick. 

The courage of an aged man, who had nothing to 
hope from life, who left no heir, and who was the 
very essence of his Church incarnate, causes no 
surprise The attitude of the Romans, however, 
would excite astonishment, did we not reflect that 
good reasons rendered it advisable for them to 
accept the Pope rather than the Emperor. Had The 
Frederick II. gained possession of Rome, he would ^Sain* 
have abolished the Statutes of the Capitol, and^^^«it<^. 
would have transformed the Senator into his pro- 
curator. The rule of the Pope in Rome was mild 
and weak ; the rule of the Emperor — the determined 
enemy of all civic autonomy, on whom the Roman 
republic itself had made war at Viterbo, who might 
at any moment surrender them back to the Pope — 

' The Cartellaria had fiUlen down on August 15, 1239 ; the Emperor 
had commanded John, Magister of S. Germano, to restore it ; the Pope 
was at Anagni (Vi^a, p. 586; Ifist, Dtpl, v. 451 ; see p. 455, 
Frederick's assignment of revenues in the kingdom to Oddo and 
Manuel, dated October 19, from the camp at Milan). The prefect 
had no longer any importance in Rome. He is, however, mentioned 
in a deed of April 22, 1237 : Joannes Urbis Alme Pr^f. Cod, Vat,, 
6223, fel. 93. And the same man also as early as April 21, 1230. 
Marat, Antiq. ft. L 686. He was son of Peter. 



208 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

would have been neither the one nor the other. 
This explains why the Romans did not make use of 
the opportunity to rise against the rule of the sacred 
chair, which tfiey had been unwillingly forced to 
recognise since 1235. The patriots upheld Gregory 
IX., and hence, owing to circumstances, the Pope 
again appears as the actual representative of the 
national autonomy of Rome. 

The Ghibellines undoubtedly assumed a bolder 
attitude as soon as the imperial troops advanced to 
the gates of the city: many voices shouted "the 
Emperor, the Emperor! We will g^ve him the 
city," and Gregory may have expected the final 
defection of a fickle people, who had already fre- 
quently driven him forth. In his distress he insti- 
tuted a solemn procession on February 22, when 
the relics of the Cross and the heads of the Apostles 
were carried from the Lateran to S. Peter's. He 
had the relics laid upon the high altar, and taking 
the tiara from his head, placed it upon them and 
thus addressed them. "Ye saints, defend Rome, 
which the Romans would betray ! " His action pro- 
duced the desired effect upon the crowd, which is 
easily moved by mysteries and theatrical displays. 
Several Romans took the Cross from the hands of 
the Pope himself against the Emperor, as against 
a pagan and a Saracen.^ From the neighbouring 
Viterbo Frederick scoffed at the numbers and posi- 
tion of these crusaders, who were to suffer the full 
measure of his wrath as soon as they fell into his 
hands. Gregory, however, was convinced that the 

^ AnnaUs Placentini Gibellini. Man. Germ. , xviii. 483. 



Ch. v.] JOHN COLONNA JOINS THE EMPEROR. 209 

sudden change in the attitude of the Romans was 
due to a divine miracle.^ The Emperor, whose 
army was too weak successfully to attack Rome, 
saw his hopes shattered ; he left Viterbo for Apulia 
on March 16, and gave vent to his indignation 
against the Romans in letters merely. 

In summer he entered the Marches, without in- 
flicting any injury on the Roman Campagna. He 
even granted the Pope a truce, in which, however, 
he refused to include the Lombards. But the 
cardinals, who were urgent in favour of peace — the 
moderates formed a strong opposition among them — 
desired a general Council which should decide the 
quarrel. Meanwhile, vast sums of money suddenly 
placed the Pope in a position to continue the war 
for another year. He consequently renounced the 
truce, for which he had himself previously striven. 
His conduct excited profound displeasure in Rome. 
The Cardinal of S. Prassede, John Colonna, the cardinal 
mediator of the truce, considered it an insult to his ^^onna 
honour, and openly took the side of the Emperor. go«s over 
And in John this celebrated house first decidedly Emperor's 
embraced the cause of the Ghibellines. He was the ^^^^ 
second cardinal of the Colonna family, had been 
a favourite of Honorius HI., several times legate 
under Gregory IX., and in 1239 had been sent to 
the March of Ancona to fight against Enzio. The 
proud and wealthy prince was the foremost member 

* Frederick spoke oigarsones quosd, et vetulas (to England, March 
16. Viterbo, Matt, Paris, p. 521); the Pope, on the contrary, of an 
innumerable crowd (Hahn, Collect, Man. vet, rec,^ i. 346). Frederick 
commanded that these crusaders shorld be branded. 

VOL. V. O 



2IO 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk. IX. 



The Pope 
summons 
a Council 
in Rome, 
August 
ia4a 



of the College of Cardinals. His apostacy could be 
traced neither to avarice nor to malice; it was a 
protest against the lust of power shown by the Pope, 
whose passions dragged the Church into ruinous 
paths.^ ''Such signs/' exclaimed the English his- 
torian, '' make it clear that the Roman Church has 
drawn upon herself the wrath of God. For her 
rulers do not exert themselves for the spiritual 
welfare of the people, but only to fill their own 
pouches ; they do not seek to win souls to God, but 
only to acquire revenues for themselves, to oppress 
the priests, and by means of ecclesiastical punish- 
ments, by usury, simony, and a hundred other arts, 
insolently to annex the property of others." * 

The rebellion of a cardinal was followed by a 
still more severe blow for the Pope. On Augfust 9, 
1240 from the abbey of Grotta Ferrata he con- 
voked a Council at Rome for the following Easter. 
The suggestion was due to the Emperor, but 
Frederick could not submit to the decision of a 
tribunal, which, now that his victorious arms had 
made him ruler of the greater part of Northern and 
Central Italy, now that his enemy was in the 
utmost difficulty, and he himself cherished the hope 



' Matt. Paris places a letter of John to the legates in England in 
the year 1237 : voiuimus reformare stcUum et sape tentavimus^ ei ecu 
deformis destitutio subintravit. And previously nimis avide^ vel 
potius inconsulte^ se mater (ecclesia) immersit fluctibus (p. 307). . . . 
Matt Paris, p. 366, gives the grounds of the breach. Nee ego de 
catero te habeo pro Cardinale^ said the Pope ; the Cardinal : nee ego 
te pro Papa ; et sic recessit — adversarius, — The first cardinal of the 
house of Colonna, John, Bishop of the Sabina, died in 12 16. 

« Matt. Paris, p. 307. 



Ch. v.] NAVAL BATTLE. 211 

of dictating peace in Rome, would assuredly prove 
hostile to him. He had consequently sent letters 
forbidding the clergy to attend the Council, had 
warned them against the journey, and had refused 
them safe-conduct A remarkable letter, written by 
an independent priest, draws a picture — by no means 
flattering to Rome — of the dangers that awaited 
even the bishops in the city. "How can you," he 
said, " enjoy safety in the city, where all the citizens 
and the clergy are at daily strife for and against 
both opponents ? The heat is insufferable, the 
water foul, the food is coarse and bad ; the air is 
so heavy that it can be grasped with the hands, and 
is filled with swarms of mosquitos; the ground is 
alive with scorpions, the people are dirty and odious, 
wicked and fierce. The whole of Rome is under- 
mined, and from the catacombs, which are filled 
with snakes, arises a poisonous and fatal exhalation."^ 
Many prelates of Spain, France, and Northern 
Italy would not allow tJiemselves to be deterred by 
any danger from undertaking the journey to Rome. 
Gregory, legate of Roumania, the Cardinals Jacopo 
Pecorario of Praeneste and Otto of S. Nicholas met 
in Genoa and set forth in Genoese vessels in blind 
confidence until, off the cliff of Meloria, they saw the 
sails of the republic of Pisa and the Sicilian fleet 
advancing against them witli hostile intent. The 
celebrated naval battle, which took place near the 

* Gens immunda^ aikominadi/is, pessima, gtmfuroris. The Pope, 
who only desired money, had, he says, summoned the clergy ut sitis 
orgamasmtmtiajuxta dedttetwMem et libitum organiste. Hist. DipL, 
V. 1077, after Baliuius. Misulk^ i. 458-468. 



212 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

islands of Monte Cristo and Giglio, was one of the 
most curious spectacles ever witnessed at sea. More 
Several than a hundred prelates — cardinals, bishops, and 
Letf^ abbots — were the trembling spectators of a deadly 
p™^«« conflict, and formed at the same time the object 
May 1241. of the battle and the spoils of the victory. The 
Genoese galleys with their soldiers and priests were 
scattered, sunk, or boarded, and the imperial admiral 
sailed triumphantly with his prey towards the 
harbour of Naples. The unfortunate priests re- 
mained at sea during three terrible weeks, in chains, 
tortured by heat, hunger, thirst, and the jeers of the 
rude sailors, until they reached the prisons of Naples 
or Sicily. Here they hung (as the Pope sympatheti- 
cally lamented) their harps on the willows of the 
Euphrates, and awaited the sentence of Pharaoh.^ 

The capture of the priests produced a great sensa- 
tion throughout the world. Never has the Church 
forgiven "the godless outrage" committed by the 
Emperor. He received the news of the transaction, 
which released him from the Council, at Imola. 
Fortune favoured his banner. Genoa had been 
humbled, Milan overcome by the faithful inhabitants 
of Pavia, Benevento conquered, and after a pro- 
longed siege heroic Faenza had fallen on April 14. 
Frederick, therefore, resolved, instead of besieging 
Bologna, to march against Rome. Fano and Spoleto 
made subjection to him in June, and, encouraged by 

^ Matt, Paris (p. 563) has somewhat maliciously described their 
sufferings. Frederick calls them in contempt Turba prakUorutn 
(Peter de Vineis, i. c. 8). A beautiful letter of consolation from the 
Pope, in Raynald, ad A, 1241, n. 71. 



Ch. v.] FREDERICK MARCHES AGAINST ROME. 21 3 

Cardinal Colonna, he marched by Rieti and Temi to 
the neighbourhood of Rome. Thus the flames of 
war between Emperor and Pope were rekindled, 
and the mischievous effects of this war on Europe 
were shown at this very moment, when the news of 
an irruption of wild barbarians from the East aggra- 
vated the disorder. The Tartar hordes of Octal 
ravaged Russia, Poland, and the Danubian pro- 
vinces, and revived in the Latin West the terrors 
which in ancient times had been caused by the 
Huns. Christendom turned for rescue to both 
Emperor and Pope, but to its profound dismay 
heard the Pope preach a Crusade s^ainst the 
Emperor, and heard the Emperor explain that he 
could not turn his arms against the Tartars until he 
had forced the Pope to make peace. He wrote to 
the Roman Senate, in June 1241, that he was in- 
formed of the pressure of the Tartars against the 
frontiers of the empire ; that he was approaching in The 
forced marches to treat with the Pope ; that the city ma^S 
ought to rise in his aid, so that after the settlement ^^* 
of Italian troubles he might avert a terrible mis- 
fortune from the empire.^ 

He sent messengers to the Pope; even his 
brother-in-law Richard of Cornwall, who, having 
returned from the East in July, came to Rome as 
ambassador, but without obtaining access to Gregory. 
The unyielding veteran, like Gregory VH., preferred 
death to surrender, and, in spite of the defection of 

^ //ist. Dip/,, V. 1 1 39. In castrts ante SpoUtum^ Jane 2a A 
Privilegium, in fiivour of Spoleto, is dated hence in June. Achille 
Stnsi, Doeum, storici uuditi^ Fol^^no, 1879, ii. 277. 



214 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk. 



Anibale 

Anibaldo 

andOddo 

Colonna, 

Senators, 

1241. 



Matthew 
Orsini, 
Senator, 
1341. 



Cardinal Colonna and his house, was not without 
friends in Rome. True, that in the banning of 
the year 1241, Anibale degli Anibaldi and Oddo 
Colonna, nephew of the cardinal, had filled the 
office of Senator, and that the imperial faction must 
have asserted itself alongside of the papal ; but since 
these Senators again ratified the treaty of peace of 
the year 1235 ^^ March, it follows that Gregory IX. 
still remained master of the city.^ At a fresh elec- 
tion of the Senate in May 1241, he succeeded in 
procuring the elevation of the Orsini, the enemies 
of the Anibaldi and the Colonna, and the heads of 
the Guelf party. For Matthew Rubeus became sole 
Senator. This celebrated man, formerly the patron 
of S. Francis, was the son of John Gaetani Orsini 
and of Stefania Rubea, and a grandson of Ursus, 
the ancestor of the house.* He himself became the 
founder of a powerful race, which divided into several 
branches. His sons and grandsons filled the annals 
of Rome with their names and deeds, on the papal 
throne, as cardinals, and on the senatorial chair in 
the Capitol.* 



* In rom, D, Amen. A.D, incam. 1241 Ind, XIV, medio {ntensef) 
Martit die 4 Nos A^nibaldus) et O. de Columna . . . Senatores, . . . 
Papencordt-Hofler, p. 297. Oddo Colonna was the first Senator of 
his house ; he is quoted as such in the year 1241 in a list of the 
senators of this &mily in the Colonna Archives. 

* In 1232 he appears as Comes of Tivoli. Letter of Gregory IX. 
to the bishop and clergy of this city. Anagni, September i, 1232 
(Ep., sac, xiii., Mm, Germ.y i. n. 481). 

* Matheus Russusper Gregor, P. Senator efficitur. Rich. Sangemu 
represents him as entering on the office of Senator in July. I have, 
however, reason for maintaining that he did so in May. ConcemiDg 



Ch. v.] WAR BETWEEN EMPEROR AND POPE. 21$ 

If Rome remained faithful to the Pope, it was 
altogether owing to the indefatigable zeal of the 
Guelf captain. The danger was great ; for the 
Ghibellines rose on the news of Frederick's victories. 
Cardinal Colonna, who summoned him to the city, 
and the ex-Senator Oddo fortified themselves in The 
their palaces in the Baths of Constantine and the fortress 
Mausoleum of Augustus, which (under the popular Mj^)ieum 
name Lagusta) emerges from a long obscurity, of 
From ancient times it had been the centre of the ^^^^^^^ 
Colonna fortresses in the Field of Mars, to which 
also belonged the neighbouring Monte Citorio 



this Senator see Garampi, B, Chiara da Riminif p. 244, and the 
genealogical tree in Litta : — 

Ursus, of the house of Bobo, nephew of Celestine III., 
nuurried to Gaetana di Cresceiuo 



married to 



John Gaetani, lord of Vkoyaro^ 

Lo Stefiuiia Rnbea ; made hb will hi i 



Matheus Rubeus, Senator, lord of Marino, MonteroCondo, Galera, 
CastelS. A — .. » 

made his will in 1346 ; marri< 



near Tivoli, &c; 
to P«ma Gaetani, zaA to two others. 



Johannes 
Gaetani, 
as Pope 
Nicholas 

III., 

1277. 



I 



founder of 

the branch 

ofMonte> 

rotondo. 



Mabilia, 

married to 

Aneelo 

Male. 

branca. 



Gmtilis. 



Napoleon, Matheus, 

Cardinal Senator, 

of S. Ad- za93 ana 

riano, died 1310. 



Latmus, 
Cardinal, 
bishop of 

Ostia, 
died 1394. 



I 

Jordan. 

cardinal, 
died 
Z387. 



Matheus, Napoteon, 
Senator, Senator, 

xaTO, 1259. 

founder 

of the 

branch 

ofMonta. 



Ursus. 



Matheus Rubeus, Cardinal 

of S. M. in Porticu ; 

crowned Charles of Anjou in 

Rome, 1966 ; died after 1305. 



Bertholdos, 
first Count of the 

^ Romagna, 
died about X3Z9. 



Compare with this the genealogical tree drawn up by WttstenfelcL 
Pflugk-Harttung, lUr, Iial,y Section iL p. 70&) 



2l6 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

{Mons Acceptorit)} Matthew Rubeus led his troops 
to the attack of this Mausoleum, where Oddo himself 
may have been stationed, while the cardinal repaired 
to Palestrina. From thence he occupied for the 
Emperor Monticelli, Tivoli, and the Lucanian bridge 
of the Anio. Frederick was surprised to find so 
warlike a spirit and such powerful aid in a cardinal.^ 
Obeying his summons, he entered Tivoli, which 
voluntarily opened its gates. His troops laid waste 
the entire country from Monte Albano to Farfa, and 
as far as the Latin Mountains. He caused Monte- 
fortino, which had been fortified by the Conti, 
nephews of Gregory IX., to be destroyed, and out 
of hatred to the Pope had the prisoners hanged. 
Nothing but a ruined tower here remains as the 
monument of his revenge. Accompanied by the 
cardinal he advanced to the Colonna fortress, and 
The towards the end of August was at Grotta Ferrata.* 

OTcS^ From this mountain, where the fourth and fifth 
FemSL* Henries and Barbarossa had previously encamped, 
he determined, either by force or famine, to compel 
the city to submission. Veiled in the malarial mists 
of summer it lay but a short distance before him, 
while his enemy pined away in the burning stillness 
of August 

* Apud Lagustam quam Joh, de Columna firmaverat — Rich. 
Sangerm., p. 1047. Petrini, Mem. di Palestrina^ p. 411, gives a 
document of February 7, 1252, where the muniiianes AugusUe et 
Montis Acceptorii are mentioned as possessions of the Colonna in the 
dty. 

• Letter to him, probably from Rieti in July : Hist. DipL^ v. 1 155. 
' Prope Columpnam is the date of an imperial letter despatched to 

the podestA of Como on August 22, 1241 ; Bohmer-Ficker, 3224. 



Ch. v.] death of GREGORY IX. 217 

Messengers came hurrying to his camp. The 
Pope was dead ! If it be true that Gregory IX. had 
almost reached the age of a hundred, then must he 
have been ripe for death at any hour, at any season 
of the year; nevertheless his confinement in Rome 
during the month of August might not unjustly 
have been regarded as the ultimate cause of his 
death. The Church called him the victim of the 
Emperor. The farewell which the indomitable 
veteran bade the world was like that of a general 
who dies within his trenches in the face of the 
enemy. From his deathbed he saw this enemy, with 
an apostate cardinal, victorious before the gates of 
Rome. His parting glance rested in the foreground 
on the overthrow of the State of the Church, in the 
distance on the ruins of Christian lands, which the 
Tartars had turned into smoking wildernesses. 
Gregory IX. breathed his last in the Lateran on Death of 
August 21, 1241/ g^5Sg. 

ai, X241. 
^ Matt. Paris, p. 574 : fere centenarius . . . fuit caUulosus^ et 
valde senex, et caruit bainets^ quibus solebat VUerbii cotrfoveri, 
Frederick from Grotta Ferrata announced to foreign countries the 
death of the Pope ; saying, in the humour of the time : ui — vix uUoris 
Atigusti ntetas excederet^ qui Augustum excedere mtebaiur (Pefr. de 
Vin., i. c. ii). The letter is calm and dignified. 



ai8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



4. Frederick II. returns to his Kingdom — Election 

AND IMMEDIATE DeATH OF CeLESTINE IV. — ThE 

Cardinals disperse — The Church remains 
WITHOUT A Head — Aluance between Rome, 
Perugia, and Narni, 1242 — The Romans advance 
against tlvoli ; frederick once more against 
Rome — Building of FLAOELLiE — Frederick 
AGAIN IN the Latin Mountains — The Saracens 

DESTROY AlBANO — StATE OF THE LaTIN MOUNTAINS 

— Albano — Aricia — The Via Appia — Nemi — 
CiviTA Lavinia — Genzano — The House of 
Gandulfi — Places on the Tusculan side of the 
Mountain — Grotta Ferrata — Bronze Statues. 

To show the world that he had made war with 
Gregory IX., and not with the Church, the Emperor 
at once ceased hostilities against Rome. He returned 
to Apulia in September. Ten cardinals meanwhile 
remained in the city, perplexed and insecure ; these, 
in order to compel them to the speedy election of a 
pope, the Senator, as head of the republic, confined 
in the Septizonium. After tedious disputes between 
the Gregorians and the Moderates of the Opposition, 
who counselled submission to the Emperor; after 
the sufferings of a confinement which resembled 
an imprisonment, and to which one cardinal fell 
a victim, Godfrey, a Milanese and Bishop of the 
Sabina, was elected Pope under the name of Celestine 
Death of IV. on November i, 1241. The infirm old man died, 
ivI^CT however, in the course of seventeen days. The car- 
a reign of dinals had probably elected him merely as a pro- 

seventeen ^ ^ * 

days, 1241. Visional PopC. 



ch. v.] flight of the cardinals. 219 

The throne of Peter stood empty, as after the 
death of Gregory VII.; the Romans were in up- 
roar; the Senator threatened a fresh incarceration. 
Whether owing to dismay or to a preconceived plan, 
the object of which was to represent Frederick to the 
populace as the author of a widespread tumult, the 
disunited cardinals forsook the Church in her direst 
need and retired to Anagni or to their fortresses. FUght 
The consequence was that the sacred chair remained ^t^ais 
vacant for an unexampled length of time ; the Church ^JJ^ 
lacked a head for nearly two years. The Senator 
Matthew Rubeus placed himself in the breach which Matthew 
the cowardly cardinals had deserted. All the friends d^en^ 
of the Papacy rallied round his banner. A success- ^®™®- 
ful resistance was made to the Ghibellines. Their 
chief fortress, the Mausoleum on the Field of Mars, 
was attacked and destroyed. The populace tore 
down the palaces of the Colonna, seized and im- 
prisoned the cardinal. For this, the most influential, 
adherent of the Emperor had come to attend the 
papal election and had remained even after Celestine 
IV. had been raised to the vacant chair.^ 

Matthew Rubeus also acquired allies outside the Alliance 
city; he formed a league with Perugia, Nami, and ^^^q^ 
other Guelf cities, by which the communes were aties and 
pledged to oppose the Emperor, and to refuse to March 
make peace with him as long as he continued the '^*^ 
war against the Church. The deed of alliance was 
ratified in S. Maria on the Capitol on March 12, 
1242.' Frederick II. meanwhile made no serious 

^ From his prison, Ann, PL Gibell,^ p. 485. Matt^ Paris, p. 39a 
' Document in the Archives of Pemgia, Lib, Sommiss,^ vol. C. fol. 



220 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

atteiTipt to attack Rome. Half a century earlier any 
emperor in his position would have taken the city by 
assault, put forward a pope, and, in his capacity of 
Patricius, dictated terms of peace. But this Frederick 
was not able to do. It seems a mistake that he did 
not resolve on the release of all the prelates taken 
prisoners in the naval battle, among whom were the 
two cardinals Jacopo and Oddo. Magnanimity such 
as this would have given him a greater advantage 
than could be afforded by the delay of the papal 
election, which in the end he must necessarily wish 
to see accomplished, in order that peace might be 
concluded with the new pope. 

In February 1242 he sent messengers to the 
cardinals assembled in Anagni to press on the 
election, and caused the two imprisoned in Capua to 
be brought to Tivoli.^ He himself would not have 
returned so promptly to Roman territory had he not 

31. They were first made known by Garampi {B, CAiara, p. 244) ; 
then by Narducci, La Lega Romana con Perugia e con Nami^ p. 48, 
from Uie Archives of Nami, corrected by Giov. d'Eroli {Miscellanee 
Namest), It is signed in the first instance by eighty-six, in the second 
by eighty-four Roman Consiliarii. I only give a few : Homodeus de 
TriviOt Bened. Tyneosus^ D, Jokes Fraiapanis^ D, AnibalduSt 
Romanus Johis Judeif Romanus Johis Romania Petr, Johis Guidonis^ 
Petr, nepos D. Petri Stephanie Petr» Johis Ylperini^ Porearius Jaeobt 
Johis Grassif Jokes Pauli Capudzunca^ D, Oddo Petri Gregorii^ 
Gregorius Surdus, Mathias D, Anihaldi^ D, Angelus Matebrance^ 
D. Comes Jokes Poli, D. Transmundus Petri Anibaidi^ Petrus 
Astalli^ Z>. Bobo Johis BoboniSy Petrus Vulgaminus^ Jokes Capocie^ 
Petrus Crescentiiy BartkoU Cinthii de Crescentio^ Petrus Papa^ Petr, 
Magalotti^ Petr, Malaspina, There is no Colonna. Several had 
formerly been senators. No one signs himself proconsul ; several 
Dominus (Don). 
^ In April 1242 ; Bohmer-Ficker, 3280. 



Ch. V.J FREDERICK MARCHES AGAINST ROME. 221 

been thereto driven by the Romans. In June 1242 
they advanced with force of arms against Tivoli, 
where the Emperor had left a garrison under Thomas 
of Montenigro.^ Frederick promptly entered Mar- 
sian territory; he encamped beside the lake of 
Celano, where, only twenty-six years later, in the Frederick 
person of his grandson, his glorious house was tOAb^'J*' 
meet its overthrow. He as little foresaw the fate in 
store for it, as the young Count Rudolf of Habsburg, 
who accompanied him to Avezzano, foresaw that on 
the fall of the Hohenstaufens he was himself destined 
to wear the imperial crown.* In July he marched 
against Rome, again planted his tents in the Alban is again 
Mountains, and by the devastation of the Campagna ^i^in 
punished the Romans not only for their hostilities J"^y '^42. 
against Tivoli, but also for the violence offered to 
Cardinal Colonna and other imperialist clergy.* 
But his undertakings were not characterised by 
energy ; in August he crossed the Liris, on the banks 
of which a year before he had built the new city of in Cam- 
Flagellae opposite Ceprano.* Sgust 

* See Frederick's violent letter to the Romans (Peter de Vineis, 
ii. c. 8) : vtstra dissotoetur Babylon^ Damascus deficiet. He speaks 
of their attacks on Tivoli. Huillard wrongly attributes the letter to 
December 1243. On Jane 14, 1242, the Senator M. Rubeus wrote to 
the commune of Alatri to send reinforcements to the Romans, who 
were going to make an attack on the imperialists at Tivoli. Winkel- 
mann, Ada imp, ined. ReichssacheUf 685. 

' Rudolf was with the Emperor at Capua in May 1242, whence I 
conclude that he was also with him a month later at Avezzano. 

' Hist, Dipl,, vi. 95. Letter to France, June 1243, in which these 
events of the previous summer are described. 

^ Civitatem nostram FlagelU adflagellum hosiium—'fundari prmn* 
dimus (Hist, Dipl,^ vi. 51. At the end of May 1242 to his adherents 



222 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. IX. 

Christendom saw the Church without a pope ; the 
great spiritual monarchy seemed transformed into 
an oligarchy ; since the spiritual power was exercised 
by the Curia, composed of a few cardinals resident 
in Anagni. Several voices were heard accusing it of 
treachery from motives of avarice and ambition, 
while the cardinals laid the entire blame upon the 
Emperor. Embassies entreating and threatening 
went to him and to the Curia, and Frederick himself 
urged the cardinals finally to bestow a head on the 
Onoemore Church.^ He £^ain arrived with a large army, 
^mein passed Ccprano on his way to the Latin Mountains 
May X243. in May 1243, ^^^ '^d waste the property of the car- 
dinals, while his Saracens even razed Albano to 
the ground.* 

The lamentable destruction of this episcopal city 

affords us an opportunity of bestowing a glance on 

TheAiban the condition of this mountainous district, where 

Jidttidr'^ Alba Longa, the legendary mother of Rome, had 

fortresses, formerly stood on the shore of her volcanic lake. 

At the time when Frederick II. encamped upon the 

Alban heights, nearly all the fortresses which still 

remain had already been erected. During the 

decline of the empire, Albano had arisen from the 

in the Terra Ladoris), Rich. S. Germ., p. 1048. The name is a 
▼ulgar corruption of the ancient Fregelkt, The new town disappeared 
▼ery soon. 

^ About May 1242. Hist, Dipl,^ 44 {Si super duce) ; a second 
lettet somewhae in July {Ex /erv0re),idui,, p. 59. Huillard asserts 
that the invectives against the cardinals attributed to Frederick, ad ves 
est hoc verhum^filii Ejfrem, were not written by him : but the letter 
Cum papalis^ attributed to Lewis of France, has no greater chiim to 
authenticity. 

> Matt. Paris, p. 599. 



Ch. v.] the alban mountains. 223 

ruins of the celebrated villa, known first as the villa 
of Pompey and later as that of the emperors {Alban- 
um Casaris), We have seen the town at an early 
date the seat of a Lateran bishop, and have frequently 
spoken of it since the Gothic war. It had neither 
been acquired by Roman barons, nor, although the 
Romans had frequently attacked Albano during the Aibono. 
twelfth century, and had even once burnt it, had the 
city succeeded in obtaining possession of the place. 
In the time of Paschalis II. it was the property of the 
popes, and Honorius III. had bestowed it on the 
resident cardinal bishop in 1217.^ The Savelli 
family, however, of whom this Pope was the pro- 
tector, likewise possessed Castel Sabellum and other 
property close by, and finally at the end of the 
thirteenth century attained baronial dominion over 
Albano. 

Little Aricia had also been known in times of Arida. 
remote antiquity as one of the towns of the ancient 
Latin league, the cradle of Augustus or of his 
mother Attia, and celebrated for the sanctuary ol 
Diana Aricina. The barbarians destroyed the 
ancient town, but it reappears as a fortress in the 
year 990, when Guido of the house of Tusculum 
ruled there as duke. Paschalis II. bestowed Aricia 
on the family of these counts in the beginning of the 
twelfth century, when it passed into the hands oi 

^ The bull from Ferendno, July 24, 1217, says: cwitaUm 
Albanensem cum burgo, tAermis, monte qui dicitur Sol et Luna, 
Palaiio, . . . Nicholas III. oonfinned it on December 18, 1278. 
Ricci, Memorie di Albano^ p. 217. The Savelli acquired Albano 
after the time of Honorius IV. 



224 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the Malabranca. Honorius III. recovered it for the 
Church, in order to bestow it on the relations of his 
house.^ The position of Albano and Aricia on the 
Via Appia gave them but a trifling advantage, for 
since this celebrated road had become impracticable 
for armies, the traffic between Naples and Rome had 
long been carried on from Capua past S. Germano 
and Ceprano by the Via Latina, or through Marsian 
territory along the Via Valeria by Alba, Carsoli, and 
Tivoli. The Appian Way, ruinous and marshy, after 
having been the military road, and served as such 
down to Gothic times, was not now even traversed 
by the crusaders. Pilgrims from the East, having 
landed at Brindisi and arrived at Capua, followed 
some other route. The many postal stations, care- 
fully enumerated by the Itinerarium of Antoninus 
and the Jerusalem Guide for travellers from Capua 
to Rome, had long fallen into ruin, or had been 
destroyed. 

Frederick beheld even more ruins of tombs, 
temples, and villas than we now find on the shores 
of the Alban lake. The imposing remains of the cele- 
brated Temple of the confederation of Jupiter Latiaris 
still stood on the summit of the Alban Mountain, but 
the ancient Mons Albanus had probably already 
assumed the name of Monte Cavo.^ The remains 

^ For the cession of the Malabranca see a bull of May 20, 1223, in 
Luddi, Mem, Sioriche delV Aricia (Rome, 1796), p. 408. 

2 It is mentioned in 1249 (Casimiro, p. 230 ; Nibby, AtuUisi^ i. 73) 
dpropos of the convent of Palazznolo or S, Maria de Palaiiolis — 
tuper iacum Albanensem seu in pede Montis Cava, The name is 
derived from the ancient place Cabum on the Mons Albanus, The 
last Stuart, Henry of York, Cardinal-bishop of Frascati, destroyed the 



Ch. v.] the ALBAN MOUNTAINa 22$ 

of the Temple of Diana Aricina, or those of the 
renowned Nemus, the grove of the same goddess 
in the crater of the lovely violet-wreathed lake on 
the edge of which Nemi now stands, were still Nemi 
pointed out ; for the sanctuary of Diana had be- 
come the property of the Church {Massa Nemus\ 
after the fall of the Roman empire, and here the 
counts of Tusculum had in later times built a 
fortress.^ 

Lanuvium, the house of Antoninus Pius, existed 
in the neighbourhood of Albano, dther still in ruins, 
or as the town of Civita Lavinia, which arose on 
the remains of her ancient predecessor.* Genzano, Genzano. 
where the family of Gandulfi afterwards erected a 
tower, seems to have owed its origin to an ancient 
fundus Gentiani? These nobles, bearing the Grer- 
man name of Gandolf, were, after the Tusculans, the 
only barons who founded a dominion in this district 
of the Latin Mountains. They made their home in 
the ruins of the imperial villa at one side of Albano, 



remains of the Temple of Jupiter in 1783, when restoring the 
Passionist monastery. 

^ Massa Nemus , mentioned for the first time in the Lib, Pont,^ "Vita 
Silvestri/' n. 46. In 1153 Anastasius IV. bestowed Nemi on the 
convent of 5. Anastasius ad Aquas Salvias, and Lucius III. confirmed 
the donation in 11 83: in loco qui dicitur Nemo (Lucidi, p. 313; 
Ratti, Storia di Genzano, p. 94). 

' In the time of Honorius III. it belonged to the monastery of 
S. Lorenzo near Rome, while Ardea belonged to S. Paul's (Ratti, 
p. 47). According to Nibby, Analisi, ii. 173, the oldest document 
with the name of Civitas Labinia dates from the year 1358. Nerini, 
Stor, di S, AlessiOy p. 526. 

^ In a document of sac, xi. we find, Castello^ qui voccUur Genezano, 
Reg, Sublacense (Rome, 1885), p. 72. 

VOL. V. P 



Gandottb. 



226 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

and built a fortress which still bears their name.^ 
They appear as a baronial family, consisting of 
numerous members, in the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century, but disappeared at the close of the 
same century, when the Savelli took possession of 
Castd^ Castel Gandolfo. After the time of Urban VIII., 
the ancient Turns Gandulphorum was converted 
into the well-known papal villa, the only country 
house which the Pope now possesses in the Roman 
Mountains.' 

After the time of Honorius III. the Savelli also 
acquired several estates round the lakes of Albano 
and Nemi, while, on the other side of the same 
mountain, the Colonna, the heirs of the Tusculans, 
had long owned fortresses and property. Besides 
their ancestral stronghold of Colonna, Monte Porzio 
also belonged to them. Some ancient and renowned 
fortresses commanding the valley which divides the 
Latin Mountains, which had formerly been held by 

^ As early as 1 178 an Act is signed . . . d^ CaffdTn^ (the baptismal 
name is absent). Stttdi e doc, per la storia eccl, e civili di Roma^ 
1886, n. xxvii. 

^ On January 4, 12 18, Petr, et Nicol Candulphifili qd, Angeli de 
Cand,, et Rusticusfil, qd. CenciideCand. renounce the compensation 
for the injuries inflicted in the war between the Roman people and 
the Church in the time of Alexander III. In this document we read : de 
turri nostra de Gentiano nobis diruta (Ratti, p. 99). On October 6, 
1244, Simon de Cand. and his brother Paul ceded to the Abbot of S. 
M. in Palatiolis TofTellum near Locus Albanu . . . Act, in castro 
Candulfor, in palatio curie dicti D, Simonis (Lateran parchment in 
the Archives of Florence, Roccettini de Fiesole), According to 
Ughelli, I 266, the Savelli owned Gandolfo as early as 1282. In 
Rome we find the epitaph of D, Paula Filia Johis Gandulphi de 
Gandulphinis of Aracoeli, in the year 1360, Galletti, Inscript,, 
iii. 407, 



ch. v.] the alban mountains. 227 

the counts of Tusculum, still survived. Such were 
on the celebrated mountain consecrated to Diana; 
Algidus — now a heap of ruins — and Molara, the 
ancient Roboraria, which came into the possession 
of the Anibaldi in the thirteenth century, and whose 
name still exists in a Massaria.^ In the time of 
Frederick II., Tusculum had already lain in ruins Tusculum. 
for fifty years, and its former inhabitants had 
removed to other ancient places such as Rocca di 
Papa, which is mentioned as early as the time of 
Lucius III., and Rocca Priora {Arx Perjurce), Monte 
Compatri, or Frascati, and Marino.^ 

While Colonna, Anibaldi, and Orsini took posses- 
sion of the Tusculan side of the mountain, Grotta Grotta 
Ferrata, the Greek monastery of S. Nilus, flourished ^®"^*^^ 
as one of the most important abbeys in Roman 
territory. The dominion of the Basilian monks 

^ Tommassetti, Campagna Romana, Also delta Soc. i?., vol. ix. 
41 1 if., shows that it is difficult to identify the Mom Algidus with 
accuracy. The fortress of this name stood below in the Latin plain, 
and the name is still recalled by the cava delt Aglio ; Tommassetti 
places the fortress Laviano {ara Diana ?), which belonged to Velletri, 
and which was called // maschio di Velletri^ on the mountain itself. 

^ Marino was a castrum as early as 1249 (Casimiro, Mem, delle 
Chiese^ dr'c,, p. 230). Until 1266 it belonged to Joh. Frangipane de 
Septemsoliis, son of Gratian, as a fief of the convent of S. Saba in 
Rome, and also of the abbey of Grotta Ferrata. Cardinal John 
Gaetani (Nicholas III.), as Procurator of S. Saba, sold it to his 
nephew. Cardinal Matt. Rubens Orsini, for 13,000 pounds : Castr. 
Marini et Turris ipsius cum ienimento sua. The beautiful parchment 
deed in the Gaetani Archives, cap. 36, n. 39, was executed in 
Viterbo. — On December 16, 1266, Cardinal Matheus sold half of 
Marino to his uncles Jordan, Reinald, and Matheus, sons of the cele- 
brated Senator. Original, idid,, 48, n. 6. The Orsini thus attained 
possession of Marino, 



228 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

extended over a great part of the mountains and 
over the Pontine marshes as far as Nettuno. They 
hunted to provide game for their table, and fished for 
pike, sturgeon, and lamprey in the lake of Fogliano, 
in the lake of Tumus of Ardea, in the pond of 
Ostia, and in the Tiber up to the Marmorata^ On 
the smiling slopes of Monte Cavo Frederick re- 
peatedly erected his camp. His inquisitive glance 
detected two bronze statues, the figures of a man 
and of a cow, which served as the decorations of a 
well in the monastery. Both these antiquities, 
relics from ancient villas, he removed as spoils of 
war in order to embellish his Saracen colony of 
Luceria with Roman trophies.* 

1 Bull of Gregory IX., July 2, 1233, Lateran (Luddi, Ariccta, 
p. 423), mentions Locum Tumi, This still exists near Castell Romano 
on the road to Ardea. The Lib, Pont,, ** Vita SUv.," n. 30, already 
says that Constantine presented it to the church of Albano. — Duos 
sandalos, adpiscandum in Zmcu Folianensi, medietatem totius Stagni 
Hostiensis cum pisccUione et aucupatione annum — Piscariam ad 
capiendos sturiones in Flumine Tyberis secus Ripam Romeam, 

' In the summer of 1242, as Richard Sangermano, p. 1048, tells 
us: . . . Statuam hominis ceream, et vaccam aream similiter, Frederick 
II. was the first founder of collections of antiquities. 



Ch. VI.] 229 



CHAPTER VI. 

i. sinibald fleschi elected pope as innocent iv., 
1243 — Negotiations for Peace — The Pope comes 
TO Rome — ^Viterbo abandons the Emperor, who 

IS DRIVEN BACK FROM THE CiTY — AnIBALDI AND 

Napoleon Orsini, Senators— Preliminary Peace 
IN Rome — It is refused by the Emperor — 
Flight of the Pope to Genoa, 1244, 

The Emperor held Rome besieged for some weeks, 
until the cardinals besought him to put an end to 
his devastations, as they wished to proceed with the 
papal election. He had released Cardinal Oddo as 
early as August of the preceding year , in May he set 
free Jacopo of Praeneste, as well as several other 
prelates who had been imprisoned, and returned to 
the kingdom in the middle of June, in order to 
await the result of the election.^ The election, how- 
ever, we are led to believe, had already been arranged 
between him and the cardinals. The Cardinal of S. 
Lorenzo in Lucina was finally proclaimed Pope in innocent 
Anagni on June 25, 1243, Sinibald Fieschi belonged 1^3-^2sJ! 
to the Genoese house of the counts of Lavagna, who, 
invested with feudal titles by the Emperor, were re- 
garded as nobles of the empire. Although he had 

1 See the letter to the King of Fimnce. Bohmer-Ficker, 3366. 



230 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

failed to disting^uish himself in the political affairs of 
the Church, the new Pope was considered one of the 
first jurists of his time. The recollection of the un- 
fortunate battle at sea on May 3 was the true cause 
of the election of Innocent IV. — a Fieschi — to the 
Papacy. Amends were thus made to Genoa, while 
Innocent received a powerful support in the naval 
strength of his ancestral city. As cardinal he had 
been on friendly terms with Frederick, who had 
honoured in him a prelate disposed to reconciliation, 
and who therefore could hardly be suspicious of his 
elevation. The election was in every respect a 
master-stroke, and reflects great honour on the in- 
sight of the cardinals. If it be true that, on receiving 
the news of Sinibald's election, the Emperor ex- 
claimed, " I have lost a good friend among the 
cardinals, since no pope can be a Ghibelline," the 
words show that he rightly foresaw the future ; if a 
fabrication, they admirably serve to depict a his- 
torical fact.i 

Exhausted by his long military undertakings, 

Frederick was desirous of a reconciliation with the 

Church; more especially since his designs were 

The shattered by the firm demeanour of Rome. He 

congratu- hastened to congratulate the new Pope, and ex- 

Po%^^ pressed the hope that Innocent IV., his true friend, 

now his father, would adjust the tedious quarrel. 

He sent the Admiral Ansaldo da Mare, and his chief 

judges, Peter and Thaddaeus, to Anagni, while at the 

* Quia nulius Papa potest esse Gibellinus, Galvaneus Flamma, 
c 276. Innocent III. also might have said on the election of 
Otto IV. : Nulius Imperator potest esse Guel^. 



Ch. VI.] INNOCENT IV. RETURNS TO ROME. 23I 

same time he received envoys of peace from the 
Pope. 

After his consecration on June 28, Innocent IV. 
continued to remain in Anagni, since here he was 
close to the Emperor, with whom he was engaged in 
active negotiations. Not until the hot season was 
over did he come to Rome (on October 16, 1243), innocent 
where Matthew Rubeus still remained Senator.^ Rome, 
The Romans regarded the new Pope with curiosity ^^ 
and eager expectation. But he did not trust them, 
seeing that during the long vacancy of the sacred 
chair, and while Matthew Rubeus ruled the republic 
like a prince, they must necessarily have grown 
accustomed to independence; and scarcely had he 
entered the Lateran, when his repose was inter- 
rupted by the urgency of creditors, who demanded 
the payment of a loan of iforty thousand marks made 
to his predecessor. Swarms of Roman merchants 
filled the papal aula with shouts — a curious spectacle 
for the newly-entered Pope, who, knowing not how 
to escape from his creditors, was obliged to hide 
himself in his room until he had satisfied their 
demands.^ 

* Nicol. de Curbio, Vita Inn. IV., c. 7 : XVII. Kal. Nov. extern 
de Anagnia, Romam ivit — cum tripudii guadio est receptus XVII. 
Kal. Dec, The 15th December, which Cherrier also accepts as the date 
of the return, is incorrect. Innocent dates from the Lateran as early 
as October 20 (Elie Berger, Les Registres ct Innocent /F., Paris, 1881, 
i. 200). 

' Scene in the palace vividly described by NicoL de Curbio: 
nurcatores — procaciter mutuum repetebant^ atUam paiatii — infestis 
clamoribus — replentes — ipsum oportebai in camera latitare (c. 7). The 
Pope sought refuge in patientia, que optimum est genus vtncetuU^ as 
his biographer says like a genuine Italian. 



232 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Innocent had been specially summoned to Rome 
by an event which threatened to overthrow the 
negotiations for peace. After the year 1 240, the Em- 
peror had become master of Viterbo ; the burghers 
of this city, who, out of hatred to the Romans, 
had surrendered themselves into his hands, volun- 
tarily served in the two sieges of Rome, as, in- 
spired by a similar hatred, they had formerly served' 
under Barbarossa's banner. In July 1242 they had 
pushed to the immediate neighbourhood of the city, 
where they destroyed the fortress of Longhezza ; in 
June 1243 they again appeased their thirst for re- 
venge on the Campagna.^ The election of the Pope 
united the now exhausted Guelfs under a new head, 
who also inspired the adherents of the Church in 
Viterbo with fresh courage. Frederick had built 
an imperial palace in the town, which threatened 
the citizens with a permanent oppression. His 
captain, Simon, Count of Chieti, repressed the 
party which opposed him with severity and filled 
the dungeons with prisoners. The Viterbese con- 
sequently demanded the recall of the captain, while 
at the same time the leader of the Guelfs, Rainer, a 
member of the house of Gatti, silently collected con- 
spirators around him. He held negotiations with 
Rainer Capocci, the cardinal, who was legate in 
Tuscany, where Frederick had annexed all the 
papal property to the empire and placed it under 
the administration of Count Richard of Caserta. 

* Longhezza, on the Via Tiburtina, near the Anio, built on the 
ruins of Collatia, appears for the first time as castellum quod vocaiur 
Longheua anno 1074 in a bull of Gregory VII. Nibby, AnaUsi, 



Ch. VI.] THE EMPEROR BEFORE VITERBO. 233 

Viterbo, weary of the rule of the Emperor, raised Viterbo 
the Guelf cry : " The Church ! The Church! " in [S'S^ 
August 1243. The conspirators summoned Cardinal g^^^^, 
Rainer from Sutri and the Count Palatine William 1243. 
of Tuscany, and opened the gates to them on Sep- 
tember 9, when Count Simon was surrounded and 
besieged within the fortress of S* Lorenzo. Rainer, 
the same energetic cardinal who, with the Emperor 
a few years before, had defended Viterbo against the 
Romans, received the oath of homage in the name 
of the Church and concluded an alliance with the 
republic of Rome.^ 

Simon and his companions, besieged within the 
fortress, urgently appealed to Richard of Caserta 
and to Frederick himself for relief. The Emperor 
came promptly on October 8 and besieged the im- The 
portant town, where Count Simon was reduced tobefwe"" 
the last extremity. After some deliberation Inno-^^^^ 
cent IV. had approved of the rebellion in Viterbo ; 
he sent money to his enterprising cardinal, implored 
the Romans to go to the aid of the Viterbese, ex- 
horted the Viterbese to endurance, and collected 
troops.2 Thus, while negotiations for peace were 

' Tineosus, a knight of Viterbo, informed Frederick of the treason 
of the city in September (Hist, DipL^ vi. 125, which also gives other 
letters from the besi^ed). Petr. de Vin., ii. 55 ; Matt. Paris, 
p. 607 ; Rich. Sangerm., ad A, 1243 ; Nicol. de Curbio, c 8. 
Frederick's manifesto of 1244. A more detailed account is given by 
one of Rainer's household, Cod, Pa/at., 953, fol. 56. Frederick's 
adherents in Viterbo declared enemies of the Church by Rainer, 
September 15, 1243, Pinzi, i. 391. 

' The Pope's letter, Anagni, October 7 ; Raynald, n. 26, A. 1243 ; 
Potthast, 11,153 ; to the Viterbese, Lateran, October 22, Cod. Paiat,, 



234 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

still pending, the Pope already found himself again 
at war with the Emperor. The fact was that the 
recovery of a city was at stake, a city which lay 
within the boundaries — as recognised by treaty — 
of the State of the Church, and whose right to re- 
unite herself with the Church was uncontested. The 
Romans, formerly the fierce enemies, now the allies, 
of Viterbo, readily set forth in the hope of acquiring 
spoil, while the Emperor, strengthened by a re- 
inforcement of 6000 men, raised by Pandolf of 
Fasanella in Tuscany, energetically attacked the 
He rebellious city. The siege of Viterbo forms a 

VitSbo in memorable episode in the history of Rome in the 
vain, Middle Ages. A little Tuscan commune, defended 

by a mail-clad cardinal, covered itself, like Brescia, 
with military glory. The attack was repulsed, and 
an adroit sortie on November 10, when the besieging 
engines were burnt, involved Frederick himself in 
danger and forced him to leave the place. The 
great Emperor sullenly shut himself within his tent ; 
he acceded to the proposals which Cardinal Oddo — 
a man who had formerly been his prisoner and who 
while in custody had acquired his esteem — brought 
to his camp in the name of the Pope. He raised 
the siege. In conformity with the conditions. Count 
Simon was accorded a free retreat on November 13 ; 
but while in the act of withdrawal he and his ad- 
herents were faithlessly slaughtered. The amnesty 

953, fol. 33, in which he says, that he had moved the hearts o the 
Romans to come to their aid — et ut hoc cum celeritate provenicU 
campana capitolii sine remissione pulsatur. Help was coming from 
the Campagna. 



Ch. VI.] NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 235 

promised to the Ghibellines in Viterbo was not 
respected ; on the Emperor's retreat, the Romans, 
who remained in an equivocal attitude at Sutri, fell 
on Ronciglione, took the fortress of Vico, seized 
Count Pandolf and sent him a prisoner to Rome. 
The Emperor lamented the breach of the treaty, 
without being able to punish it^ His fortune 
changed before the walls of Viterbo. His in- 
glorious retreat into Pisan territory at the end ofandwith- 
the year diminished his prestige, and inclined other fh^^tjl^^™ 
cities to hoist the Guelf standard. 

The fall of Viterbo, a humiliation for Frederick, 
which, according to his own confession, "painfully 
touched his heart-strings," did not nevertheless 
disturb the progress of negotiations; on the con- 
trary, it was from regard for the peace that the 
Emperor had left the place. The Pope now treated 
him as a defeated man. The conditions which he 
imposed on the Emperor as the price of his absolu- 
tion were humiliating, and inflicted on him an 
unworthy and crushing penance, since they obliged 
him to lay down his arms in sight of the Lombards 
like a beaten man, even before he had himself ad- 
equately secured his rights and been released from 
the ban. He regarded the State of the Church, 
which he occupied and administered by means of 
vicars, as his own country by right of conquest, owing 



* His letter 01 complaint to the kings, of December (Petr. de Vin., 
ii. c 2), describes the treason of the Viterbese and the Romans ; and 
in his manifesto of 1244 he accuses the Pope of being accessory 
to it The Chronicle of Nicola della Tuccia is full of interesting 
details. 



236 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

to the war which Grregory IX. had provoked. The 
, empire had again annexed the estates formerly pre- 
sented to the Church, since the popes had only 
repaid these voluntary donations with ingratitude. 
He would nevertheless restore them again, and then 1 

hold them as fiefs for which the Church should pay ' 

him rent When Innocent IV. refused to invest the 
Emperor with the State of the Church itself, 
Frederick renounced his claim ; and merely desired 
to retain certain crown rights. In March 1244, after 
he had gone to Acquapendente, terms were agreed 
The upon in Rome, where the Emperor Baldwin of 

l^^^jjg Byzantium, who had come to implore protection, 
concfitions z«ilously exerted himself to effect peace. The im- 
poposed perial envoys submitted to highly unfavourable 
Po^^ terms; for they promised to restore the State of the 
March Church in its entirety; to recognise the spiritual 
power of the Pope over all princes, and to pardon all 
the papal adherents, although the date of the absolu- 
tion was not fixed. This absolution was desired 
above all things by Frederick ; the stiff-necked Pope 
had made it dependent on the fulfilment of these 
conditions. On March 31, 1244, the envoys Ray- . 

mond, Count of Toulouse, Peter de Vineis, and | 

Thaddeus of Suessa swore in the name of their j 

master to the preliminary peace in the Lateran, in ^ 

presence of the Emperor Baldwin, the . Senators 
Anibale degli Anibaldi and Napoleon Orsini, and of 
the Roman people. The result had been so little 
expected that the Pope caused the articles of the 
treaty to be immediately transcribed and publicly 
sold as pamphlets in the Lateran for six denarii, a 



1244. 



Ch. VI.] TERMS OF PEACE. 237 

proceeding which roused the Emperor's bitter indig- 
nation.* 

The sentence of the Church, and even the voice of 
the Englishman Matthew Paris (a historian certainly 
not favourable to the policy of the Papacy in his 
time), has declared that the Emperor immediately 
violated the treaty.^ The reproach, however, was 
unfounded. Frederick made a great mistake in 
submitting to conditions which he could not fulfil 
without renouncing the imperial dignity. When he 
saw that the Pope astutely strove to evade the 
definite meaning of indefinite articles (which could 
only serve as the basis of a formula to be exactly 
determined), he delayed the fulfilment of the treaty He violates 
and held the State of the Church as pledge. The**"^^*^* 
Pope did not seriously desire a peace ; he cherished 
but one thought, that of reducing his adversary to 
submission by a Council, which could not, however, 
be assembled in Italy. The chief obstacle to recon- 
ciliation still remained the relation of the empire to 
Lombardy, of which only indefinite mention respect- 
ing a proposed amnesty had been made in the 
articles. Frederick did not wish definitely to agree 
to the stipulated preliminary peace, which would 
have obliged him to surrender himself uncondition- 

^ Concerning the long negotiations from August 1243 onwards, see 
Mon, Genn,^ iv. 341-354. Nicholas de Curbio, c. la 

^ In his letter of April 30 the Pope says : nonpost multos dies elegit 
resilire potius quam parere^ adimplere quod sibi mandauimus^ 
renuendo, — Matt Paris, p. 427: a forma jurata resilwit, Raumer 
and Huillard give their opinion concerning his right, and Ficker in 
Bohmer's Reg,^ p. 604, says that the absence of the necessary desire 
for peace cannot be laid to the Emperor's charge. 



238 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ally to the Pope and the Lombards. He would not 
release the Lombard prisoners until the cities had 
taken the oath of homage and had renounced the 
treaty of Constance. He demanded absolution from 
the ban, and the Pope refused to accord it, until the 
last fortress had been surrendered to the State of 
the Church and until the league of Lombard cities 
was included in the peace. 

Rome itself afforded him ground for suspicion. 
Although the Emperor had announced that he would 
leave the settlement of the dispute with the Romans 
to the Pope, he was known to be in correspondence 
with the GhibelUnes in the city and was accused of 
secretly inciting them to revolt.^ He tried to estab- 
lish a footing in Rome and to gain possession of the 
Frangipani fortress in the Colosseum. At Acqua- 
pendente in April 1244 he persuaded the Lateran 
Count Palatine Henry Frangipane and his son 
Jacopo to cede him the half of the amphitheatre 
with the adjoining palace by deed of exchange. 
The Pope, however, forthwith pronounced the agree- 
ment null and void, since the rights which the 
Frangipani possessed over the Colosseum, and 
which had been mortgaged to them by the Roman 
Anibaldo, were held in fief from the Church.^ At 

* See a dissuasive letter to Frederick from a cardinal. (Hist DipL, 
p. 184) : vi. p. 186, Frederick's letter to the Pope, in which he 
refutes the accusation. Cardinal Colonna, the friend of the Emperor, 
died in Rome in 1244. Obiit vas superbia et onmis contumdia. 
Qui inter omnes Card, in possessionib, sacularib, daruit potentissimus : 
unde efficaciss, discordia inter Imp, et Papam semincUor, exstitit. 
Matt. Paris, p. 614, 

' Brief, Lateran, April 16, 1244, to H. Frangipani and his son 



Ch. VI.] NEGOTIATIONS. 239 

the same time, he compelled the Prefect to acknow- 
ledge the papal investiture. For the Emperor had 
also prevailed on this official to receive investiture at The 
his hands, and had thus attempted to make the city tetc^the 
prefecture once more a fief of the empire ; while he jJJJ^^Jl^^"^ 
refused to acknowledge the right, acquired by Prefect of 
Innocent III. for the Church, of appointing the**^*^' 
Prefect of the city.^ In every way the Pope de- 
manded Frederick's entire renunciation of the right 
of the empire, and return to the principles enunciated 
at Neuss and Eger. If Innocent IV. did not trust 
his rival, the Emperor on his side regarded the Pope 
with no less suspicion. Meanwhile he made him 
fresh offers and invited him to an interview at Narni. 
The Pope ostensibly gave him a hearing; but he 
had long previously been occupied with a subtle 
scheme. On May 28 he appointed ten new car- 
dinals to strengthen the sacred college, and on 
June 7 went to the strongly fortified town of Civita 
Castellana. Here he continued the n^otiations, 
appointing Cardinal Oddo of Portus his pleni- 

Jacopo : medietatem Colisei cum pulcUio exteriori et adjacente et 
omnibus juribus ad ipsam med, pertinentibuSy AnibcUdo civi Rom, 
titulo pignoris obligata^ qua ad E, R, tenebant in feudum — Hist, 
ZHpl.f vi. 187 ; Potthast, 11,335. Innocent revoked the concession 
made by the Frangipani to the Emperor on April 19, 1244. E. Berger, 
Les Registr, cCInnoc, IV, , i, 620. 

* Petrus alme urbis pref,^ comes Anguillaria — signs (at Acqua- 
pendente, March 1244) a diploma as a courtier of the Emperor 
{Hist, Dipl,, vi. 166). It consequently follows that his predecessor 
John (probably his brother) was dead. In his manifesto Frederick 
charges the Pope: procuravit — quaiiter terra quam tenemus — ante 
pacis advenium averteretur a nobis — recipiens prefectum et quosdam 
sequaces suos cum terris eorum^ qui omni temp, imperii fuii et digni- 
tatem ab eo recepitf et de quo nunq, qtuestio fuit per EccL nobis relata. 



240 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

potentiaiy on June 9. But privately he sent letters 
to Philip Vicedomini, Podest^ of Genoa. He re- 
innocent mained nineteen days at Civita Castellana.^ While 
Civita he exchanged embassies with the Emperor, a 
CasteUana. Qenoese fleet, accompanied by three Fieschi, cousins 
of the Pope, set sail and came to anchor off" Civita 
Vecchia on June 27. At Sutri, whither he had gone 
the same day, Innocent learnt both of the arrival of 
the vessels and of the approach of three hundred 
cavalry, an unfounded report, which had been in- 
He flies vented on purpose. On the night of June 28 flight 
June 1244. was resolved upon. Innocent IV. again became 
Count Sinibald. He donned his weapons, mounted 
his horse, and, accompanied by some faithful ad- 
herents (among whom was Nicholas de Curbio, his 
biographer) and by Cardinal William Fieschi and 
several other relatives, pursued his way like a knight 
over pathless country until he reached Civita 
Vecchia and the Genoese fleet in the morning. 
The next day five more cardinals, who had been 
unable to keep pace with their active master, also 
arrived at the port,^ Seven others fled in disguise to 
Genoa by land. Innocent left three more behind : 
he appointed Cardinal Stephen of S. Maria in Tras- 
tevere his vicar in Rome. Rainer remained legate 

^ He thence dated a bull as early as June 9 (E. Berger, i. 736) ; on 
June 21 a privilegium for S, Pa$uraiio in comitatu Rosellano dioc, 
Grossetu This bull, signed by twelve cardinals, is preserved in the 
State Archives of Naples, Bullarvum^ vol. ii. 

* NichoL de Curbio, c. 13. The Pope left everyone behind : per 
devia et abrupta numtium^ (zc nemora Ma nocte laborans, — Veterem 
induit Senebaldum^ et leviter armatus equum ascendit velocissimum^ 
manu nan vacua^ thus Matt. Paris, p. 431* 



Ch. VI.] FLIGHT OF THE POPE. . 24I 

in Tuscany, Spoleto, and the Marches, and Richard 
of S. Angelo rector of the Campagna and Maritima. 
On June 29, the festival of the Prince of the 
Apostles, he sailed from Civita Vecchia. The same 
day Frederick's envoys, the Emperor Baldwin, the 
Count of Toulouse, and the chief justices Peter and 
Thaddeus, brought the acceptance of the proposals 
of the Curia to Civita Castellana, where they learnt 
of the Pope's flight.^ The voyage of the fugitive 
was rendered anxious by storms and dread of the 
imperial admiral, Ansaldo da Mare, who cruised in 
these waters ; and had accident brought him across 
the Genoese fleet, the scene of May 3 would have 
been repeated on a larger scale. The papal party 
were obliged to seek refuge on the island of Capraja, 
off Corsica. On July 4 they were forced to land at 
Porto Venere to allow the exhausted Pope to rest, 
after which the vessels of the republic, adorned with 
flags and purple hangings, happily reached their port h\$ entry 
on July 7. The Genoese received their compatriot j^y^"°^' 
Fieschi, the Pope who had escaped from the toils of 1241. 
his great enemy, with the ringing of bells and with 
solemn choruses, and the cardinals, intoxicated with 
joy, sang as they stepped ashore the verse of the 
psalmist, " Our soul is escaped as a bird the snare 
of the fowler, the net is broken and we are free." 

* Bohmer-Ficker, 3432 a. 



VOT.. V. 



242 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. 



2. Innocent assembles a Council at Lyons, 1245 — 
Deposition of the Emperor — Consequences of 
THE Sentence — Frederick's Appeal to the 
Princes of Europe — Counter Manifesto of 
the Pope — Public Opinion in Europe — The 
Emperor's wishes — Innocent IV. resolves on 
War to the Death against the House of 
hohenstaufen. 

The flight of the Pope was a master-stroke, by 
which the action of the great drama was diverted in 
his favour. Frederick was represented as a perse- 
cutor. Innocent as a martyr, while at the same time 
the fortunate audacity of the Pope caused him to 
appear a man of energy. The act made a profound 
impression on the world and diminished Frederick's 
prestige more than the loss of important battles 
would have done. The dismayed Emperor sent the 
Count of Toulouse to Genoa to invite the fugitive 
Frederick to return and make peace : in a lengthy manifesto 
manifesto, he represented to mankind the events which had 
taken place, and the negotiations between Innocent 
and himself up to the moment of the Pope's flight ;^ 
he saw himself again at war with the Church, and in 
a worse position than before. Innocent now filled 
the place of Gregory IX., a dishonest and cunning 
enemy, the place of a vehement but honest one. 
Innocent remained three months in the monastery 

* Peter de Vineis, i. c. 3 ; HisU Dipl,^ vi. 205 f. The Emperor 
was still at Temi on July 7 ; he then went to Pisa and was still there 
on August 27. 



Ch. VI.] COUNCIL OF LYONS. 243 

of S. Andrea near Genoa, then went to France to 
seek an asylum like his predecessors. On December 
2, after suffering tedious hardships, he reached Lyons. 
This flourishing city, under the authority of the 
empire it is true, but still a free commune, offered 
him adequate security. The happiness of affording 
shelter to the Roman Curia was undoubtedly a 
costly and dubious privilege. Innocent, who desired 
to obtain a reception in the dominions of a powerful 
monarch, received polite intimations from England, 
Aragon, and even France, begging him to spare them 
the honour. He therefore remained at Lyons. On 
January 3, 1245, he convoked a Council, to which he The 
invited the Emperor, although not in legal form. o^Lywis, 

Only 140 prelates, the greater number from France ^^s- 
and already benighted Spain, as even Frederick's 
accusers themselves admitted, scarcely any from 
Germany, assembled at Lyons in June. This 
Council, representing as it did only the Neo-Latin 
peoples, could scarcely be called oecumenical. It 
was opened on June 26. The celebrated jurist, 
Thaddaeus of Suessa, defended his sovereign with 
dignity and eloquence. He demanded a respite, 
which was conceded, but was too short. The Emperor, 
who was at Verona, sent fresh messengers, but their 
arrival was not awaited. On July 17 the excom- 
munication was again pronounced, and the great The 
Emperor was declared deposed. The sentence was ^ dq^l^d 
hurriedly read to the astounded assembly in the ^t the 

Council on 

presence of the Pope, and the trial altogether lacked July 17, 
the legal form of citation, the establishment of the '^^' 
charge by evidence, and an adequate opportunity 



244 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

for defence. The advocate of the Emperor, who had 
already appealed to the future Pope and to a general 
Council of kings, princes, and prelates, hearing the 
calamitous sentence, beat his breast in despair; he 
protested and departed.^ 

The decree of Lyons was one of the most ominous 
events of universal history; its fatal effects over- 
threw the ancient German empire; while at the 
same time the Church was struck to the heart by the 
thunderbolt she herself had hurled. The deposition 
of the Emperor now produced a rival monarchy, 
without Frederick II. being able to make war on 
the Papacy as Henry IV. and his successors had 
formerly done with the weapon of the schism. 
The question was no longer one of supplanting an 
ecclesiastical pope by means of an imperial pope, 
but rather that of repressing in the Pope the spiritual 
authority which, increased beyond bounds, had 
destroyed the balance of power, and of delivering 
the secular authority from his despotism. 
Frederick Frederick summoned all the princes of Europe to 
the^^cM his aid. His memorable manifesto ran as follows : — 
of Europe, u ^gjj ^o whom the misfortunes of others served as a 
salutary warning were called fortunate by the ancients. 
The predecessor prepares the fortunes of the successor, 
and as the seal stamps its impress on the wax, so 

^ Hist. DipL^ vi 318; Matt. Paris, p. 451 : senteniiam—in plena 
ConciiiOt non sine omnium audientium — horrore terribiliterftUguravit^ 
and Paris shows himself hostile to Frederick after the death of 
Gr^ory IX. Worthy of note are the instructions for the College of 
Cardinals in Hofler, Albert von Beham's notebook, n. 4 and 5, where 
also are given Frederick's letters of complaint and the defence of 
Innocent IV. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK'S MANIFESTO. 245 

does example stamp the moral life. Would that 
other injured princes had placed such a necessary 
example before me as I, your Christian King, be- 
queath to you. Those who now call themselves 
priests oppress the sons of those fathers on whose 
alms they fattened. They themselves, the sons of 
our subjects, forget what their fathers are, and as 
soon as they have attained the apostolic dignity, 
honour neither Emperor nor King. Innocent's 
pretensions bear witness to this. After having 
convoked what he calls a general council, without 
any citation, without any proof of guilt, he has 
presumed to declare me deposed, and has thereby 
committed an immeasurable offence against all kings. 
What can you as individual kings not expect from 
the audacity of this prince-priest, when he, who 
possesses no judicial authority over me in temporal 
matters, ventures to depose me; me, who by the 
solemn election of princes, and with the consent of 
the entire (and then upright) Church, have been 
crowned with the imperial diadem. But I am not 
the first, nor shall I be the last, whom the abuse ot 
the sacerdotal power seeks to hurl from the throne. 
And you are participators in the guilt, because you 
obey that hypocrite, whose thirst for power all the 
waters of Jordan could not wash away. If your 
credulous simplicity were not ensnared by the 
hypocrisy of these Scribes and Pharisees, you would 
recognise and shun the hideous vices of the Curia — 
vices of which a sense of shame forbids us to speak. 
They extort, as you well know, great revenues from 
several kingdoms. This is the source of their insane 



246 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

arrogance. They beg among you, you Christians, in 
order that heretics may revel among them, and you 
pull down the houses of your friends in order to 
build cities to the enemy. Do not believe, however, 
that the sentence of the Pope can bend my lofty 
spirit My conscience is clean ; God is with me. I 
call him to witness : it has always been my desire to 
lead back the priests of every class, especially those 
in high position, to the apostolic life, to the humility 
of our Lord, and to the system of the pure primitive 
Church. For at that time the clergy were accustomed 
to look upward to the angels, were distinguished by 
miracles, by healing the sick, by restoring the dead, 
and by reducing princes and kings to submission, 
not by power of arms, but by a holy life. But these 
priests who serve the world, who are intoxicated with 
sensuality, despise God, because their religion has 
been drowned in the deluge of wealth. To deprive 
such men of their pernicious possessions, to remove 
the burthen of their condemnation, is in truth a work 
of love, and to this end we and all other powers 
should diligently lay our hand, in order that the 
clergy should be deprived of all superfluity and, 
content with modest possessions, should conform to 
the service of God." 

The grave accusations of the Emperor were 

* Sane redditus coptosi, quibus ex plurium depauperatione regnorum 
ditaniur — ipsos faciutU insanire — Semper fuit nostre voluntatis 
tntentiOt clericos — ad Ulum statum reducere — quotes fuerunt in ecctesia 
primitivay apostolicam vitam ducentes, , . . Ifist, Dipt,, yi. 291, 
February 1246. See also Frederick's letter to the English nobles, 
Etsicaussa nostra^ Turin, July 31, 1245 (Peter de Vineis, i. c. 3, and 
Matt Paris, p. 722). 



ch.vi.] innocent's reply. 247 

answered by the Pope with the most extravagant 
theories in support of his authority to judge emperors 
and kings. For this was the essence of the papal 
scheme — to establish once for all, as an incontro- 
vertible right, the doctrine of the Church, which 
earlier events had already shown to be practicable, 
namely, that the pope had received authority from 
Christ to judge kings. Innocent IV. consequently Reply of 
maintained that the pope was legate-general ofiv?^lSd 
Christ, who had entrusted him with full powers to ^f^^^ 
act as judge over the earth ; that Constantine had power, 
ceded the illegitimate tyranny of the empire to the 
Church, that he had then only received the legal 
authority back in fief, that both swords belonged to 
the Church, which consigned the temporal to be 
used in her service to the Emperor on his coronation. 
He asserted that, according to ancient usage, the 
Emperor should render the oaih of subjection to the 
Pope, from whom, as his over lord, he received title 
and crown. " The Emperor," he wrote, " reviles the 
Church because the miraculous powers of primitive 
times are no longer conspicuous, because, according 
to the prophecies of David, her seed is mighty on 
the earth, and her priests distinguished by honours 
and wealth. We ourselves prefer poverty in the 
spirit, which it is difficult to preserve in the super- 
abundance of wealth ; but we protest that not the 
use, but the abuse, of wealth is sinful."^ This letter 

^ J. Christus — in Ap, Sede nen solum ponHficaUm sed et regaUm 
constituit monarchicmiy b, Petro e^usq, successorib. terrerU simul ac 
celestis imp. commissis habenis. The popes even believed that they 
were judges over the angels, in accordance with the saying of Paul : 



248 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

is the most important document of the views of the 

mediaeval priesthood concerning the papal office. 

Innocent IV. therewith openly did away with the 

balance of spiritual and secular authority, and point 

blank demanded the union of the two powers for 

the sacred chair. Had the kings of Europe now 

made Frederick's cause their own, they would not 

later have had to fight for centuries against principles 

so exorbitant and so fatal to all liberty. 

Con- The spiritual life of the West at this period was 

sode^^t divided between monasticism and chivalry, between 

si^denUy feudal despotism and servitude, between credulous 

advanced ^ 

to receive fanaticism and heretical freethought, between the 
GWbeiiine active labour of the citizen and silent intellectual 
^^P^^°^ research ; innumerable tendencies, rights, privileges, 
* states within the state, broke it up, as it were, into 
various castes. Monarchy, which united and created 
nationalities, had not developed beyond its first 
beginnings. In the confused web of hostile party 
aims, national impulses, civic individualities and 
feudal lordships, the Church stood as a firm, many- 
sided, but infinitely simple system, embracing all 
Christian peoples in her uniform hierarchy, her 
dogmas and canon laws, with Rome for her centre 
and the Pope for her uncontested head. The 
Church, the imperium of souls, assumed the place 
of the empire. Kings and countries were tributary 

an nesdtiSf qttod angelos judicabimus, (In the same letter) — 
{Romanor, princeps) Romano pont., a quo imp. honorem et diadema 
consequitur^ fidelitatis et subjectionis vinculo se astringit, Hofler, 
Albert von Beham^ n. 8 ; the letter Agnisponsa (Hofler, Friedrich II. ^ 
p. 413), in which Innocent tries to defend the Church from the 
reproach of wealth, is so wordy, that I do not believe it genuine. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK II. AND HIS TIME. 249 

to the Pope. His tribunal, as also his customs house, 
stood in every province, and the collective episcopacy 
recognised his supremacy. The very princes to 
whom Frederick II. had appealed against the attacks 
of the priesthood on the civil power, were appealed 
to by the Pope to place themselves under the 
banner of the Church, which defended the liberty of 
kings and nations against the tyrannical aims of the 
Hohenstaufens ; and the world consoled itself for 
the abuse of the papal power with the thought, that 
she at least found therein a tribunal to which 
emperors and kings were responsible. The world 
acknowledged this juridical authority in the Pope ; 
it merely sympathised with Frederick's complaints 
concerning the avarice of the clergy, which drained 
its wealth. These complaints were not new. All 
contemporaries, bishops, princes, historians, poets 
are full of them.^ The Roman Curia required money 
for its increased wants, and the Pope required it to 
carry on his wars. Christian countries were con- 
sequently laid under contributions to provide funds 

^ Walter von der Vogelweide scourges these vices in several of his 
poems. One of his songs anticipates Dante's celebrated invective, 
A hi CostantinOy di quanta null fu nuUre, . . . He says of the 
priests : — 

Bethink ye that of old they received alms for God's sake ; then did 
the King Constantine first give to them possessions. 

Had he known of the evil that should come therefrom, right well had 
he provided against the kingdom's trouble. 

But then they were still chaste men, and not filled with arrogance. 

— Song 10 ; Simrock's edition. 

Equally violent are the invectives of the troubadours ; Brinckmeier, 
Rugelieder dtr Troubadours ge%en Rom und die Hierarckie, Halle, 
1846. 



250 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. «. 

National for the Church. The English would have revolted 

fa^E^Sid against the Pope, had they found any support in 

■"*^.™5J|^ their feeble king.^ Frederick's summons evoked a 

power still louder echo in France, where several barons 

priesOiood. formed a league of defence against the attacks of 

the clei^ on their secular rights. The foremost 

nobles, among them the Duke of Burgundy and the 

Count of Bretagne, declared in the articles of the 

league that the realm of France "had not been 

constituted by written right, nor by the usurpations 

of the clergy, but by military power ; that they, the 

nobles of the country, took back the jurisdiction of 

which they had been deprived, and that the clergy, 

grown rich through avarice, should return to the 

poverty of the primitive Church." * 

Frederick's voice consequently found an echo in 
Europe ; the spirit of independence stirred in secular 

^ They addressed a letter of complaint to the CotmciL Mansi, 
xxiii. 639. Matt. Paris places the following shameless words in the 
mouth of the Pope : hartus noster delitiarum est Anglia : Vere ptUeus 
inexkaustus . , , de multis multa possunt extorqueri (p. 473, edit. 
Wats), "The popes," says lingard, Hist, of Engl, ^ ii. 414, "from 
the time of the Crusades required a tenth from the clergy ; it was 
soon discovered that every war undertaken by the popes was of a 
religious nature. The mendicant monks, equipped with the terriUe 
non obstetnte, — a formula against which no right could prevail, — 
oppressed religious institutions and convents as collectors of taxes." 
Meiner's Historische Vergleichung^ ii. 615. 

' Ut sic jurisdictio nostra resuscitata respiret^ et ipsi hactenus ex 
nostra depauperaiione ditati — reducantur ad statum EccL primitive. 
Matt. Paris, p. 719. The chronicler notes the accordance between 
these tenets and Frederick's letter. Documents of November 1246 
of this league (which was soon suppressed by the Pope) in Hist, Dipl,^ 
vi. 467. Even Henry III. limited the spiritual tribunal for laymen 
to some canonical instances. Matt. Paris, p. 727, ad A, \2.^*l<. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK II. AND HIS TIME. 2$ I 

society in revolt against the preponderating power 
of the clergy, who had fallen away from evangeli- 
cal teachings. But these movements remained 
isolated. To deprive the Pope of the supreme juris- 
diction over princes, and to lead the Church back to 
her non-political origin by the secularisation of her 
property, were the reforms which the great Emperor Frederick 
desired, but to which he was unable to give more scklme of 
than verbal expression. He did not overstep the'«f°""- 
principles, which had already been more seriously 
discussed and more strongly expressed in the time 
of Arnold of Brescia, or during the war of Investi- 
tures, than during his own time. Frederick fought 
until his death s^ainst the Papacy, which his 
guardian. Innocent III., had recreated ; but all his 
attacks were invariably concerned with the political 
power which had been usurped, never with the 
ecclesiastical authority of the pontiff.^ No Caro- 
lingian, Saxon, or Frankish emperor would have 
granted the Pope so much as Frederick II. was 
obliged to g^ant, after the principles of Gregory VII. 
had been approved by the world, after he himself 
had abandoned the concordat of investiture of 
Calixtus, had recognised the deposition of Otto IV. 
by the Pope, and had made use of this deposition as 
a step to his own throne. Facts were against him, 
and deprived his theory — namely, that popes pos- 

* This is his confession of feith : Etsi nos nostra catholica fidei 
debito suggerente manifestissime fateamur collatam a Domino S. Rom. 
Sedis Antistiti plenar. in omnib, poiesfatem, ut quod in terra ligaverii^ 
sit ligcUum in calis^ et qtiod solverit sit solutum : nusquam verum^ 
tanten legitur^ divina sidi vet humana lege concessum, quod transferre 
pro libitopossit imperia. Letter Etsi caussa ura of Jnly 31, 1245. 



252 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

sessed no jurisdiction over kings — of all effect In 
his struggle with the Papacy he remained weak and 
SoUtary Unsupported, because he acted in the name of an 
5fu,e°" already abstract and therefore unpractical idea, in 
SwT^' ^^^ name of the empire or of the secular authority 
struggle in general, not of an actual state and of a nation 
papal * offended in its own rights. No advantage bound 
power. kings to the empire; they followed their separate 
interests, and, like bishops, still feared excommuni- 
cation and deposition. In vain the quick-sighted 
Emperor told them that his cause was also theirs. 
That a pious man — a man, however, who showed a 
resolute front to the Church — occupied the throne of 
France, that a faint-hearted prince sat on the throne 
of England, were facts of inestimable advantage to 
the Pope. Henry III., who violated the Magna 
Charta, needed the help of the Pope against his 
barons ; nor did he support his brother-in-law against 
the very Roman hierarchy which had made his own 
kingdom into a fief of the Church. Lewis of France, 
on whom Frederick had conferred the office of arbi- 
trator, rested satisfied with futile negotiations and 
avoided entangling his flourishing French dominions, 
now developing into a monarchy, in the affairs of 
the empire. Germany, tired of the Italian wars, 
which it determined no longer to regard as of 
imperial interest, at first courageously resisted the 
artifices of Rome ; then it split into parties, put for- 
ward rival kings and began to desert the great 
Emperor, while he involved himself in the labyrinth 
of Italian politics, and wasted the energies of his 
mind in a country which was too small for his genius. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK II. AND HIS TIME. 253 

The voice of evangelical heretics, valueless at the 
time, alone was raised in his defence.^ 

Reconciliation became impossible when, after the implacable 
sentence of Lyons, the Church passed from a passive innocent 
state to one of vehement attack. The Pope firmly J^ar^js 
protested that he would never make peace with, the Hohen- 
would never tolerate Frederick or his sons, " the race. 
brood of vipers," on the throne.^ That which Inno- 
cent III. had previously contemplated. Innocent IV. 
resolved to accomplish at any price ; to depose the 
Hohenstaufens for ever, to raise in their stead an 
emperor, who, as a papal creature, would renounce 
all claims on the State of the Church and Italy. 

He prosecuted the war with every reprehensible 
means that the selfishness of secular princes was 
accustomed to employ : by the fanatical persecution 
of Frederick's adherents in every country, as far as 
the power of the Church reached ; by encouraging 
revolt, by suborning the subjects of the Emperor to 
acts of treason, by the wily intrigues of legates and 
agents, who, in search for a rival king, incited bishops 
and princes to rebellion, and even attempted to 
seduce Conrad, the Emperor's own son, from his 
allegiance.* Swarms of mendicant monks roused 

* Albert Stadensis, Ckron., A. 1248. The heretic preachers 
demonstrated from the Scriptures that the apostolic authority of the 
popes was usurped. 

^ Absit ut in populo christiano sceptrum regimints ulterius manea 
apt*d ilium vel in vipeream ejus propaginem transferatur. Hofler, 
Friedrich II,, p. 383. Similarly to the people of Strassburg, 
January 28, 1247. 

' In seven years, sa)rs his biographer (c. 29), Innocent IV. spent 
200,000 marks in Italy and Germany. 



254 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the popular mind to fanaticism, and the people 
calmly saw their wealth flow into the coffers of Rome, 
while remission of sins, on account of the holy- 
Crusade, was dealt out to all who took up arms 
against their lord. The vow of the Crusade was 
exchanged for the duty of making war on the 
Emperor. Gregory IX. had already openly branded 
him as a heretic ; the reproach of being an enemy to 
the Christian faith formed a powerful weapon in the 
hands of the priests. His Saracen surroundings, his 
clear-sighted intellect afforded occasion to the most 
He causes venomous charges of malignity. The Crusade was 
Cnisade preached against Frederick, as against an infidel, in 
^^Mched ^v^O^ country, and a German prince, Henry Raspe, 
against the Landgrave of Thuringia, who set himself up as rival 
mperor. j^.^^ .^ ^j^^ spring of 1 246, did not blush to summon 
the Milanese to arms against Frederick, as the "enemy 
of the Crucified."^ The Emperor fully recognised 
that, in his continued war against the Papacy, he 
would meet the same end as his predecessors in the 
empire. He longed for reconciliation with the 
Church, even under humiliating conditions ; he laid 
his profession of the Catholic faith in the hands of 

^ May 1246, HisU DipL^ vi 431. The annals of a Gennan 
convent, S. George in the Black Forest, naively place together the 
following entries : A, 1240. Tarn juvenes qtuttn senes crucesignaii 
stmt contra Tartaros, A. 1246. Adulti signati sunt cruce contra 
Fridericum Imp, {Mon, Germ.^ xviii.). The money collected for the 
deliverance of Jerusalem was officially devoted by the Pope to the 
Crusade against Frederick. Bulls, in Cherrier, iii. 520. Christian 
burial was refused to the Emperor's adherents. On May 6, 1247, the 
Pope gave the Bishop of Constance permission to bury ten of 
Frederick's followers, on condition that their heirs indemnified the 
Church. E. Berger, 2612. 



Ch. VI.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST FREDERICK. 255 

some bishops. They brought it in writing to the 
Pope. The Pope rejected it, resolved on the over- 
throw of Frederick and his family, and himself com- 
pelled the Emperor to continue the war.^ 



3. Conspiracy of Sicilian Barons against the Em- 
peror, AND its Suppression — Frederick's good 
Fortune in War — Viterbo and Florence fall 
into his Hands — State of Affairs at Rome — ^The 
Senator writes exhorting the Pope to return 
— The Pope bestows Taranto in fief on the 
Frangipani — The Emperor determines to 
advance against Lyons — Defection of Parma; 
Misfortunes of the Emperor — Enzio taken 
Prisoner by the Bolognese — Fall of Peter de 
ViNEis — Death of Frederick II., 1250 — His 
Figure in History. 

Italy remained essentially the stage of this war of 
annihilation ; it was only with Italian forces that the 
Emperor was enabled to continue the struggle. The 
terrible Ezzelino, degenerated into a ruthless tyrant, 
Manfred Margrave Lancia, and Obert Palavicini 
stood at the head of the Ghibellines, while King 
Enzio, the representative of the Emperor, and 
Frederick's other bastard son, Frederick of Antioch, 
were his vicars in Tuscany and the Maritima. 
Meanwhile the letters of the Pope, exhorting the 
people of Italy to rebellion, took effect, not in Sicily 
alone, but even at the imperial court. Innocent 
hoped by means of a conspiracy of venal barons to 

^ Concerning the profession of fJEUth, see HisU Dipl,^ vi. 426. 



256 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

deprive the Emperor of the basis of his power in 
Italy, and to make himself master of the Hohen- 
staufen inheritance, to which he sent the Cardinals 
of S. Maria in Cosmedin and in Trastevere as 
legates.^ There were a great number of malcontents 
in Sicily. The cJergy rendered subject to the laws 
of the state and severely persecuted; the feudal 
nobility, deprived of the privileges of the higher juris- 
diction ; the burgher class, exhausted by taxation 
— ^all these offered material for revolt, which was 
zealously stirred by the agents of the Pope, the 
wandering mendicant monks. But the monarchic 
power, which Frederick had founded in his kingdom, 
showed itself sufficiently strong ; the populace and 
the cities, indemnified for the loss of their liberties 
by many wise laws protecting them from the barons, 
The Pope did not rise against their master. The conspiracy 
conspiracy remained restricted to the nobility, who allowed 
Sfc o/th?^ themselves to be gained over by estates and honours. 
Emperor, For a formal transference of property took place; 
^^ ' estates were taken from the adherents of the Emperor 
and given to those of the Pope. Theobald Francesco, 
hitherto Podesti of Parma, Pandolf Fasanella, 
Captain for the Emperor in Tuscany, the lords of 
Sanseverino, of Morra and Cicala, formed with the 
papal legate a plan of conspiracy, which aimed at the 
life of the Emperor. But Frederick discovered the 
plot while encamped at Grosseto in March 1246. 
Pandolf and other fugitive conspirators found a 
temporary reception in Rome, and the Emperor, 
filled with indignation in consequence, wrote a letter 
» E. Berger, 1973 f., 1979 f. 



Ch. VI.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE EMPEROR. 257 

to the Senate and people.^ The Pope himself 
zealously furthered the conspiracy, and, in the hope 
of recovering lost privileges, incited the Sicilians, in 
the language of a demagogue, to rise against the 
"second Nero," to break their chains and to re- 
gain the blessings of freedom and peace. We still 
read his unscrupulous letters to these traitors, 
" the illustrious sons of the Church, whom God had 
illumined with the light of his countenance."^ 

The Emperor, following on the heels of the rebels, 
who had fled to Apulia, crushed them in their 
fortresses of Scala and Capaccio in July 1246; then 
he returned to the North in order to prosecute his 
intention of tracking the enemy to Lyons itself. 
Fortune now seemed sufficiently propitious. His 
captains were victorious in Tuscany and Umbria ; victories 
Marinus of Eboli had overcome Cardinal Rainerg^^oj 
Capocci and the Guelf league of the people of^^e 
Perugia and Assisi; Camerino returned to the lines, 
imperial rule, and Pisa and Siena fought on 
Frederick's side against the Guelf cities.* In Roman 

^ Letter, Ignominiosa vulgaris^ Goldast, Const. ^ iii. 394; Peter de 
Vin., ill. c. 18. Pandolf da Fascianello was still captain-general in 
Tuscany on May 4, 1244 (Archives of Siena, n. 393). He and others 
escaped, and were treated with distinction by the Pope. Cherrier, 
iii. 179, 514. On March 14, 1247, Innocent bestowed on Yam propter 
fidelit, erga Rom, EccL the castrum Gifonis in the diocese of Salerno, 
and other estates upon his brothers. E. Beiger, 2895 f. Property 
bestowed on the Frandsci and other Guelfs, ibtd,^ 2898 f. 

^ To Theobald Frandscus and his fellow-conspirators, Raynald, A. 
1246, n. 14; to all the Sicilians (April 26, 1246), n. 11. Frederick 
was accused of a plot against the life of the Pope ; he refuted the 
charge with dignity. 

> With regard to Frederick's Rpgesta^ I note a letter (which is not 
VOL. V. R 



258 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. zx. 

territory Cometo had not only been crushed by the 
imprisonment and execution of several of her citizens 
in 1245, but Viterbo had also been reduced by famine 
to abandon the cause of the Pope, and to surrender 
to Frederick of Antioch in 1247.^ The same son of 
the Emperor even entered Florence, where the in- 
habitants banished the Guelfs, and transferred the 
signory of the city to him. Frederick thus became 
master of almost the whole of Tuscany. 

The city of Rome remained abandoned to herself. 

Chroniclers are silent respecting her condition during 

the absence of the Pope, and even the names of the 

ruling Senators are doubtful.* That the Guelf party 

still remained in power is shown by the letter of a 

The Senator, who as urgently invited the Pope to return 

in^^e ^ ^^ Romans invited his successors a hundred 

^^o years later, when these pontiffs made their dwelling 

at Avignon. Rome, the head of the world, is already 

represented in these letters as deprived of her head, 

since she is left without her shepherd, and is depicted 

given in Huillard) to the people of Siena, dot, Alifie XXVI. Madii 
IV, Ind, 1246, which says that the Sienese could allow the troops, 
requisitioned by Frederick of Antioch (the son of the Emperor, and his 
vicar-general in Tuscany and the Maritima) for his army against 
Perugia, to depart. CaUffo Vecchio, fol. 250. 

^ On May 9 the Emperor had already issued a decree of pardon for 
Viterbo. Bohmer-Ficker, 3603 ; then an amnesty for the same city 
from his camp before Parma in August 1247, ibid,y 3641. 

* The Capitoline Register notes, A. 1246, Petr. de Frangipanibus, 
A. 1247, Bobofil, Johis Bobonis, A. 1247, Petr, Caffarus Prosenator, 
A. 1248, Petr, Anibaldi et Angelus McUebranca; upon what grounds, 
I do not know. In an undated letter of the Pope, senatori et pop, 
RomanOf the Romans are summoned to rise against Frederick : £. 
Berger, 1977. On October 11, 1246, Innocent orders his vicar in 
Rome to have the Crusade preached against Frederick ; ib,^ 2945. 



CH.VI.] CONDITIONS IN ROME. 259 

as a mourning widow. The Pope is reminded of the 
l^end of Peter, who, flying from Rome, meets the 
Saviour and asks him, ** Domine quo vadis?" He 
receives the answer, " I go to Rome to be crucified 
for the second time " ; on which the abashed apostle 
immediately turns back.^ The long absence of 
Innocent IV. caused the Romans to fear that the 
Pope would permanently establish his throne in 
France, and that Rome, " the eyebrow of the world, 
the tribunal of justice, the seat of holiness, the throne 
of glory," might then be deprived of her honour, or 
of her only source of well-being. The letter of the 
unknown Senator was a foreshadowing of Avignon. 
Innocent IV., however, could not obey the summons 
of the Romans, since his return would have frustrated 
both the object and the effect of his flight. While He gains 
drawing the adherents of the Emperor to his side, he h^Sn ©f 
sought on the contrary to strengthen his party in ^Z"^' 
Rome. He won over the Frangipani, hitherto the 
heads of the Ghibellines, by the recognition of their 
rights to the principality of Taranto, which had 
formerly been promised by the Empress Constance 
to Otto Frangipane, but had been gfiven by Frederick 
II. to his son Manfred. Innocent gave it in fief to 
the Count Palatine Henry Frangipane, to whom he 
at the same time presented the revenues of the 

^ Sanct, patri . . • Senator . . . ceterutn in vestra remotione 
elandestina^ urbe repudiata^ primo eUgisHs Januam^ post Lugdunum 

ut sic Romcata novo confusa obproprio funditus desolata sedeat 

civitas expers papct — quasi vidua domina urbium. The letter belongs 
to the year 1246, as is evident from the statement that the absence of 
the Pope had already lasted a biennium. In Hofler, from the note- 
book of Albert von Beham, n. 47. 



260 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Judicatus of Arborea in Sardinia. Thus this Roman 
family renounced the Hohenstaufens and became 
the avowed enemies of the heirs of Frederick II.* 
The Emperor harassed Rome no further, the object 
of his hatred being no longer within the city : he 
even strove to show the Romans that he made war 
not on them, but on the Pope.* 

Once more powerful in Italy, he determined to 
march through Savoy to Lyons, to prove his right in 
the sight of the enemy before the world. Had he 
actually advanced at the head of victorious troops, 
had he again assembled Grermany (where Henry 
Raspe, the rival king, vanquished by Conrad, had 
died of his wounds on February 17, 1247) under his 
banner, the war would have attained new and greater 
proportions. This bold enterprise, which would 
necessarily have become of epoch-making importance, 
was never undertaken. The defection of a hitherto 
loyal city compelled the Emperor, to his misfortune, 
to turn back at the foot of the Alps of Savoy, and 
kept him far from Germany, the natural base of his 

^ The papal investiture, Lyons, May 29 (1249). Cherrier, ii. 380. 
But the privilegium of Constance was never produced, not even when 
Innocent III. promised Taranto to the Count of Brienne. The 
investiture of Arborea, which must equally have involved the Frangi- 
pani in enmity with the heirs of the house of Hohenstaufen, is dated 
June 4, 1249, idid., v. 380, 391. 

« The letter of Walter of Ocra to the King of England, of September 
1246, says : Imp» omnibus ordinatus et cum Romanis et Venetisjam 
bona pace firmata. Hist, DipL^ vi. 437. After the Emperor was 
deposed, the prelates sent a long letter to Rome to exhort the city to 
fidelity. Inclite almeque urbi Romane Cetus amicorum ejus et Christi 
fidelium congregeUio . . • Corona sapientie timere deum, . . . Cod. 
V^*i 7957» fol. 24 a« 



Ch. VI.] DEFECTION OF PARMA, 261 

power. The resistance of the cities was invincible ; 
each of them a walled fortress, each an autonomous 
city filled with valorous citizens. The terrible nature 
of the civil war shattered the power of the Emperor ; 
did some cities fall, others arose, and even the fidelity 
of friendly communes was insecure, since the hostile 
party might rise like a hurricane in the night and 
plant their banner over the city gates. The war 
waged by the Emperor against these fickle, valiant, 
and heroic communes was consequently the arduous 
labour of a Sisyphus — a terrible monotony of per- 
petual marches, sieges, devastations of fields, and 
horrors of every description. We of the present time 
can scarcely understand how either the patience of 
these gifted rulers, or the means of the industrious 
burghers, could support the strain of this perpetual 
condition of affairs. On June 16, 1247, Parma fell Panna 
by a bold stroke into the power of her exiled citizens, JS^^^*** 
the Rossi, cousins of Pope Innocent. The Emperor, SjJ^*^' 
who was at Turin, immediately turned and marched ia47« 
against the town, the siege of which he began on July 
2. The war centred round Parma, for into that 
place Gregory of Montelongo, a relative of Innocent 
III., and legate of the Pope, a priest no less skilled 
in the arts of war than in those of diplomacy, had 
thrown himself with a large number of troops 
belonging to Guelf cities and princes. The 
Emperor's judgment was obscured, or he would not 
have resolved on the siege of a single city, in which 
the time, energy, and activity requisite for larger 
enterprises were wasted. Nevertheless the conquest 
of Parma, where the chief power of the enemy was 



262 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

collected under the most distinguished heads, would 
have been a great victory in Italy. 
FY«ierick Frederick spent the autumn and winter before 
tesieges Parma, dwelling in the town which he had built 
P*"'^ within his camp, and which, confident of success, he 
had called Vittoria. Reduced by their terrible hard- 
ships to despair, the besieged made a sortie while 
the Emperor was absent on a hunting expedition. 
Vittoria fell a victim to the flames on February i8, 
1248 ; thousands covered the field ; among the slain 
was Thaddeus of Suessa, a brave warrior and a great 
statesman, formerly the eloquent advocate of his 
master in Lyons, and now, in his glorious death as a 
valiant soldier, to be deemed happier than Peter de 
Vineis. Thousands suffered imprisonment at the 
The people hands of the citizens ; the spoils of the camp were 
destroy immense ; the imperial crown itself fell into the 
onS"^ clutches of the enemy ; a goblin-like creature of the 
Emperor, rabble wore it through the town amid the rejoicings 
ij^s/ ' of the populace. Such is the fate of all majesty on 
earth. Its purple sinks in the end to be the cover- 
ing of the fool ! The day of Parma was a second 
Legnano for the Guelf cities. It was celebrated in 
song. But Frederick's star had set/ 

He came to Cremona a fugitive ; there he collected 
his army, and breathing vengeance returned to the 
neighbourhood of Parma. The Guelf cities, however, 
made resistance. One stroke of misfortune followed 
another. Frederick's favourite son, Enzio, the flower 

* Salimbene (p. 80). The Pope at Lyons congratulated the 
people of Parma: Baumgartner's Book of Formula^ edited by H. 
B^Lrwald, p. 169. 



Ch. VI.] FALL OF PETER DE VINEIS. 263 

of chivalry, fell into the hands of the Bolognese at Kinij 
Fossalta on May 26, 1249. The triumphant victors taken 
carried the precious spoil of war within the walls of g^^*' 
their city, and replied to both the entreaties and the ^^°^®^» 
threats of the Emperor with the defiance of citizens, 1349. ' 
whose haughty language furnishes the most striking 
testimony to the strong spirit that animated the 
republicans of the age. Enzio's royal youth was 
buried in an imprisonment of two and twenty years, 
from which he was only released by death.^ 

The best of Frederick's sons was a captive, his 
most faithful councillor was slain, he was robbed of 
his most gifted minister and friend, either by this 
minister's fault or by his own suspicion — the gloomy 
companion of a vanishing fortune and a tottering 
rule. The fall of Peter de Vineis, the celebrated '^^c faU 
burgher of Capua, who, through his genius, rose from de Vineis. 
the dust to become the foremost statesman of the 
age, fell like a shadow across the life of the great 
Emperor, in the same way that the death of Boethius 
overshadowed the life of Theodoric the Great. The 
two German kings resembled one another in the last 
stage of their career, as also in the rapid and tragic 
extinction of their race. History has explained 
neither the guilt, the manner of death, nor the precise 

* Letter of the Bolognese, Huillard, HisL Dipl,^ vi. 738. Filippo 
Ugoni was their podest^ The Archives of the Palazzo Nuovo at 
£ol(^n^a still contain some time-stained registers, in which the 
prisoners are enumerated. On the reverse of one leaf: de Palatio 
ncvo communis Bon : dm Hentius Rex sive henricusfiL d, Friderici 
ohm ImpercUoris, — Relaxatus est: D, Marinus de Hebulo. d. Comes 
Conradus, d, Attolinus cCLandido, d, baxius cPDoaria {sunt qmnque), 
(Miscell.t n. 5 n. 36.) 



264 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

date of the fall of Peter, to whom Dante half a 
century later made an atonement in immortal verse.* 
The Emperor returned from Tuscany to Apulia in 
May 1249, and never left South Italy again. To his 
misfortune circumstances, which he could not over- 
come, chained him to the country, where his great 
struggle could no longer be brought to a decision. 
If we may assert that Frederick II. was not defeated, 
that he maintained his power even to the last, not 
only in his own kingdom, but also in the greater part 
of Italy, we must nevertheless admit that he lost his 
influence in international aflairs, and that he was left 
in Italy forsaken and alone. True, that the Pope in 
Lyons feared a revulsion of feeling in Frederick's 
favour, since, after the recovery of Ravenna, the 
Emperor had again become sovereign of the Marches, 
while the Lombard cities, harassed by the tyranny 
of Palavicini and Ezzelino, were reduced to utter 
exhaustion. At the same time, unless the Emperor 
could bring the German nation into the field, and 
could form an alliance with all the influences adverse 
to the Papacy in England and France, the defeat of 
the Roman Church remained impossible. Frederick 
II., unconquered but with the object of his active life 
Death of still unattained, died, after a short illness, in his 

Frederick ' ' ' 

II., Dec. 

19, 1250, ^ In January 1249 Peter was still protonotary in Pavia. According 

to the Annals ofPiacenza Frederick had him arrested at Cremona, then 
brought to Borgo S. Donnino, and in March 1249 ^o S. Miniato, where, 
deprived of his sight, suam vitamfinvvit. That he committed suicide 
in Pisa, however, seems certain. The researches of De Blasiis {della 
vita e delle opere di Pietro della Vigna^ Naples, 1861) and Huillard's 
VU et Correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne^ Paris, 1865, have not 
succeeded in throwing any clearer light upon the subject. 



Ch. VI.] DEATH OF FREDERICK 11. 265 

castle at Fiorentino near Luceria on December 19, 
1250.^ 

If the account of ancient chroniclers be true, the 
great enemy of the popes departed with a philo- 
sophic word on the nothingness of all earthly power, 
with the Christian hope of eternal life, clothed in the 
habit of the Cistercian, and absolved by his faithful 
friend, Berard, Archbishop of Palermo. We are 
glad to accept the story, because it is in harmony 
with human nature. The deathbed of Otto IV. was 
surrounded by monks, who, at his own entreaties, 
scourged him until he bled, and beside Napoleon's 
dying couch stood an obscure priest, who gave him 
the communion.2 The hero of his century, whose 
genius had filled his contemporaries with admiration, 
died after long efforts to deliver the world from the 
yoke of the priesthood, died, like the majority of the 
great men of his time, uncomprehended, abandoned, 
and in tragic loneliness. The heir to his crown was 
far away in Germany, fighting the usurper, William 
of Holland : beside his deathbed stood Manfred, 

* Usque ad tUtitnum fati sui diem gloriosus^ et per totum Orbem 
Terrarum admirabiliter vixit^ et qui omnib, fuerat insuperabiiis^ 
solius mortis legi succubuit ; thus the Ghibelline Nicol. de Jamsilla, 
Hist, de reb, gest, Frid, II, y Murat., viii. 496. 

^ Obiit — principum mundi maximus Fridericus stupor quoque 
mundi et immutator mirdbHis^ absolutus a sententia qua innodabatur^ 
assumptOy ut dicitur, habitu Cisterciensium^ et mirifice compunctus et 
humiliatus. Matt. Paris, p. S04. Manfred wrote to Conrad that the 
Emperor {in corde contrite vehUfidei orthodoxy zelator) had commanded 
all injuries inflicted on the Church to be repaired (Baluze, i. 476). His 
will {Mon, Germ,y iv. 357), indeed, ordered that this should be done : 
salvo jure et honor e Imperii . , . et ipsa restituat jura imperii: 
Chron,, Franc. Pipini, lib. ii c. 41. 



266 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

his bastard son, in whose arms he expired, and the 
faithful Archbishop Berard. His castle was de- 
fended by his Saracen guards. His coffin was 
carried to Taranto, and thence by sea, first to Mes- 
sina, afterwards to Palermo, where in the cathedral 
the dead Emperor still sleeps in his porphyry sar- 
cophagus. 

The passions stirred by Frederick's violent contest 
with the Papacy may still be traced in the opinions 
of the world of the present day. There is still a 
Guelf and a Ghibelline view of his conduct, for the 
two parties still survive under other forms, and will 
survive as long as the principle of their opposition 
endures. The lowest conception of Frederick's 
character is that of the ecclesiastical faction of his 
own time. It is intelligible that Innocent IV. only 
perceived an Antichrist, a Pharaoh and a Nero in 
his great opponent ; for the evangelical ideal of the 
Church had long been corrupted, and when priests 
speak of the Church, the hierarchy or the Papacy 
may alone be understood. It is, however, surprising 
that the judgment of sacerdotal hatred of long past 
days should have found an echo among historians 
of present times.^ The view of the thinker is modi- 
fied by a calm survey of the system of the universe, 
the rival principles of which (whatever be the party 
names they may assume) take shape, in the realm of 
the ideas, as the forces and instruments of the 

* Thus Bohmer's judgment of Frederick is prejudiced and unjust, 
as is admitted even by J. Ficker, who has completed the Regesta of 
the empire of the later Hohenstaufen period compiled by Bohmer 
(Innsbriick, 1881). See his pre&ice to this new edition. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 267 

sovereign reason which informs the world The 
long series of popes (some of them great men) who, 
invested by the faith of mankind with religious 
power, have courageously fought for the deliverance 
of the Church from political law, presents as admir- 
able a spectacle as the series of illustrious emperors, 
the benefactors of mankind, who, endowed by the 
same belief with the majesty of civil power, defended 
the liberty of the spirit of the 2^e against the de- 
generate Church. Innocent IV. summed up in him- 
self the series of these popes and the results which 
they achieved; Frederick II. the series of the 
emperors and the results attained by them. The 
mediaeval world, according to their ideal, was a 
cosmic system, the continuity and unity, and indeed 
the philosophic idea of which compels our admira- 
tion at this day ; since mankind has never been able 
to replace this outworn system by another equally 
harmonious. This mediaeval world was, as it were, 
a perfect sphere, with two poles, emperor and pope. 
The guiding principles of humanity, embodied in 
these universal figures, will ever remain a marvel- 
lous creation of history, one which can never be 
repeated. They were, as it were, two Demiurges, 
two spirits of light and power, placed in the world, 
each to rule his sphere ; creations of that idea of the 
universal Roman empire and the universal Christian 
religion which still lived on as the central idea of 
civilisation, but obscured by the atmosphere of 
mortal necessity. The one represented the civic, 
the other the spiritual order, one the earth, the other 
heaven; and hence arose this Titanic war of the 



268 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



[Bk 



Middle Ages, which filled and connected centuries, 
and formed the greatest spectacle of all ages. 
Frederick II. was its last hero; with all his faults 
and virtues, the most complete and gifted character 
of his century, and the representative of its culture. 

Frederick has nevertheless been placed too far in 
advance of his century, in that he has been credited 
with the scheme of wishing to destroy the existing 
constitution of the Church, and ot uniting the royal 
and sacerdotal powers in himself as a pope-emperor.^ 
A Church without a pope was utterly foreign to the 
political ideas of the age. The conception of the 
two lights of the world remained a recognised 
symbol, and no emperor ever cherished the thought 
of destroying the Papacy, nor any pope that of 
annihilating the empire. They recognised each 
other as the highest spiritual and the highest tem- 
poral authorities, but made war on one another for 
the extension of their power.^ Frederick, the dread 
enemy of the political degeneracy of the Papacy, 
cherished religious convictions as sincerely Catholic 
as those professed by the Ghlbelline Dante. He 
did not combat the apostolic power in the Pope, 
but he summoned the princes to "help us manfully 
in the war against the wicked priests, that we may 

^ The assertion of Huillard, which attributes such a scheme to 
Frederick, is untenable. The meritorious French scholar repeats his 
opinion in his Vie et Corresp. de Pierre de la Vigne^ Paris, 1865. 

* Frederick as little denied the Papacy as did Philip of France, 
who considered Saladin fortunate, because for him there was no 
pope. He thus wrote to Vatazes, his son-in-law, in 1247 : felix 
Asia^ o felices orientalium potestaies qtus^adinventiones potUificum 
noH verentur. Hist, DipL^ vi. 686. 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 269 

break their arrogance, and may give more worthy 
directors to our mother the Church; for thus it 
behoves our imperial office, and it is our sincere 
desire to reform the Church to the honour of God." * 
The word " Reformation " here appears in the mouth 
of Frederick II. By that, however, he only under- 
stood the emancipation of crown law from canon 
law, the separation of the temporal from the spiritual 
power, the restriction of the priesthood to the 
apostolic office, the secularisation of the Church 
according to the ideas of Arnold of Brescia, which 
were recognised by the Ghibellines, and the restora- 
tion of the royal right of investiture, such as had 
been accomplished in Sicily.* Mankind was still 
far removed from the Confessions of Augsburg and 
Worms : a long intellectual progress along the paths 
of scholastic and classic learning was to be made 
before Germany reached this point. The severance 
of Germany from the Roman Church was accom- 
plished by the Reformation. But the movement 
did not take place at any given time. Its develop- 
ment, like a continuous chain of causes, reaches 
back to the Gospel, and the long series • of emperors, 
who carried on the war for the investiture and for 

^ Ad honor, divinum in melius reformetnus, Hofler, p. 424. The 
tenns reformare and reformatio ^ to alter conditions by means of law, 
were at that time customary in all republics. 

' Towards the end of 1246 he wrote to King Lewis : nos—firma 
concepimus voluntate temporalia jura et dignitates nostras invioiabUiter 
eonservaref et nihihm, S. Rom, Eccl, ad honor, dei et cathoUce Jidei in 
spiritualibus revereri, — Quod si ad id voHs equalib, — intendamus^ 
communem causam nostr, et omnium principum adeo favorahiiem 
faciemuSf quod in nullo jura nostra diminui poterunt, sed augeri. 
Hist, Dipt,, vL 473. 



270 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the empire against the supremacy of Rome, was 
the direct historic presupposition of the Grerman 
Reformation. In Frederick II/s wars against the 
exorbitant demands of the Papacy many new seeds 
of the Reformation were scattered over Europe; 

Frederick II., the conservative representative of 
the ancient imperial principle and at the same time 
an innovator, here shows himself in advance of his 
age and there belies it Can we wonder that he still 
believed in the ideal of the Roman imperium, when, 
a century later, that imperium appeared to the 
noblest minds in Italy as the still-surviving and 
legitimate ancient empire of the Romans, as the 
uninterrupted system of the world, and as the central 
conception of all human civilisation ? For this was 
still the error (an error of genius) of Dante and 
Petrarch. A sublime tradition, handed down through 
centuries, a theocratic theory of the constitution of 
the universe and of the unity of the human race, 
in which the Germans, who dissolved the Roman 
empire, gave expression to their want of a legal form, 
that should comprehend civil life and religious unity, 
a great ideal of civilisation, a cosmopolitan concep- 
tion which was never realised, ruled the entire 
Middle Ages with the tenacity of a dogma. And 
this idea continued to survive when the Latin and 
German nations, who had shared between them the 
two representatives of the world, — emperor and 
pope, — ^had, through a long process of development, 
acquired their own political forms, laws, nationalities, 
. and national languages. At the time of Frederick 
II. the Latin race had entirely assimilated the 



Ch. VI.] FREDERICK'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 27 1 

German elements and represented south of the Alps 
a new, peculiar nation — the Italian. This nation 
had become emancipated from the ancient prepon- 
derance of German feudalism, having rejuvenated 
itself in its communal constitution and in its Roman 
law. The democratic national spirit, with which the 
Church formed an alliance, protested in consequence 
not only against the restoration of the German 
feudal principle in Italy, through Henry VI., but 
also against the new monarchical principle of Fred- 
erick II. And the programme of the Ghibellines, 
the political legitimists of the time, which proposed 
to bestow on Italy the doubtful benefit of monarchic 
unity at the hands of a foreign emperor and at the 
cost of national independence and civiq liberty, was 
no more justifiable than the fierce thirst for freedom 
of the Guelfs, who only from necessity and advan- 
tage sought support from the Pope, the natural 
enemy of the monarchical principle in Italy. 

Frederick II. closed the epoch of the ancient 
German empire, which had outlived itself on both 
sides of the Alps, and had left the Church and the 
Guelf party in possession of the victory and the 
future. He closed the empire, however, in a new 
form, namely, as the first actual monarch, the founder 
of a political principle of centralised government, 
the first prince who gave his people a r^^lar code 
of laws, who began the war of the monarchy against 
feudalism, and who summoned the third estate to a 
seat in parliament. It was in his hereditary king- 
dom of Sicily that he made experiment of his 
principles, according to which feudal as well as 



272 



ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



democratic inequalities were to be abolishec 
monarchy. The age laid hold of these mc 
tendencies, and slowly developed the moder 
Following these new ways in the old strugf 
the papal hierarchy, it thus happened that, fif 
after Frederick II., the French monarchy vi 
by the power of political right, and throi 
principle of national independence and w 
consent of the united barons, actually to o\ 
the Papacy as constituted by Innocent a 
papal authority of the Middle Ages. 



4. The Sons of Frederick II. — Conrad I 
TURN of the Pope to Italy — State of 
IN the Peninsula — Manfred's Position a 
OF Conrad — Conrad IV. comes to Ita] 
takes Possession of the Kingdom — Innoc 
OFFERS Investiture with the Kingdom ] 
Charles of Anjou, then to an English 
— The Senator Brancaleone forces hu 
to make his Residence in Rome, 1253- 
Edmund receives Sicily in Fief from ti 
— Tragic Death of Conrad IV., 1254. 

As the great Emperor, who for forty ye; 
riveted the attention of Europe, lay in his 
the struggle of the empire with the Church a] 
to be decided in favour of the latter, and 
period of unlimited supremacy seemed t 
dawned for the popes. 

Innocent's satisfaction was consequently 
gible, but so unpriestly and unbounded, as 



Ch. VI.] THE SONS OF FREDERICK II. 273 

vent in coarse rejoicings.^ Fortune seemed to offer 
him the supremacy of the sacred chair over Italy, 
and whether this ancient problem was to be solved 
in favour of the popes, was now, if ever, to be proved. 
Of the sons born to Frederick in wedlock with 
Constance of Aragon, lolantha of Jerusalem, and 
Isabella of England, King Conrad, the son ofconrad 
lolantha (now twenty-two years of age), and Henry, Jfe iSre^f 
the son pf Isabella (aged twelve), alone survived, i^erick 
Of his three illegitimate sons, Enzio languished in 
prison at Bologna, Frederick of Antioch, banished 
from Florence, was in Central Italy, and Manfred 
in Apulia.^ In conformity with his will, Conrad 
IV., elected King in Germany in 1237, was heir to 
all his father's crowns, and Manfred, Prince of 
Taranto, was to govern the Italian provinces and 
Sicily as his representative. 

Innocent IV. hastened to wrest Apulia and Sicily, 
which he regarded as ecclesiastical fiefs that had 
now reverted to the Church, from Frederick's heirs. 
He exhorted the Sicilians to return to the rule of the 
Church, which offered them privileges, the Germans 
to remain faithful to King William, to whom he 
offered the imperial crown, while he caused the 
Crusade to be everywhere preached against the 

^ Laetenttir Ccdi^ et exuUet terra ... to the Sicilians, Lyons, 
January 25, 1251 (Raynald, n. iii). Compare this with Frederick's 
noble words, when informing the kings of die death of Gregory IX. : 
de cujus morte multa compassione conducimur, ut licet digno contra 
eum odio mcveremur {Hist, DipL^ v. 1 166). 

^ The eldest son Henry, the rebel, died in prison at Martoranum 
in 1242 ; the third son, Jordan (bom of his marriage with Isabella), 
died as a child at Ravenna in 1236. 

VOL. V. S 



274 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

innocent Conrad. The Guelf cities summoned him 

Innocent to Italy ; he quitted Lyons, where William the rival 

Lycms,^** king had celebrated Easter in his company, on April 

^^'^ 19, 1251.^ The luxurious commercial city saw the 

papal Curia depart after a six years' sojourn, and 

little dreamed that fifty years later a pope would 

again appear there for his coronation, and that the 

Papacy would then make its residence for seventy 

years on the same banks of the Rhone.2 

Innocent advanced through Marseilles along the 

Riviera to Genoa. The fugitive of 1244 reappeared 

in his native city, surrounded with splendour, the 

Is received victor of the empire. The burghers of Guelf cities 

Sraiph streamed to meet him along his slow progress 

in Italy, through Lombardy ; fifteen thousand monks and 

priests received him with rejoicings outside Milan, 

while ten miles from the city an innumerable crowd, 

^ ^ranged along the road, formed a triumphal way 

for the papal procession. The Guelf republics did 
homage to Innocent IV. as Pope ; they demanded, 
however, large sums of money, as indemnification 
for the costs of war, refused to surrender the former 
estates of the Church, and showed that they were 

^ On April 17, 1251, King William issued at Lyons a privilegiom 
for Perugia, which he confirmed in possession of Castiglione Chiusino. 
On the same day he ratified the rights of Perugia over Citti della 
Plebe. Archives of Perugia, B. B. Carie^ sac, xiv. , Appendix, n. 2. 

" The indecent language, which Matt. Paris puts into the mouth of 
Cardinal Hugo as a farewell to Lyons, is significant of the time. 
Amiciy magnamftcimusy postquam in hanc urbem venimuSy utUitaUm 
ei elemosynam. Quando enim pritno hue venimusy tria vtl quaiuor 
prostibula invenimus. Sed nunc recedentes unum solum relinquimus ; 
verum ipsum durat corUinuaium cd> oricntcUi porta civitatis usque ad 
occidentalem (p. 809). 



Ch. VI.] INNOCENT RETURNS TO ITALY. 275 

unwilling to exchange the imperial yoke for the rule 
of the Church. They had made use of her war with 
the empire, in order, with the help of their great 
ally, to become independent of the Emperor. The 
Church found that they now also wished to become 
independent of the Pope. The Ghibelline cities and 
nobles on their side were only temporarily depressed 
by the change of circumstances ; the Emperor was 
dead, but the imperial principle survived, and was 
held upright by the powerful leaders, Palavicini and 
Ezzelino. The spirit of freedom, which the Hohen- 
staufen emperors had awakened in their wars, stood 
firm in its own behalf. The Pope beheld another 
Italy than the Italy he had left, and everywhere 
recognised that the great object of Hildebrand and 
Innocent III., that of bringing the peninsula under 

the pastoral staff of S. Peter, was unattainable. , 

He journeyed in the summer by Brescia, Mantua, 
and Ferrara to Bologna, where from his prison the 
unfortunate Enzio heard the shouts of rejoicing that 
greeted the entry of the hated rival of his great 
father. Innocent went on to Perugia in the be- 
ginning of November, but dared not venture to 
Rome. Although a Senator had urgently invited 
him to return, he dreaded the fierce defiance of the 
Romans, who after the death of the Emperor had 
but little reason for remaining Guelf. The Pope 
was given to understand that they would surround 
him with extravagant demands as soon as he ven- 
tured to show himself in the Lateran. He resolved He makes 
to make his abode in Perugia.^ ^Pot^^. 

^ Matt Paris, p. S09. Nicholas de Curbio, c. 30^ accurately 
describes the entire joomey of the Pope. 



276 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. IX. 

Meanwhile the young Prince of Taranto found a 
burthen laid upon him too heavy for him to bear. 
Manfred Lancia, bom in 1232, was the son of 
Frederick by Bianca Lancia, a beautiful and noble 
woman of Piedmontese family.^ His contemporaries 
called him bastard, as in fact he was, for the belief 
that Frederick had bestowed the sanction of the law 
on his connection with Manfred's mother is based 
on but slender evidence. As early as 1248 the 
Emperor had given him as wife Beatrix, the 
widowed Margravine of Saluzzo, a daughter of 
Count Amadeus of Savoy ; and Frederick's will, 
which does not mention his other bastard sons, 
Enzio and Frederick of Antioch, shows that he 
recognised Bianca's child as his heir after his l^iti- 
Manfred, mate offspring. Nature had endowed Manfred with 
Taraato. intellect and beauty, the most careful education 
with grace of manners and with learning; all con- 
temporaries depict him as a splendid specimen of 
manhood, magnanimous, liberal, lively, a musician, a 
troubadour, and a born king. He soon made his 
name celebrated throughout the world. The Pope 
deceived himself if he hoped that after Frederick's 
death the cities of Apulia and Sicily would immedi- 
ately erect the standard of S. Peter. The spell of 
the name and of the power of the great Emperor 
did not die with him. Only some barons of the 
cities, among them Capua and Naples (on which 
latter the Pope had bestowed liberal charters), de- 

^ A descendant of the Lancia in Sicily compiled the genealogical 
tree of his house : Dei Lancia di Brolo^ Albero Gmealogico e Biografity 
Palermo, 1879. 



Ch. VI.] CONRAD IV. IN VERONA. 277 

clared themselves in favour of the Church. In his 
first embarrassment Manfred sent overtures of peace 
to Innocent; but the vicar of Conrad IV. was 
obliged to decline the offer of unconditional sub- 
mission in return for investiture with Taranto as a 
fief of the Church.^ He reduced the rebels in Apulia 
by adroit and rapid marches, rallied the German 
mercenaries round him, won respect by chivalrous 
deeds of arms, and soon appeared in a threatening 
attitude before Naples. 

After the Emperor's death Manfred had sum- 
moned his brother Conrad to cross the Alps and 
take possession of his hereditary kingdom of Sicily. 
The young King of the Romans was true to the 
political ideas of his ancestors and accepted Man- 
fred's invitation ; he collected an army, held a 
parliament at Augsburg, appointed Otto, Duke of 
Bavaria, whose daughter Elizabeth he had married, 
as his vicar, and in October 1251 arrived in Lom- 
bardy, where Ezzelino and other Ghibellines re- 
ceived him with honour in Verona. Here and at Conrad 
Goito he reviewed the Ghibelline power, which was v<i<ma, 
still considerable ; then he resolved to go to Apulia ^^ '*5x« 
to secure his hereditary dominions and thence to 
return to North Italy.^ The league of Romagnoli, 
Umbrian and Tuscan cities, barred his way by land, 



1 We see the conditions under which the Frangipani received the 
fief. It was only when Manfred refused to submit to the conditions 
imposed by the Pope that Innocent, on January 21, 1252, at 
Perugia, again bestowed Taranto in fief on Henry Frangipane. 

* For the first appearance of Conrad IV., see F. Schirnnacher, Die 
ktttm Hohmstaufm^ Gottingen, 1871, p. 19. 



2/8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

and Rome did not seem inclined to recognise or 
support the son of Frederick 11.^ 

Conrad took ship at Pola, where the Maigrave 
Bertold of Hohenburg awaited him with Sicilian 
galleys. He landed at Siponto on January 8, 1252, 
and his appearance produced an immediate effect 
on barons and cities. The jealousy which had 
seized Conrad was disarmed by the prudent de- 
meanour of Manfred, who after having opened to 
Conrad the way to Naples, surrendered the govern- 
ment of the kingdom and even his own fiefs into 
his brother's hands. Conrad IV.'s career in Apulia 
was brief and glorious. After he had vainly offered 
the Pope the most favourable conditions of peace as 
the price of his recognition or of receiving the in- 
vestiture of Sicily, he manftilly defended his rights 
His with the sword. He marched through Apulia and 

^^^ Campania ; the barons did homage to him ; Capua 
in Apuha, opened her gates at the end of the year 1252, and in 
the following spring all the cities awarded him re- 
cognition with the exception of Naples, to which he 
energetically laid siege. 

The success of Frederick's sons now obliged Inno- 
cent to resume a plan which he had already con- 
ceived in Lyons. Aware that the Church was of itself 
unable to wrest Sicily from the Hohenstaufens, he 
resolved to transfer the beautiful kihgdom as a fief 
to a foreign prince. Such a step was humiliating 
to the Papacy and utterly fatal to Italy. Casting 

^ Cnrtius quotes two letters of Conrad to the Romans ; the second 
{Ardens semper) belongs, however, to Frederick II. (Peter de Vin., 
iii. 72), as probably also the first {Romanus honor). 



Ch. VI.] INNOCENT IV. AND SICILY. 279 

his eyes over various countries in the hope of finding 
a pretender and sufficient means, he offered the 
Sicilian crown to Charles of Anjou, brother to the 
King of France. The French nobles, however, and 
Blanche, the queen-mother, who administered the 
affairs of the country during Lewis's absence in 
Syria, declined the offer. Innocent now turned to innocent 
England. Richard of Cornwall, a man of immense the ^^ 
wealth, however, refused the proposal, but dazzled °^^<^y 
the imagination of his brother King Henry by Prince of 
suggesting as candidate Edmund of Lancaster, the ****"* 
king's second son, and a child of eight. Henry HI. 
was but momentarily troubled by the thought that 
he would thus deprive his own nephew, the son of 
Frederick H. and Isabella, of Sicily, of which the 
youthful Henry was royal vicar.^ 

It was necessary that Innocent IV. should hasten 
to oppose Conrad by a powerful adversary. For 
Conrad entered Naples as a conqueror on October conrad 
10, 1253. The news of its fall had already reached ^^pi^*^" 
the Pope in Rome, whither he had come from Assisi Oct 1253. 
in the beginning of the month. The discontented 
Romans had already frequently demanded his 
return. They had just forbidden the commune of 
Perugia, their /r^/4f'^, to detain the Pope any longer, 
and had then threatened the citizens of Assisi that 
they would go with an army to fetch him from 

^ Offer of the Pope to Charles of Anjou, June 12, 1253, Assisi : 
Dum adversitates : Raynald, n. 2, 3, 4. The offer to Richard seems 
to have been already made at Lyons (Lappenbeig and P&uli, Gesck, 
V, £ngi,f iii. 694). It was formally made from Perugia on August 3, 
1252 (Rymer, Fadera^ fol. 284) ; then again on January 28, 1253 
(foL 288). The concession to Edmund, March 6, 1254 (foL 297). 



28o ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

within its walls. ** He must," they defiantly cried, 

** come now or never." ^ " We are astonished," said 

one of their envoys to the Pope, ** that thou wander- 

est like a vagabond now here, now there, that thou 

^ desertest Rome, the seat of the Apostle, that thou 

hast abandoned thy flock, for which thou wilt one 

day have to render an account to God, to the 

mercies of the wolf, and thinkest of nothing but 

acquiring wealth. The Pope does not belong to 

Anagni or Lyons, not to Perugia or Assisi, but to 

Rome." The powerful Brancaleone of Andal6, who 

then held the office of Senator, dictated the speech 

The to the Romans. Innocent came in fear and hesi- 

^^A tation; the Romans received him coldly, their 

iv^^ito '^^ demonstrations of joy being made at order of the 

return to Senate.^ Brancaleone met the Pope outside the 

Oct^x2S3. city and accompanied him to the Lateran, but of 

any triumphant reception, such as had awaited him 

at Milan and at other cities, there was no question 

whatever. Thus the Curia returned to Rome in 

October 1253, after an absence of more than nine 

years. It was more than ten since Innocent had 

succeeded to the Papacy, and during this period he 

had not spent one entire year in the city. Scarcely 

were the Romans aware that the Pope was again 

within their walls, when they tormented him with 

demands for money and indemnities of every kind, 

^ Ei cum venire distulisset^ iterum vocabant eum Romania ui prim, 
sed solenniuSf et sub hoc forma, ut scilicet tunc veniret, vel nunquam. 
Matt. Paris, p. 862. 

^ Ut decuit, susceptus est cum honore, sic jubente etvolente Senatore, 
Matt. Paris, pp. 862, 879. — Nicol. de Curbio, c 34. 



Ch. VI.] INNOCENT AND THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 28l 

with such insistence, that he found himself obliged 
to invoke the protection of the powerful Senator.^ He dwells 
Brancaleone calmed the storm, in order that it the pro- 
might not prejudice his relations with the Pope, ^^^^'^ 
with whom he was probably using his interest on Senator, 
behalf of Conrad. For he was on friendly terms 
with the King ; he had sent envoys of the Senate 
and People of Rome to him, and had openly received 
the royal ambassadors on the Capitol.^ Conrad 
forthwith availed himself of the Pope's presence in 
Rome to make overtures of peace for the second 
time. His advocates, however, the Counts of l^ont- 
fort and of Savoy, effected nothing. Innocent had 
sworn the ruin of the race of Frederick II., and 
pursued his purpose with the relentless determina- 
tion, of which the personal hatred of an offended 
priest is alone capable.* Tidings from England, 
informing him that Henry III. was disposed to 
accept the crown of Sicily for his son, encouraged 
him in his course. On Maundy Thursday, 1254, He goes 
he pronounced the sentence of excommunication ^ the 
against Conrad and Ezzelino. Soon afterwards be^™^^^^ 
left the insecure city and went to Umbria. 

* Matt. Paris, p. 879. 

' In an undated letter Conrad informs the Senator that he had 
accorded his envoys a Mendly reception, praises his zeal and exhorts 
him to continued fidelity. The letter pkme scimus to the proconsul 
Alma urbis, Baluze, MiscelL^ i 193. ** Proconsul " here stands for 
" Senator,*' and this Senator can only be Brancaleone. (A second 
similar letter of Conrad to the Senate and People : Peter de 
Vin., 3, 27.) 

' Papa — cdio tumdum extincto, quod olim in Federicum exercuii^ m 
proiem et sanguinis sui reliquias savire disposuit. Such is the 
judgment of Ferretus Vicentinus (Mur., ix. 945). 



282 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

At Assist he confirmed the patent of investiture 
with Sicily, which his l^ate Albert had given the 
boy Edmund.^ The doubts of the King of England 
had been removed, since, at the end of the year 
1253, his nephew, the younger Henry, hitherto 
viceroy of Sicily, had been suddenly removed by 
death at Melfi, whither he had been summoned by 
Conrad after the two little sons of Frederick's eldest 
son, the unfortunate Henry, had also died. Ill- 
natured slander charged Conrad with murder, and 
astute cunning made use of the slander to persuade 
England to accept the investiture. The weak- 
minded Henry HI. entered the snare with childish 
joy ; he sent the Pope as much money as he could 
extort, or gave him carte-blanche to draw at will on 
Italian banks. This was all that Innocent desired. 
England was to sacrifice her patrimony for an 
imaginary kingdom, and at the papal command the 
conquest of Sicily assumed the character of a 
crusade. The Pope now hoped that Conrad would 
soon yield to the united powers of the Church 
and England ; the young King, however, unex- 
pectedly fell a victim to fever, and Innocent was in 
consequence soon forced to repent and forget the 
treaty which he had concluded with England. 

Conrad IV. ruled Sicily and Naples as the heri- 
tage which he had reconquered by courageous war, 

^ Albert's document is dated from Windsor, March 6, i254(Rymer, 
fol. 297). On May 15, 1254, Innocent thanks the English king for 
having accepted the investiture, and begs him quickly to send troops 
to Sicily. Ibid,^ fol 302. His letter contains the phrase : sednepaU 
tuo impte^ ut asseritur^ sublato de medio. 



Ch. VI.] DEATH OF CONRAD IV. 283 

and already prepared to resume his father's stru^le 
with the Papacy. " I will soon come," he wrote to 
the GhibelUnes, " with twenty thousand men to the 
north, to punish the rebels and to restore the 
imperial authority." Thus he wrote in April 1254; 
on May 21 he was dead. The son of Frederick II. 
perished owing to his own exertions in the hot 
climate of South Italy. He died at Lavello in the Death of 
prime of youthful vigour, in the twenty-sixth year of Jv!|^ay 
his age, and with piteous lamentations over his fate *'* '*S4. 
and the misfortunes of the empire, which he beheld 
falling to ruin.^ Like his father and his grandfather, 
like the whole of the Sicilian house of Hohenstaufen, 
he fell a victim to the fatal soil of Italy. 

The rapid fall of the Hohenstaufens is one of those 
tragic mysteries to which bigoted superstition offers 
a ready key. The history of facts, however, affords 
no solution to the question, although reason, that 
penetrates laws of history, can probably discover the 
necessity of the fall. As formerly, after the death of 
Henry VI., only a single heir, a child, Frederick II, 
himself, remained; so now also of the numerous 
offspring of this Emperor, only a single legitimate 
descendant, Conrad's son Conradin, a child of two, 
was left in Bavaria. Conrad, suspicious of Manfred, 
had on his deathbed appointed the Pope himself 
guardian of the boy, and had installed the Margrave 

^ In triumfor, suor, primordiis^ acerbo mortis fato succubuit, 
Nich. de Jamsilla, Murat., viii. 506. Homo pacificus et judex severus 
de cujus obitu Teutonici^ Apuli et Lombardi^ preter ilios qui erant de 
parte Ecclesie, dolore nimio turbati, Herm. Altahensis, in Bohmer, 
Pontes^ iL 510. 



284 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Berthold of Hohenburg as his representative or 
steward in the kingdom. 

Manfred stood beside Conrad's coffin, as a short 
time before he had stood beside that of Frederick II. 
The result of the efforts of four years lay shattered 
before him ; the future was once more dark and 
uncertain. Were there any who failed to recognise 
that with Conrad IV. Italy carried a great period of 
her history to the grave ? 



Ch. VII.] 285 



CHAPTER VII. 

I. Brancaleone, Senator of Rome, 1252 — Particu- 
lars CONCERNING THE OFFICE OF THE SENATOR AND 

THE Organisation of the Roman Republic at this 
TIME — Resistance of the Roman Barons, and 

ENERGETIC ACTION OF THE NEW SENATOR. 

We have already seen that, at the time of the 
return of Innocent IV., a citizen of Bologna, by his 
energy and greatness of mind, suddenly brought the 
senatorial office in Rome into high esteem, and 
imparted a transient splendour to the city. His 
rule and the constitution of the Roman republic, 
more especially during his time, deserve attentive 
consideration. 

From the thirteenth century onwards the Italian 
free cities were accustomed to elect their podest^The 
from among the nobility of other communes with S*tiS 
whom they stood in friendly relations. A stranger JS^^ 
summoned to' a six months' rule offered securer 
prospect of an impartial government, and less likeli- 
hood of the foundation of a tyranny, than the 
election of a powerful fellow-townsman would have 
done. Such an exchange of talents and energies 
between the democracies, who lent each other their 
most celebrated citizens as rectors, was the finest 
proof of republican fraternity and of common national 



286 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

ties. It greatiy redounds to the honour of the 
Italians. And since as a rule only men of import- 
ance were summoned to the office of podesti, the 
invitation was in itself the most genuine testimony 
to distinguished talent The student who would 
become acquainted with the genuine flower of the 
aristocracy in the great century of the republics of 
Italy, witii her noblest knights, generals, lawgivers, 
and judges, must read the lists of podestiis in indi- 
vidual democracies. These lists give at the same 
time a summary of the most distinguished families 
who stood at the head of the historic life of the com- 
munes in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. At 
a time when the rest of Europe failed to produce any 
eminent citizens, these registers awaken our astonbh- 
ment by their wealth of statesmen and soldiers, such 
as Hellas and Rome knew in the prime of their 
republican days. The cities show that at this period 
they had obtained complete emancipation of their 
political intellect from the Church, and display a 
brilliant picture of national citizenship, before the 
demon of party strife and the unchecked rule of the 
plebeians destroyed its brief splendour. 

The Romans were accustomed to behold solemn 
deputations from various cities, even Pisa and 
Florence, appear on the Capitol, to implore a Roman 
noble to be their podestcL They themselves, however, 
had never hitherto gone to seek their Senator at the 
hands of any foreign town. If they were reduced to 
this step in 1252, while Innocent IV. dwelt at 
Perugia, they must have been driven thereto by the 
corrupt condition of their commune, and it was 



Ch. vii.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 287 

assuredly not the jealous nobility, but the populace 
maltreated by this nobility, who, in consequence of a ; 
revolt, formed a resolution to confide the authority 
of the hitherto divided Senate to a single upright and 
sagacious man as Senator and Captain, and to seek 
for such a man outside Rome. 

The Romans turned to Bologna, a city which, 
owing to its school of law, enjoyed at this time 
a European fame; its wealth was vast, and since 
Fossalta its strength of arms redoubtable; a king 
lay imprisoned within its walls. The Bolognese 
council recommended to the Romans Brancaleone The 
degli Andal6, Count of Casalecchio, a man of ancient i^S? 
family, rich, respected, of severe republican spirit and j^^^' 
an experienced jurisconsult^ Brancaleone belonged degU 
by nature to the strong characters of Hohenstaufen ^S^ 
times, was of the same mould as Salinguerra, Pala- Senator, 
vicini, Boso da Doara, Jacopo of Carrara, Azzo of 
Este, and Ezzelino. He was endowed with the same 
enei^ as these men of iron, but with neither their 
love of intrigue nor their terrible selfishness. And 
having fought for Frederick II. even after the 
Emperor's excommunication in the Lombard wars, 
he was acquainted with these party leaders. 

* Petri Gintinelli, Chron,^ A. 1252 (Mittarelli, Accessiones), Matt 
Paris, p. 860 : mense Aug. Romani eUgerunt sibi novum Senatorem — 
Brancaleonetn, Savioli, ad A, 1252, and dissertation by Lazzari : la 
prigionia di Brancal, de Andald (Bologna, 1783). It is related that 
when Prince Edward (afterwards King of England) came to Bologna, 
Brancaleone sent a hundred carriages laden with gifts to meet him, 
and that Edward declared that England was not as rich as Bologna. 
Marin Sanudo, Jstaria del R$gno di Romania^ p. 155, in Hopf, 
Chronique GricO' Romanes, 



288 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

If the Bolognese proposed a Ghibelline as Senator, 
it follows either that political colour must have been 
a matter of indifference to both cities, or else that the 
Roman populace inclined again to the Ghibelline 
side. That they should have veered to the Ghibel- 
lines after the death of Frederick II. is intelligible, 
since the Romans had no longer to dread the 
Emperor but the Pope. The election of Brancaleone, 
the friend of Palavicini and Ezzelino, was an actual 
protest against the temporal rule of the Pope, now 
returned from Lyons. It is difficult to believe that 
Innocent IV. ratified this election ; more probably 
he merely recognised it from necessity, and for the 
moment was obliged to renounce the right to the 
election of the Senator which his predecessors had 
acquired.^ 
Conditions Brancaleone declared himself ready to c[ovem 

made by • o 

Branca- Rome, but acquainted as he was with the passions of 
^^!*^ the republicans, more especially with the uncontrolled 
^°£ ferocity of the Roman nobles, he endeavoured to 
safeguard himself against dangers. He demanded 
that the government with unrestricted powers should 
be surrendered to him for three entire years, and the 
sons of noble Romans as hostages for his personal 
security.^ The Roman people must indeed have 
been sorely harassed by the tyranny of the noble 
factions when they acceded to such extravagant 

^ Rotnani — Brancahonem — pro triennio in SencUorem urbis 
elegerant^ quia in Lombardia fuerat pro parte Friderici depositt, et 
functus amicitia Ezzelino tyranno haretico-^t etiam — Pelamcino; 
Nichol. de Curbio, c. 34. 

' Matt. Paris, p. 860. Vesi, Storia di Romagna, iii S4, gives the 
number of hostages as thirty, Saviola as five. 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 289 

demands, and placed the dictatorship for three years 
in the hands of a stranger. The law of the commune 
had hitherto only accorded the Senator a six months' 
term of rule : he had hitherto only been elected from 
among the civic nobility, and the principle, first 
introduced by the rule of Brancaleone, of appointing 
a stranger {forensis) as Senator, was not established 
until a hundred years later. 

A law, painfully minute, defined all the duties and 
rights which the foreign Senator had to render or to The 
demand. His income amounted on an avenge to^^ 
1500 gold florins or ducats for the half year, pay->»*Ko™«- 
able out of the municipal camera. Of this sum he 
received one-third when entering upon office; a 
second payment was made at the beginning of the 
third month ; the last was deposited in the camera 
and only delivered into his hands when he had given 
a clear record of his term of office. The age was one 
of rude simplicity and far removed from the luxury 
of later centuries. The honour was still esteemed 
something in itself and was in demand on its own 
account* A monthly sum of 750 thalers amply 
sufficed to meet the requirements of the Senator of 
the Romans, especially as the value of the sum was 
at least seven times as great as at the present day.^ 

^ Concerning contemporary life in Florence, see Villani, vL c. 70, 
and the incredible description given by Ricobald of the time of 
Frederick 11. (Murat., ix. 128). 

* In 1362 Rome complained that the foreign Senator drew 2500 
florins each half year, while the two Senators of the nobility had 
formerly only drawn 1500 each. The Pope reduced the salary to 
1800 florins (Theiner, Cod, DipL^ i. n. 363). About 1350 the 
Rector of the Romagna drew four gold florins a day ; the podestii of 
VOL. V. T 



29a ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

The \ The Senator was obliged to defray the expenses of 
curia. his court out of his salary. Every podest^ of a free 
/ city brought his curia with him from outside. The 
/ communes felt a certain pride in the pompous display 
made by their podest^, but with distrustful suspicion 
prescribed the number of his retinue, his servants, 
officials, and guards^ The employes of the Roman 
Senate consisted of five notaries and six judges, of 
whom at least one must be a skilled jurisconsult, so 
that he might stand beside the podest^ as Collateralis 
or assessor. They formed his cabinet, while the 
General Council of the Capitoline judges, or the 
Assectamentum, was summoned in all cases of im- 
portance, and listened to, by the Senator.^ The 
Senator kept a guard of twenty men on foot and 
twenty on horseback, some knights as a kind of 
court retinue, and two marshals as executors of 
police.* From these officials, who were called the 

Forli, Faenza, Cesena, 60 fl. a month; in 1250 the podesti of 
Bologna had a salary of 2000 Bolognese lire a year {Statut, Com, 
Bonon,^ p. 23, A. 1250, ed. Frati, Bol., 1863). The good gold florin 
(struck in Florence since 1252) was about equal to I ducat (zecchino). 
96 gold florins make I pound of gold, 64 a mark, i florin = i lira or 
244 denarii provins, or 120 Neapolitan grains, i florin— 26 Solidi 
proven, Vettori, // Fiorino d*Oro; Garampi, Sa^i di osserv, sul 
valore delle antUhe monete pontificie. His observations correspond with 
the rate of exchange appended to the Florentine Codex of Cendus. 

* The Collateralis of Brancaleone was Federigo di Pascip6veri, 
professor of both branches of law (Note H. to Savioli's Annals, 
A. 1252). 

• The statutes of 147 1 give the Senator 6 judices forenses and 4 
notarios ntaJefictor. et I notar, marescallor,^ 4 socios, % familiares 
domicellos ... 20 equos armigeros, et bervertos 20 (berasrif from the 
old French berrurier, sharpshooter. Diez, Etymol, Worterb, der 
Roman, Sprache ; whence perhaps birri or sbirri}). 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 29I 

" familia " ot the Senator, the officials of the city, or Civic 
the authorities appointed by the populace, must be ° 
clearly distinguished. The number of these officials 
was very great, and their office encompassed by 
ceremonious pomp, for the city was emulous of 
rivalling the papal court in its wealth of official 
colleagues. The chancellor of the city, the notaries, 
scriniarii, and treasurers of the camera, the secretary 
(scriba senatus), the seneschal, th& justiHariiy even 
th^vestararitox masters of the treasury and wardrobe, 
in several corporations and of various grades, formed 
a considerable body of civic officials.^ 

When the foreign Senator came to the city, which 
had invited him, he was received with princely 
honours. He was led through the garlanded streets, 
amid the acclamations of the people, to the Capitol, 
where the captains of the regions, with their banners, 
and other magistrates awaited him on the steps of 
the Senate House. His procession to take possession 
of the Palace of the Commune was, beside the corona- 
tion processions of the emperor and the pope, the 
third great official spectacle that enlivened Rome. 
Before entering on his authority, he swore in presence 
of a deputation of parliament to observe the statutes 
of the city, to uphold the edicts against heresy, to 
maintain a peaceful and lawful rule over the city of 

^ All these officials are designated as officiaUs Capitolii, They also 
swore to the peace of 1235 ^ vestararii^ judiees Palatii, Justitiarii, 
Scriniarii et Asseetatores, Sometimes one, sometimes two Vestararii 
urbis are mentioned in the public reports ; 4 Scriniarii and 6 AsseC' 
iatores appear in the peace of 1241. De mandato D, Senaloris etefus 
assectamenti is a customary notarial formula in the statutes of the 
Roman merchant dass. 



of die 



292 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. iz. 

Rome, her citizens, county and district, to im>tect 
die hospitals and aU pious institutions, aU widows 
and orphans, and to maintain all rights and customs 
of the Romans.^ (The executive power in every 
. department of civic autonomy was placed in his 
\ hands. TThe Senator was the political head of the 
• commune in peace and war, the supreme judge and 
|^^[^ general^ He held the power of life and death. He 
received the oath of homage from the vassals of the 
city ; he appointed podestiis in such places as recog- 
nised the jurisdiction of die Capitol ; he sent am- 
bassadors {afnbasciatores) to foreign states ; he made 
treaties with princes and republics. He proclaimed 
new laws concerning justice and finance by the voice 
of heralds otprtBcones. Finally, he inscribed his name, 
arms, and portrait on the gold and silver coins of 
Rome, which depicted him as kneeling before S. 
Peter, while the apostle handed him the banner of 
the investiture. It follows, therefore, that the popes 
had lost the right of coinage in the thirteenth century 
and surrendered it to the Roman people.* 

Wearing a scarlet robe trimmed with fur, a berretta 

^ De juramento Senatoris . . . Statutes of 1471, iu. n. 9. The 
indirect fonnula contained therein is ancient ; the direct oath to the 
commune is not given. The long formula of oath for the podesti of 
Bologna, belonging exactly to the time of Brancaleone, has been 
preserved. (Frati, StattUi di Bologna.) 

' Innocent III. said : mcnetam nostram^ qua vuigo dicUur de 
Senaiu {Hsg. Ann,, xL ep. 135). Martin IV. censured the pro- 
senator on December 26, 1282, for striking coins : qtia in civitaie 
prafaia cudi non possuttt^ nu debeni absqtu UcenUa Sedis Apost* 
speeitdi (Theiner, L n. 414). Nevertheless there are no papal coins 
between Paschalis II. and Benedict XI.; this void is filled by the 
coins of the Senate. 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 293 

(similar to that worn by the Dc^e of Venice) on his 
head, and surrounded by his court, the Senator 
represented the majesty of the Roman people at the 
popular games, at the accession of a pope, or on 
political occasions.^ His dictatorial power was, how- 
ever, moderated or restricted by the counsellors and This 
popular commissions, and finally by the constitutional S^tai 
rights of election and approval which belonged to^^®^ 
the popular assembly. In a republic, fear of tyranny 
is the sleepless guardian who keeps watch over rulers, 
and the supreme law is the responsibility of the ruler 
to the people. The brief tenure of the senatorial 
office was threatened by many dangers of party 
struggles and of popular revolts, and was frequently 
nothing but a splendid torture. Every step of the 
Senator was watched and counted. He was confined 
to the Capitol, and could only leave the city within 
prescribed limits of time and distance. AH con- 
fidential intercourse with the citizens was forbidden 
him ; he dared not even dine in the palace of a noble. 
As long as he ruled the city he was condemned to 
remain a widower, for his wife was not allowed to 
accompany him ; nor could any near relative remain 



^ Coins show us the figure and costume of the Senator in the 
thirteenth century, as, kneeling before S. Peter, he receiyes the 
banner (Vitale, Tad,, i). Venetian coins show us, in similar costume, 
the doge, to whom S. Mark hands the banner (Murat, Ant,, ii. 652). 
A mosaic from Ara Coeli, now in the Palazzo Colonna» represents the 
Senator Giovanni Colonna (about 1279) : he wears a violet manUe, 
a violet beiYetta trimmed with ermine, violet boots (Litta, article 
*' Colonna," at the end). Nerini, p. 261, gives the copy of the picture 
of the cenotaph, which the Senator Pandulf Savelli erected to 
Honorins IV. in S. Sabina. 



Senator. 



294 ROBi£ IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

at his side.* Before he resigned his post (and the 
same rule held good of every other podestit) a syndi- 
cate was appointed, a court which had to examine 
TJ^. into the manner in which the Senator and his officials 
3"^* had conducted their office. Two days before the 
expiration of the term the banditor publicly pro- 
claimed from the steps of the Capitol, that sentence 
was to be pronounced on the illustrious Senator of 
the Romans, and for ten days the S3mdics gave ear 
to all accusers. Were he convicted of wrongful 
administration, he was sentenced to the loss of at 
least a third of his salary, and in case this sum did 
not suffice, was kept in prison until he had paid the 
required amount If deserving of praise and honour, 
the city dismissed him to the republic whence he 
came, and probably, moreover, endowed him with the 
rights of citizenship, and permission to incorporate 
the letters S.P.Q.R., as the arms of Rome, with his 
own.2 

Besides these various restrictions the acts of the 
Senator were subject to the ratification of the popular 
assembly. On every important occasion his herald 
summoned the people to a parliament, while the bell 
of the Capitol was tolled. If the parliament were a 

^ The same rule held good for all cities. Ego vel met de mea 
familia non intrdbo domum alicuius in cwttate^ nisi pro prosequendo 
fures velfalsarios vel malefactores — vel causa emendi aliqua necessaria. 
Thus in Bologna (Statute of 1250). See also the statutes of Modena, 
46. Dissert, of Moratori on the office of podesti. 

* Testimonies of praise of ex-senators of the fourteenth century are 
preserved in the Archives of Florence : the Archives of Bologna contain 
the patent of citizenship of April 15, 1493, given by the Conservator! 
to the ex-senator Ambrosius Mirabilia of Milan. 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 295 

general parliament {plenum et publicum), the P^opl^P«^^ 
held their deliberations in front of the Senate House, of the 
the citizens gathering on the piazza of the Capitol ^^ 
and on its slopes down to the present piazza of 
Aracoeli. The Senator laid the proposals relating 
to home and foreign affairs before this popular 
assembly, and " the illustrious people of the Romans " 
gave their decision by voting, by raising their hands, 
or by acclamations, as to whether war was to be 
made on Viterbo, whether an alliance was to be 
formed with other republics, whether the emperor 
was to be recognised, or the exiled pope invited to 
return. They were here made acquainted with the 
letters of princes and of cities, and occasionally also 
listened to ^ the voices of envoys, who appeared to 
present their demands before parliament. If only 
the committees of the people, constituting (according 
to the thirteen regions of the city) the great and 
lesser council (consilium genercde et speciale\ were 
summoned, the members found sufficient accommo- 
dation in the basilica of Aracoeli.^ The venerable The 
church had now taken the place of the Temple of Ara (SeS 
Concord, which had often served as the parliament ^^%f 
house of the ancient Romans. In the nave of the assembly 
Franciscan church the P aires Conscripti of the ^t and 



^ The formula : In nam. D,^more Romano Generale et speciak 
consilium comm, Roma fact, fuii inEccl, S, M. de Capitolio per vocem 
praconum et sonum Campana is frequently found in stu, xiiL; or 
congregato magnifico pop, Rom, in sca/is et platea ante pakU, Campi- « 
tola de mandato magmficor, viror, dominor, , , . deigra, Alme Urhis 
Senatorum ad sonum camp, et vocem prac, ad parlam, ut moris est. 
The decteeSfRe/ormationes, were entered in the Libri Reformationum, 
The Roman books have perished. 



296 ROME IN THE IflDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

mediaeval republic, the Colonna, Pierleoni, Capocd, 
Frangipani, Savelli and Orsini, aristocrats or dema- 
gogues, Guelfs or Qiibellines, raised their voices, in 
rude and untutored eloquence, in invectives against 
emperor or pope. This church remained until the 
sixteenth century the scene of the parliamentary 
debates and of the tribunal of Rome.^ But sudi 
debates only took place in the greater and lesser 
council, and only here did orators arise to oppose 
or support motions, nidiich were then presented for 
ratification by the popular parliament and were 
afterwards proclaimed by the Senator.* 

A glance into these tumultuous parliaments, over 
these courts and tribunals of judges on the Capitol, 
and the varied movements of the democracy with 
their leagues, collies, and magistrates, and their 
curious elective system, would awaken the surprise 
and frequently the admiration ot the beholder. But 
even this mediaeval republic has vanished from the 
Capitol ; among the city archives no parchment re- 
mains to recall its existence, and from the flanking 
towers of the transformed Senate House, as well 
as from the galleries of the courts, the inscriptions 
and the coats of arms of all those republicans who 

^ The Senator sat as judge pro tribunali in quodam sedUi mar- 
moreo sito in eccl, s, M. de Aracali juxta ostium respiciens palatium 
capitolii, Casimiro, Storia t^Araceli^ Doc. 19. The officials of the 
Capitol had taken possession of the monastery for judicial transactions. 
This proceeding was prohibited by a bull of Martin V., dot Roma ap, 
S. Apost XII L Kal, Febr, a XIL^ in Casimiro, p. 455. 

^ The General Council was a committee of several hundreds of men 
taken according to the quarters of the city. The cons, speciaU 
resembled the Credenza in the cities of North Italy. 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 297 

governed Alma Roma in the age of the Guelfs 
and Ghibellines have disappeared.^ 

Elected in August 1252, Brancaleone came to Bianca- 
Rome to enter on his office apparently in the be-^2reon 
ginning of November. He was accompanied by an g^i^ 
imposing retinue of judges, notaries, and knights, in the 
who had all been taken into his service from of 1352. 
Bologna, Imola, and other cities. It was the first 
time that the supreme magistracy of the city was 
entirely composed of foreigners, and that nobles of 
the Romagna governed the Roman republic. The 
Senator was also accompanied by his wife, Galeana. 
He found a condition of things existing in Rome, 
the regulation of which demanded a man of kingly 
strength of will. The curse of the city lay not in 
the turbulent spirit of the democracy, but in the 
lawless nature of the feudal nobles. Their power 
was far too great to render it possible that they 
could be overcome by the populace. Their for- 
tresses and estates extended over the entire Roman 
territory; they had even divided the city among 
them, since they sat entrenched within fortified 
monuments, as it were in quarters, warring daily 
with one another from motives of revenge or am- 
bition, and mocking at the Capitol, the dignities of 
which they appropriated, without paying any regard 

^ In 1889 the armorial bearings of some senators were discoyered 
in the Palace of the Senate. They do not, however, reach farther 
back than the time of Martin V. Owing to the absence of reports, the 
civic constitution of Rome in the thirteenth century remains obscure. 
I am better acquainted with the constitutions of Todi and Temi 
(not to mention Bologna, Florence, Siena, or Perugia) than with that 
of Rome. But fundamentally the same system prevailed in all cities. 



298 ROBCE IN THE MmDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

LftwieiB to its laws. In other republics the nobility were 

S!fthe subject to the communes and had been obliged to 

2?^ move their residence to the city. In Rome, however, 

nobUity. they continued to retain their supremacy. We find 

no evidence to show that Roman barons on the 

Campagna were subject to the civic communes, as 

v^ were in so many cases the nobility in the districts of 

Modena, Bologna, Padua, or Florence, The Roman 

; nobles owned fortified places in the city, which they 

left, whenever necessity demanded, to seek safety 

among their armed vassals in their fortresses in the 

country. The source of their power was the Papacy 

itself. From these Roman families issued popes, 

who favoured old family dynasties, or founded new 

ones, of whose services they made use against the 

civic communes. Roman nobles sat in numbers in 

the College of Cardinals and among the prelates. 
The wealth of the Church flowed consequently into 
the bosom of noble families, and the highest oflices 
remained in possession of a series of privil^ed 
houses. Colonna, Orsini, Savelli, Conti, Anibaldi, 
Frangipani, Capocci, were the most prominent 
schiatte or noble families, who in turn ruled and 
divided Rome, while they themselves were split into 
the parties of Guelfs and Ghibellines. Brancaleone 
Branca^ exerted himself to fight against this hydra, and from 
^bsthe ^^ ^^^^ fought it with success. Rome and the 
nobUity. Campagna felt his energetic hand ; the streets were 
rendered secure, and many a defiant noble might 
have been seen hanging from the battlements of 
his tower. 

The new Senator immediately claimed supremacy 



Ch. VII.] BRANCALEONE, SENATOR. 299 

over Latium. He demanded the submission of 
Terracina, in token of which he required the town 
to send deputies to the public games. But as he 
threatened to bring it to submission by force, Ter- 
racina turned to Innocent, who was still in Assisi. 
The Pope wrote a dissuasive letter to the Senator, 
entreated all the towns and vassals of the Campagna 
to resist the Romans, in case the Romans moved 
against them, and commanded the Sub-deacon 
Jordan, rector of the Campagna and Maritima, 
to collect troops.^ The Senator left Terracina alone. 
Tivoli, on the contrary, was attacked as early as 1252, 
and soon after subjugated to the Capitol, the Pope, 
for important reasons, being unable to interfere. 

2. Innocent IV. goes to Anagni — Tivoli renders 

SUBMISSION TO THE CaPITOL — ThE PoPE PREPARES 

to take possession of the kingdom of sicily — 
Manfred becomes his Vassal — Entry of Inno- 
cent IV. INTO Naples — Flight of Manfred — 
His Victory at Foggia — Death of Innocent IV., 
,1254 — Alexander IV. returns to Rome. 

We have seen that Innocent was forced by Bran- 
caleone to return, and soon after made his residence 
in Umbria. The death of Conrad, with whom the 
Senator had stood in friendly alliance, induced the 

* In Contatori, History oj Terracina^ p. 50, letter of the Pope to 
Brancaleone, May 7, 1253, Assist Other letters to Anagni, Terra- 
cina, Alatri, Veroli, Velletri, Segni, Pipemo, Cora, Sezza, Nin&, 
and to all the barons of Latium, especially to Landulf and Berald of 
Ceccano, Bartholomew of Supino, Berard of Piglio, Conrad of Soil- 
cola, the Domini of Sermoneta, Posi, and Ceprano. Ibid. 



300 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Pope to hasten to the neighbourhood of the Sicilian 
kingdom, which a lavish fortune once more offered 
to his rule. He merely touched Rome ; he addressed 
the people in S. Peter's, bestowed some fair words 
upon them, and implored the Romans to support 
his designs in Sicily.^ He then repaired to Molara, 
a fortress of Cardinal Anibaldi, and journeyed on- 
wards to Anagni. 
Innocent The Roman militia lay at this time encamped 
his'dweu- before Tivoli. The citizens of this fortified town 
A^ii made a desperate resistance against the attacks of 
I2S4- Brancaleone; until they accepted the mediation of 
the Pope, sent envoys in humble guise to the 
Capitol, and tendered, the oath of vassalage.* 
TivoU Tivoli, hitherto always a free republic, never ruled 

sutofssion ^Y ^^Y barou, occasionally the refuge of persecuted 
Ca*^fi popes, and afterwards Ghibelline under Frederick 
in the II., had Constantly been defended by the popes 
ofMst*^ against the claims made by the Romans. We may 
remember that a war waged by Rome against Tivoli 
had been the cause of the expulsion of Otto III., 
that another war had brought about the restoration 
of the Senate. The little town, consecrated to the 
Muses and the Sibyl, and the favourite resort of 

^ NegoHum Eccl, recommendceoit Romanis humUiter ac devote, 
N. de Curbio, c. 38. 

2 Brancaleone still dates before Tivoli on May 10, 1254. ... A 
de Andalo dei gr. Alma UrHs Sen, III, et Rom, Pop, CapUaneus 
, , , Acta — in castris Romanor, super Tybur inpapilione D, Sena- 
torts pred. Slid, not, Dom, 1254, Ind, XII, die X. intrante Afajo, 
' (Vitale). Likewise Nichol. de Curbio, c. 37, gives an account of the 
expedition of the Romans against Tivoli infra octavam resur, Dom, 
(1254), and of the mediation of the Pope which followed. The 
definitive peace was concluded in 1259. 



Ch. VII.] INNOCENT IV. AT ANAGNI. 3OI 

the ancestors of the Romans, had been harassed for 
three entire centuries by their attacks, until it fell 
at length under their sway, and became a fief of the 
city of Rome. If Innocent IV. surrendered so im- 
portant a town, the circumstance shows how insig- 
nificant was his temporal power in Rome, and in 
what need he stood of the favour of the Senator, 
His bic^rapher assures us that, at the entreaty of 
the exhausted Romans, he interceded for peace, 
although he had reason to be irritated with Bran- 
caleone. For the Senator, who was friendly to 
Manfred, had not responded to the Pope's request 
for aid; but, on the contrary, had issued a decree 
prohibiting loans to be made to the Pope, supplies 
to be brought him at Anagni, or troops placed at 
his disposal. He had, in short, erected obstacles in 
the way of the papal enterprise in Sicily. The sub- 
jugation of the kingdom to the sacred chair was not 
to the advantage of the Romans ; by the surrender 
of Tivoli (at the end of the summer of 1254) Inno- 
cent, however, purchased the Senator's promise, to 
refrain from undertaking any hostilities behind his 
back while he was preparing to take possession of 
Apulia. 

Anagni, the temporary abode of the Pope, the native 
town of the Conti (the enemies of the Hohenstaufens), 
and at this period frequently the scene of the papal 
election, had again become the centre of all ecclesi- 
astical concerns. From this source the affairs of the 
kingdom were to take shape. Here Conrad when 
dying had entrusted the regency of his infant son, 
not to Manfred, but to the Margrave Berthold of 



302 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Berthoid Hohenburg, a relative of his wife Elizabeth. Ber- 
bui^, thold, the general of the German troops in Apulia, 
c^J^ was powerful and respected during Conrad's life- 
time ; he was, however, hated as a foreigner, and his 
mission had not prospered. He attempted to make 
peace with the Pope. His envoys, Manfred himself 
among them, came to Anagni to implore the recog- 
nition of Conrad's rights, the custody of which, by 
his father's will, had been entrusted to the Church. 
Innocent, however, required the unconditional surren- 
der of Sicily. After the expiration of a term which 
Sept 8, 1254. had been fixed by himself, he excommunicated 
Manfred, Frederick of Antioch, Berthoid of Hohen- 
burg, and Berthold's brother, with other Ghibellines. 
He had appointed his nephew. Cardinal William 
Fieschi, as legate in Sicily, and had commissioned 
him to collect troops in Ceprano. He gave him 
authority to raise money from the Roman banfcsr^^^ 
and for this purpose to mortgage all the property of 
the Church in the city and the Campagna ; to obtain 
it either by force or favour from all occupied or un- 
occupied sees, by imposing a tax on Sicily, and by 
the confiscation of the estates of all Ghibellines who 
should fail to yield submission to the Church. 

Berthoid, discouraged by his excommunication, 
Manfred, abandoned the regency to Manfred, who, after some 
^^j^JJ reluctance, accepted it at the instance of the Sicilian 
lords. His position, however, was sufficiently pre- 
carious ; several nobles and cities openly declared in 
favour of the Pope. Without means of carrying on 
the war, the young prince saw no way of escape 
other than that of submission to the Church. 



Ch. VII.] MANFRED VASSAL OF THE POPE. 303 

Through his uncle, Count Galvan Lancia, he offered 
it to Innocent in Anagni, whereupon the Pope, filled 
with joy, had a treaty executed on September 27. concludes 
Manfred entered the service of the sacred chair as whhUe 
vicar of a great part of the Neapolitan mainland, ^^^^ 
and received in addition Taranto and other terri- Sept. 27, 
tories given him by Frederick II., as well as the'*^ 
county of Andria as hereditary fiefs of the Church.* 
Such was the duplicity of the Pope, who held 
England bound by solemn treaty and had written to 
King Henry, that he would abide by his compact 
with Edmund even after the death of Conrad IV., 
and that he desired to see Sicily conquered by 
English arms. Not by one single word were these 
English negotiations now taken into account, and in 
an encyclical Innocent announced that he would 
maintain the crown of Jerusalem and the dukedom 
of Swabia for Conradin, adding that in the formula 
of the oath of homage, which they had to render to 
the Church, the Sicilians should insert the words, 
"without prejudice to the rights of the child 
Conrad." 

Manfred perceived the intention of the Pope, 
which was first to render him innocuous and then to 
get rid of him. Necessity compelled him to appear 
on the frontier of Latium as a vassal of the Church, 
as soon as Innocent IV., surrounded by a swarm of 
revengeful Sicilian exiles, left Anagni, to take pos- 
session of the kingdom. The son of Frederick II., 

^ Bull Clemens semper^ Anagni, September 27, Raynald, n. 57, in 
Tutini, Di Contestabili, pp. 58 and 60. Nevertheless, the same Pope 
had already conferred Taranto on the Frangipani ! 



304 ROME IN THE MtlDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 



holding the bridle of the Pope's horse, himself led 
Manfred the deadly enemy of his race across the bridge of 
tibe Pope the Liris into the hereditary dominions of his fore- 
i^gdom. fathers.^ The Apulians, it is true, although wearied 
with the rule of Germans and Saracens, received the 
Pope with distrust The cities hoped for communal 
liberties, which Conrad IV. would have tolerated 
as little as Frederick II., and more especially for 
deliverance from the oppression of the fresh taxes im- 
posed by Frederick and the insupportable CollecUe. 
They consequently made submission to the Church, 
under the protection of which several communes, 
particularly in Sicily itself, had set up a republican 
government^ The barons on their side, hoping to 
recover the supreme jurisdiction and other privileges, 
did homage to the Pope in Capua The brothers 
Hohenburg followed suit; these gentlemen aban- 
doned their companion Manfred to his fate, in order 
to receive fiefs from the Church. 
Innocent Innocent IV. made his entry into Naples on 

TV Ant«»r« 

Naples, October 27. The stiff-necked enemy of the Hohen- 
i2cL^' staufens, the Milan of South Italy, received the 
Pope with honours sincerely offered, and willingly 
acknowledged his supremacy. He saw the king- 
dom of the Normans return without a struggle to 
the rule of the Church, and hoped therein to retain it 
But Manfred's ardent spirit suddenly broke off the 

* Sunday, October 11. Itinerary of the Pope in de Lnynes, 
Comtnentaire — sur les — Diumali di Messer Matteo cU Giovetuuzo, 
note to section 55. These Diumali have, however, since been 
proved spurious. 

^ Gregorio, Considerazianiy iii. c. v. p. 105. 



Ch. VII.] DEATH OF INNOCENT IV. 30S 

unnatural and humiliating relations. He was sur- 
rounded by suspicion and treason ; was insulted by 
the neglect of the exiled barons, and by the new 
favourites who had arrived with Innocent; the 
haughty demeanour of the cardinal legate, who de- 
manded the oath of fidelity from him, while no 
further thought was taken of Conradin's rights, 
enlightened him with regard to his future ; and the 
sudden murder by his followers of a nobleman, who 
was hostile to him, forced him to think of a speedy 
escape. Manfred's flight from Acerra, his nocturnal Manfred 
ride through the mountains of Apulia, his sudden ^^*® 
appearance in Lucera in the midst of Mussulmans, 
his saviours, his manly attitude in the field, his first 
victories, the return of the Apulian cities to his side, 
the utter incapacity of the papal leaders, present an 
interesting spectacle of bravery, prosperity, and the 
transformation of circumstances. On December 2 
Manfred defeated the enemy at Foggia. The legate 
fled from Troja ; his army dispersed, and he himself 
hastened to Naples to bear to the Pope the tidings 
of the disaster. 

Innocent lay ill at Naples in a palace that had 
belonged to the celebrated Peter de Vineis.^ Here 
he died on December 7, 1254.* The judgment of his Death of 
contemporaries is expressed by the dying words i\?,°^. 
attributed to him, the utterance of his spirit, as in 7. iaS4- 

^ SuJla Casa di Pieiro della Vigna in Napoli^ Ricerche di Bartol. 
Capasso, in the Appendix to the History of Pier della Vigna by De 
Blasiis. 

' NichoL de Curbio, c 43. The tomb of Innocent IV. of the year 
1 318 may be seen in the cathedral of Naples ; the inscription contains 
the fanatical line : stravit inimicum Ckristi coAtdntm Fridericum, 

VOL. V. U 



306 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

his parting hour it vacillated between remorse and 
indignation. His weeping relatives surrounded his 
couch with unseemly gestures. " Why do you weep, 
wretched creatures ? " he asked. " Have I not made 
you rich enough ? " ^ The English chronicler relates 
a vision seen after the Pope's death. A malicious 
cardinal beheld Christ standing between Mary and a 
noble matron who held the image of the Church in 
her hands, while Innocent, kneeling before them, 
asked pardon for his sins. The honoured matron 
reproached him with three mortal transgressions: 
that he had made the Church a slave, had transformed 
the temple of God into a money-changer's, and had 
destroyed faith, justice, and truth, the chief pillars of 
the Church. The Saviour, addressing the sinner, 
said, " Go and receive the reward of thy deeds," and 
he was led away. 

Innocent IV., the last great pope of the Middle 
Ages belonging to the school of Innocent III., is 
rendered celebrated by his victory over the Hohen- 
staufen empire. An unscrupulous priest, the ac- 
knowledged leader of the Guelf sympathies of his 
time, cunningly playing with treaties, shrinking from 
nothing that his own advantage dictated, he filled the 
world with revolt and civil war, and drew the Church 
into the current of worldly interests, which he termed 
sacred. The man of independent judgment must 
look with indignation on the condition to which 
Innocent reduced the Church, that of a perpetual 
camp, a diplomatic cabinet, or the office of a financier, 
and has difficulty in discovering extenuating circum- 

* Matt. Paris, p. 897. 



Ch. VII.] INNOCENT IV. 307 

stances in the character of the time. The Pope suc- 
ceeded to power as heir to the passions of Gregory 
IX. and of Gregory's predecessors, and undertook 
the task of defending the degenerate Church against 
equally unscrupulous opponents. As cardinal, Inno- 
cent had been held in high esteem by Frederick II., 
as Pope, the nature of things made him Frederick's 
inflexible opponent. " I have never," said the great 
historian of the age, " heard of such a bitter hatred 
as that between Innocent IV. and Frederick."^ 
These hereditary party passions burnt no less 
fiercely in the soul of a pope than in the heart of an 
emperor, or of a warrior like Ezzelino. If in this 
century, filled as it was with soaring ambition, with 
enthusiasm for freedom and the noble pride of 
citizenship, with priestly arrogance and lust of 
tyranny, these passions impart to the figures of the 
time, to the republics and the ruling nobles, a 
character combined of the most valiant courage and 
the most degraded cunning, they undoubtedly miti- 
gate its crimes and vices. 

The death of the Pope, Manfi-ed's victory at Foggia, 
the rout of the army, the remains of which Cardinal 
Fieschi had brought to Naples, roused the cardinals' 
dismay. The Saracens, it was said, were already 
approaching to seize the sacred collie. The car- 
dinal, who had accompanied Berthold, and Berthold 
himself alone prevented a disgraceful flight, and 
compelled a speedy election. 

The history of the popes delights in immediate 
contrasts of characters. To Innocent III. succeeded 

^ Matt Paris, p. 747. 



308 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

the gentie Honorius III., to Innocent IV. Alexander 
IV., a pope who would have nothing to do with war, 
a corpulent, amiable gentleman, upright and God- 
fearing, but avaricious and weak.^ Reginald, Bishop 
of Ostia and Velletri, was elected in Naples on 
December 12, 1254, and was consecrated as Alex- 
Aiexander auder IV. on December 27. In him a member of 
1254^261! the house of Conti, which in two great popes had 
already made war on the Hohenstaufens, again 
ascended the sacred chair. Alexander was a 
nephew of Gregory IX., was bom at Jenna, a 
baronial fortress in the diocese of Anagni, standing 
over a wild gorge at the source of the Anio.^ 

Endowed with but little talent, the new Pope tried 
to pursue the dangerous path which Innocent IV. 
and circumstances had prescribed. He acquired 
friends by gifts, he ratified the fiefs of his predeces- 
sors to the brothers Berthold, Otto, and Lewis of 
Hohenburg, and, to detach them entirely from 
Manfred's cause, even added the duchy of Amalfi. 
He negotiated, although unsuccessfully, with Manfred 
himself, who it was feared would suddenly appear 
before Naples. He even sent letters to Germany, 
assuring the boy Conradin of his benevolent inten- 

^ Salimbene, p. 232, and Matt. Paris, p. 897, who adds the 
unflattering epithet simplex. Joh. Iperius, Ckron, S. Bertini 
(Martene, Thesaur, ncv,^ ii. 732), calls him vir placidus^ sanguineus, 
camosus, Aumi/is,jucundus, risidi/is, &c. 

* Jenna or Genna was a fief of the Conti, On November 21, 1257, 
Alexander IV. bestowed the neighbouring castrum de Trebis (Trevi) 
on his nephew, Raynald de Genua. Theiner, Cod, DipL, i. n. 258, 
where for Genoa read Genna, Papebroch places the election on 
December 24 ; Mansi, however, correctly holds to the date given by 
Nichol. de Curbia Note to Raynald, i., ad A. 1254. 



Ch. VII.] ALEXANDER IV. 309 

tions, but soon after (on April 9, 1255) sent the bull 
to England, in which he finally ratified Edmund's 
enfeoffment, and gave the investiture of Sicily, Con- 
radin's heritage, to the English prince. Thus Alex- 
ander IV. advanced along the labyrinth of his pre- 
decessor's policy. And, entirely like his predecessor, 
he unscrupulously translated Henry III.'s vow 
regarding the Crusade into the duty of conquering 
Sicily, and even summoned the King of Norway 
instead of going to the Holy Sepulchre to repair to 
Naples to aid the English king by his arms. In such 
wise the wars of their domestic policy were hence- 
forward constantly explained by the popes as holy 
wars. 

The scarcity of money was severely felt by the 
exhausted Church. Henry III. promised everything 
but performed nothing. The Pope, disappointed in 
the hope of wresting Sicily, the kingdom in which 
Manfred was recc^nised as regent by Conradin or 
his guardians, out of Manfred's hands, left Naples 
and went to Anagni in July, and thence at the end 
of November 1255 to Rome. Here in the meantime Alexander 
a momentous change had taken place. to kon^, 



3IO ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

3. Brancaleone's Government in Rome — Rise of the 
Guilds — Their Position in Rome — Constitution 
OF the Guild of Merchants — The Foundation 
OF the Populus — Brancaleone, first Captain of 
THE Roman People — His Overthrow and Impri- 
sonment, 1255 — Bologna placed under the Inter- 
dict — Emmanuel de Madio, Senator — Release 
OF Brancaleone and his return to Bologna. 

Brancaleone had already governed the city with 
great energy for three years. The insolent nobility, 
especially the Anibaldi and Colonna, bowed under 
his inflexible justice. He restored the jurisdiction 
of the Capitol over the Roman district and the 
baronial fortresses by force of arms, appropriated 
several estates of the Church to the city treasury, 
taxed the clei^ and compelled them to appear 
before the civil tribunal.^ Rome, entirely indepen- 
dent of both emperor and pope, had become a 
respected free state, under the rule of a noble-minded 
republican, who invested the office of senator with a 
genuine political importance. The people loved 
Brancaleone as their protector, and on the people he 
based his power. 

Were definite information concerning his govern- 
ment forthcoming, we should find that under him 
the democracy rose to greater power, and that the 

^ Thus he deprived the bishopric of Ostia of large stretches of 
country. Clement IV. afterwards ordered the Senator, Charles of 
Anjou, to recover them from the Romans. Quond. BranccLleone — 
tunc Senator urbis ripam Ostiensem tnarts et fluminis a face maris 
usque ripam Romanam — Ostiensi EccL—concessas—per violentiem 
spoliarit . . . without a date. From the Dictamina Berardi de 
Napoli, Cod. Vat,^ 3977. 



Ch. VII.] THE GUILDS IN ROME. 3 II 

guilds attained a more secure constitution. We have 
seen these guilds in Perugia as armed defensive 
associations at war with the nobility, in the act of 
setting up a popular government, and, consequently, 
severed from the popes. The artisans formed politi- 
cal societies in 1223, under consuls, rectors, or priors.^ 
In Milan, as early as 1 198, they were organised in Theguiids 
a corporation, — the Credenza of S. Ambrosius, — toiS^ 
and at the same period the corporation of Florence ^^^ 
had already attained a powerful organisation. In 
Bologna the artisans rose in 1228, founded a con- 
federation, and forcibly obtained the right of a seat 
in the Palazzo Communale.^ The fourth estate (that 
of artisans), hitherto excluded from the political 
affairs of the commune, everywhere arose, strove to 
obtain a share in the government, and to acquire im- 
portance by the side of the great middle class and 
the nobility, who had hitherto filled the communal 
council. Increasing luxury had rendered them 
numerous and prosperous, and the universal pressure 
towards power, both from above and below, made 
itself felt among this class, which had hitherto lived 
in obscurity. The remarkable nature of these classes, 
composed of men of peaceful occupations, which 

^ Document in Theiner, L n. 127, where Honorius III. confirms 
the decrees of the legate Giovanni Colonna against the societaUs^ 
eommunitaies seu fratemitaUs cedonum^ pelHpariorum^ kuuficum^ et 
aliorum artificum. It further says: Bailiviy CansuUs^ Rectores vel 
Prioresfraiemitatumy societatum.familiarumy seu quarumlibet arttum, 

* Savigny, iii. 118, 120; Hegel, ii. c vi. The popular commune 
continued to exbt in Bologna with the Anziani of the guilds, beside 
whom the consules mercandarie et cambie appear. Docum. of the 
year 1271, in Theiner, L n. 318. 



312 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

b^an to take in hand the government of the 
republics, and which, in the beginning of the four- 
teenth century, changed or dissolved the ancient 
communal constitution, destroyed or humiliated the 
nobility, and resulted in a turbulent plebeian rule, is 
nowhere more clearly represented than in Florence, 
and is nowhere more obscure than in Rome. 
Tiw guilds Since the days of antiquity the guilds of handi- 
craftsmen had existed in the form of practical 
corporations, although, in the period of which we 
speak, they remain unnoticed in documents. The 
old term for them, of Schola^ had in general been 
exchanged for the Latin ars (arte, art, guild), although 
the word schola may also be found at this date. In 
the time of Brancaleone they had their presidents 
under the name of consuls or Capita artium ; but no 
document mentions their relation to the commune 
on the Capitol. Nevertheless a little later, in the 
year 1267, we find the President of the Guilds in 
parliament beside the Consul of the Merchants and 
taking part in political affairs.^ How many guilds 
may have been recognised in Rome in the time of 
Brancaleone we do not know. In 13 17, in con- 
formity with the constitution, there were thirteen 
guilds in Rome, of which the societies of the 
Merchants and of the Husbandmen {ars bobacteri- 
orunt) were, as in ancient times, the most esteemed.^ 

^ On November 18, 1267, there assembled on the Capitol the gen. 
et spec, consil, , , . et convenientib, addict, consil, consulib, merccUor, 
et capitib, artium Urbis Rome, . . . Archives of Siena, n. 869, As 
early as 1263, a capitaneus populi et rectorum artium et societatum 
civ, TuscaruE is found in Tuscanella. Turiozzi, Doc,^ n. x. 

' Statutes of the Roman merchants, the oldest part of which dates 



CH.VII.] THE GUILD OF MERCHANTS. 313 

As in all flourishing towns in Italy, so also in 'Hie guild 
Rome, the merchants formed the most influential chants, 
guild. As early as the year 1165 they formed with 
the sailors {Marinarii) a respected association, their 
consuls, as plenipotentiaries of the city of Rome, 
concluding a treaty of commerce with Genoa. We 
have seen them as a monied aristocracy, who made 
loans to Frederick II. and the popes, a fact which 
proves that Rome, where Florentine and Sienese 
banks already existed, was, owing to its connection 
with Sicily, Byzantium, and the East, a by no means 
inconsiderable centre of commerce. The guild of 
merchants reconstituted itself in a new form in 1255, 
the third year of Brancaleone's rule, whence we con- 
clude that, owing to his means, the Roman guild 
system acquired a new vigour.^ Henceforward the 
merchant guilds had four consuls, elected annually, 
twelve consiliarii, notaries, and other officials.^ They 

from 131 7 : reformaium fuit per consuUs BobacteHorum et mercator, 
urbis et XXVI, bcnos viros eUctosper. Rom, Pop. cut reformat, urbis et 
artium urbis ^ quod XIII, artes erunt in urbe. Inter quas esset una ars 
mercaioreSf lanajoU^ Bammacarii mercerii accimatores et canna- 
paciaroli prout in libro camere Urbis plenius continetur. The Statuta 
nob. artis Bobacteriorum were revised in 1407, were first printed in 
1526, and reprinted in 1 718 and 1848, Rome. This guild, which 
proudly recalls memories of Cincinnatus, elected four consuls, four 
defensors, one camerarius, and thirteen consiliarii. 

* Their statute says : consules teneantur—facere rationem de omnib, 
—per instrum, — et non aliterde aliis questionib, prateriiis ante tempus, 
quo mercatantia se choadunavit^ scil, A,D. MCCLV„ If Civita 
Castellana had consules mercator, as early as 1229 (Theiner, L n. 252), 
Rome must assuredly have also had them. 

' Item ordinamuSf quod—fiant quatuor Consults^ qui sint — 
mercatores — scil, duo de tagliarolis (drapers), et duo cUii quifaciant 
mercatantiam pannor, et XII, consiliarii viri de tagliarolis et IV, de 



314 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

assembled in the church of their guild, S. Salvatore 
in Pensilis (also called in Sorraca) beside the Circus 
Flaminius, where in the street {adapothecas obscuras) 
that had arisen from that Circus itself (the mediaeval 
commercial quarter) their houses of business stood ; 
and where, from the piazza of the " Market Tower " 
as far as the Capitol, the judges of the guilds sat 
to decide the controversies of the members of the 
corporation.^ Like every other guild the merchants 
elected constitutional authorities {Statutaru)^ to 
examine their laws and to issue new ones. These 
laws, as well as the register of the guild in which 
they were inscribed, were brought for ratification to 
the Senator then ruling on the Capitol.^ The 
Statutes of the Roman guild of Merchants which 

franciatoKs (fringe makers). The consul annually received five lire 
provins, two pounds of pepper, two ounces of saffiron. There were 
notaries, scriniarii, Camerarii, SensaUs (cashiers ; correctly explained 
by Diez as censualis. Substantive : Sensaria), Bankrupts were 
csXitidifallutt. 

^ In 1377 the Senator Gomez de Albomoz confirmed the statutes 
with the supplement : mandantesy quod dicte artis Cotisules pros, et 
futuri debeant a turre pedis mercaii supra versus palat. Capitolii et 
non alibi dieb, juridicis horisque ear, dumjus redditur in curia capitolii ^ 
ad reddendum jura inter homines dicte artis— personaJiUr residere. 

' This cmfirmaiio was registered by the Scriba Senatus ! The first 
is that of 1296, when Pandulf dei Savelli was Senator. The ratifica- 
tions then follow in great number ; they are important as determining 
the annals of the Senate. Among them is the confirmatio of the 
Senator Ursus Orsini, dated March 28, 1346, very neatly written by 
Cola di Rienzo, in his capacity of Scriba Sen, The Book of the 
Guild, consisting of 149 pages of parchment, was first used by me, a 
Roman, Ballanti, having drawn my attention to the Archives of the 
Roman merchants, in 1863, and Signor Giovanni Rigacci, the Keeper 
of the Archives, having given me access;to the MSS. The Staiuti dei 
mercanti di Roma were then edited by G. Gatti in 18S7. 



Ch. VII.] THE GUILD OF MERCHANTS. 315 

have come down to us were collected in 11317 and 
written down in the Latin language ; they neverthe- 
less preserve many usages of older date.^ They deal 
solely with the administration of the guild, and do not 
indicate any political circumstances or any share in 
the concerns of the state, except as regards the 
supervision of the mint, in order to prevent the coin- 
ing of false money.* 

Neither the merchant guild nor any other obtained 
any permanent influence in the aflairs of the Roman 
commune ; held down, as they were, by the power of 
the clergy, the aristocracy, and the proprietors of the 
soil. The ancient consular and senatorial families of 
the great burgher class of the first commune con- 
tinued to retain the power on the Capitol, and the 
treaty with Perugia and Narni, of the year 1242, 
shows the predominance of the nobility in the Roman 
Senate. Meanwhile, during the internal feuds of the 
time of Innocent III. and Gregory IX., and after- 
wards during the absence of the popes, the lower 

^ The Codex begins : In n. D» Amen, Ad Aon,, laud, et rever, D, 
n, Sahf, y. Ck» et B. M, mairis ej, ac B, Apolor, P. et P. et onm, 
sanctor, et ad hon, . . . mag, nob, et pot, viri Dnu RaynaMida lecto 
deigra, Aime Urbis Regius in urbe Vicarius nee non ad , , , pacif. 
Stat, totius universit, mercatantie urbis, Nos Angelus Blasii et 
Andreas Rubeus, Rogerius Romanuccii et Jacob, Cdtellini Consules 
mercatancie Urbis, . . . Then follow ^^ Statutarii 2jaA the Consiliarii 
mere, urb,^ congregati in eccl, B, Salv, in Pensilis de Urbe , , , hoc 
Stat, et subscripta capitula facimus et compilamus sub a, D, Millo 
CCCXVII, Ind, XIV, m,/uiii die XVI Pont, D, Mis, PP, XXH. 
The formulae of oaths for the officials follow. 

^ Paragraph, demonetafadenda , , , consules teneantur^-requirere 
dom, senatores — quod fieri faciant in urbe bonam et legaUm monetam 
de argento grossam et provisinum seu denarium minutum, super quo 
dicti dom, senatores — habeant consilium cum camerario mercatantia. 



3l6 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

strata of the people pressed upwards even in Rome 
and endeavoured to alter the constitution of the 
The commune. The official title, " Captain of the Roman 

of^e people," which Brancaleone first added to that of 
P*°P^ Senator and adopted in documents in 1254, con- 
notes a popular commune {populus) formed out of the 
lower classes of the citizens. Events, such as the 
democratic revolutions in Bologna, Milan, Florence, 
and Perugia, must also have taken place in Rome. 
For the rupture in the Senate under Innocent III., 
when the democratic party raised to power trusted 
men (boni homines)^ may in the first instance have 
been the origin of the later formation of a populus, 
or federation of all the guilds.^ That this was in 
harmony with the spirit of the age, is shown by an 
important revolution in Florence. The citizens there 
rose against the Ghibelline nobility in October 1250, 
organised a new popular commune {popold) and put 
forward Uberto of Lucca as leader of the people 
{Capitano del popolo)? Similar proceedings must 
undoubtedly have taken place in Rome. The office 
of a captain of the people, equivalent to that of 
popular tribune, was introduced into Italian cities 
about 1250, so that the podesti remained the 

^ When Richard di Sangermano says that the Romani plebei 
communitates forced the Senator John of Poli to abdicate in 1237, of 
whom does he speak, if not of the guilds of artisans ? 

* Villani, vi. cap. 39. Bonaini shows that as early as May 7, 1250, 
there was a Capttan, Populi with Anziani in Perugia {Arch, Starico, 
xvi. i. p. xliii.). In Genoa a Cap. P. was put forward in 1256. In 
1258 I find the first (Lupicinus) in Temi. In 1254 Boni&ice Castel- 
lano of Bologna was the first Cap, Pop, in Todi. Muratori (Antiq, 
Ital.f iv. 666) compares the office to that of Tribunus Populi of the 
ancients. 



CH.VII.] FALL OF BRANCALEONE. 3 17 

political representative of the communes, while the 
captain was invested with military power and a part 
of the judiciary authority. In Rome, it is true, the 
captain of the people appears but transitorily, since 
there were, as a rule, two senators in the city ; and 
Brancaleone, who in 1252 united the divided 
authority in his own person, called himself " Senator 
of the illustrious city and Captain of the Roman 
people." ^ 

Nobility as well as clergy, and above all the 
offended house of Colonna, contributed to work the 
fall of the great Bolognese. When, on the expira- 
tion of his three years' term of office, the populace 
desired his re-election, his adversaries overwhelmed 
him with accusations before the syndicus ; they com- 
plained that the Romans desired to perpetuate the 
tyranny of a foreigner, and finally they attacked the 
Capitol. Brancaleone, forced to lay down his arms, FaUof the 
surrendered to the people, was kept by them in 1^^! 
custody in the Septizonium, but was soon handed ^°«» 
over to the nobles and then confined in the tower of 
Passerano.2 This noble man, whose death was de- 
sired both by barons and cardinals, was hopelessly 
doomed, had he not been protected by the Roman 
hostages retained in Bologna. His courageous wife 

^ B, de Andalo dei gr, AltiuB Urbis Sen, III, ei Ro. Po, Caption, ^ 
in the document of May 10, 1254, quoted above. 

* Gul. de Nangis, Gesta Ludcmci IX, (Duchesne, v. 361), A. 
1255 : Branckaleon — de consilio quorund, Cardinalium et — Nobilium 
—obsessusfuit in Capitolio. Et dum se dedisset^ pop, postdt eum in 
custodia apud Septemsolis — tandetn iraditus nobilib, in quond, castro 
S. Fault quod dicitur Passavanlf fuit incarceratus et male tractattu, 
P&ssavant can be no other than Passaiani. 



3l8 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. nc. 

Galeana escaped firom Rome, and united her 
entreaties to those of her husband's relations, 
imploring the coondl of Bologna not to sorrender 
the hostages, but to compel the release of their 
fellow-citizeiL The republic of Bologna immediately 
sent some men held in h^ esteem to Rome, but 
the Pope, who had ventured to the city on the fall of 
the Senator, denied their request, and demanded the 
unconditional surrender of the hostages. Bologna 
steadfastly refused the demand The nobility and 
several cardinals now urged the Pope to place the 
Guelf city, the andent jnotectress of the Church, 
under the ban. But even the interdict itself failed 
to bend the indomitable courage of the Bolog^ese ; 
the free citizens showed that the terrors of the 
anathema had lost their force, and still kept the 
Roman hostages in strictest custody.^ 

Meanwhile, the victorious party proceeded to the 
election of a new Senator. Their choice fell on 
Martinus della Torre, a Milanese, but as Martinus 
would not accept the honour, Emmanuel de Madio 
was appointed Senator, while another candidate, 
Emmanuel, a citizen of Brescia, was elected Capi- 

^ Matt de Griffonibus (Mur., zviiL 114). Lazzari and Savioli, ad 
A, 1255, have corrected Matt Paris, who wrongly gives 1256 as the 
date of Brancaleone's £sdl. I have seen an account of the year 1255 
in the Archives of Bologna, which has been incorrectly read by Savioli 
(iii. i. 289), and which sajs : die sabati XIII, m, Nov. scriptum per 
potestaUm massario comm, Bononie D. Uguitioni de ArierUis et C, 
Auliverio de Axinellis et D, Nerio Rainerio et D. Henrigipto de la 
Fratta etD, Vinasar, notar, etD, Gerardodela Stalla Ambctxatoribus 
Cois Bomm, ituris pro facto Senatoris Rom., libr. CCXVI. don. This 
shows that Brancaleone was overthrown in the beginning of 
November 1255. 



Ch. VII.] EMMANUEL DE MADIO. 319 

taneus. Emmanuel was a citizen of Brescia, had Emmanuel 
been podest^ of Piacenza, and, forced to fly before seiiator,^' 
Ezzelino, had come to Rome.^ The election of a ^^^ 
stranger, even after the fall of Brancaleone, shows 
that the nobility did not yet venture to remain in- 
different to the demands of the people. The sup- 
pliant letters of the Roman hostages in Bologna, as 
well as the steadfastness of the Bolognese, who, 
having seized two relatives of Alexander IV. in the 
Romagna, now sent them back to the Pope, finally 
effected Brancaleone's release, to which result the 
threatening attitude of the populace may also have / 

contributed.* Brancaleone was compelled to appear 
before the syndicus of the new Senator to renounce 
his rights, which he did with the explanation, that he 
was thereto compelled by force. On his departure Branca- 
from Rome in August or September 1256, the Roman x^^ed 
nobles sent the syndicus, Andrea Mardone, after ^^'^ 

•' pnson. 

him to Florence, and induced the Florentine council 
to forbid the dreaded ex-Senator to leave the city 
until he had renewed the renunciation to which he 
had sworn in Rome. Brancaleone yielded, but with 
the same reservation of his rights towards the Roman 
commune and to private persons ; rights which, as 

^ Galvan. Flamma, c. 290, A. 1256. Martinus de la Turre 
Senator Rom, efficitur — tanun — renutUiavit, Tunc Emanuel Potestas 
— Senator Rom, efficitur in malum suum, quia per Pop, . Rom, 
mactatus hiit, £. de Madiis was podesUi of Genoa in 1243. Con- 
tinaation of Caf&rus, ad A, 1243. ^^ entered on his office at latest 
in the spring of 1256. Ottavio Rossi, Teairo di Elogi Historici di 
Bresciani Illustri^ p. 87. 

■ Savioli, iii. ii. n. 699, 700, gives the letter of complaint of the 
Roman hostages, and the answer of the Romans. These letters, 
however, seem to me very doubtful. 



320 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. DL 

he explained, he had never reqpunced. Doubtless 
these included the demand for a portion of his salaiy 
withheld by the Camera. He then returned, covered 
with honour, to his native city, which, on the surrender 
of the hostages, was released from the ban,^ 



4. Fall of Embianubl de Madio, 1257 — ^Thk Dema- 
gogue Matteo de Bsalvere — Brangaleomi 
Senator a second time — Punishment infucted 
ON THE Nobility — Destruction of their Towers 
IN Rome — Death of Brancaleone, 1258 — His 
honourable Memory — His Coins — Castellano 
DEGLi Andalo, Senator — His Fall and Imprison- 
ment — Napoleon Orsini and Richard Anibaldi, 
Senators — Fall of the House of Romano — 
The Phenomenon of the Flagellants. 

The rule of Emmanuel de Madio was stormy and 
unfortunate. A creature of the Guelf nobility, he 
served merely party ends, and by his weakness or 
bad government irritated the populace, which had 
been the object of Brancaleone's care. The Anibaldi, 
Colonna, Poli, Malabranca, and other nobles seized 
the power ; the old state of confusion was revived, 
and the odious reaction of the nobles engendered 
civil war. The populace, which longed for a return 
of the firm rule of Brancaleone, rose, and fights took 
place both on the Capitol and in the streets.^ The 

^ Report ot September 25, 1256, from Florence, in Lazzari, n. 
I. . . . Actum in civ, florentie in S, Johanne trasentib, Dom, 
Alamannode Turre potestale florentie, 

* Letter of Sienese merchants from Rome to Rufinus de Mandello, 



Ch. VII.] FALL OF EMMANUEL DE MADIO. 321 

revolt became general in the spring of 1257. The 
guilds united, and raised Matteo de Bealvere, a 
master baker of English origin, as their leader in the 
civil war. Emmanuel was slain, a portion of the Fall of the 
nobility expelled, and the Pope himself forced to Emmanuel 
withdraw to Viterbo, where he remained until the^l^f^^' 
end of May.^ 

The Romans immediately recalled Brancaleone. 
He came not without danger, for the Church placed 
an ambush in his way. The noble Bolognese, who Branca- 
had so vigorously governed the burghers for three ^^ °°** 
years, and had protected them from the tyranny of ^*°*^''' 
the nobles, was received with rejoicings. The sena- 
torial power was again undoubtedly awarded him 
for three years.^ 

podestii of Siena, in which they speak of a comhat on April 20 
(1256). Preiiumjuit — crudelissimum inter nobiles^ — tt PopuL Rom, — 
inceptum per Anibaldenses in Capitolio adpedem turrisjohis, Bovis ; 
the people attack the Capitol, in quo erant Senator et Capitaneus ; 
they take the tower of John Poli {Torre di Conti), of the Anibaldi and 
of Angelus Malabranca ; Anibaldi de Anabaldeschis is slain. G. 
Milanesi (Giom, Stor, degli Archivi Toscttni, 1858, iL 188) mistakenly 
assumes from this that Brancaleone was taken prisoner three times. 
He was only imprisoned once. That this letter belongs to the year 
1256 is shown by reports in the Archives of Siena, according to 
which Rufinus Rubacontis de Mandello was podestii throughout the 
year 1256. 

^ Matt. Paris, ad A, 1258 (with fidse chronology) : Confederatis 
^;itur popularib, de consilio cujusd, Anglici^ concivis eor,, ntagistri 
pistorum in urde, Mathei dicti de Beahfere^ facto impetu vehementi, 
, • . — Papa — se subito contuUt Viterbium, The Regesta of Alex- 
ander IV. show that he was in the Lateran on March 12, 1257, in 
Viterbo on May 29. 

' Pier CantinelU, p. 236, ad A. 1257 : eo vero anno reelectus fuit 
Dom, Brancal, . . . G. de Nangis, A. 1257. The same writer's 
Gesta Lud, IX. (Duchesne, v. 370). Paris is mistaken in his date, 
VOL. V. X 



322 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Brancaleone entered on his second rule with a 
severity aggravated perhaps by a thirst for revenge, 
but rendered necessary by the condition of the city. 
He banished all the oppressors of the people, or else 
condemned them to prison or to death ; two of the 
Anibaldi, relations of Cardinal Richard, were sen- 
tenced to the gallows. He formed a treaty with 
Manfred, who had now established his rule over 
Sicily and the mainland, and who already cherished 
hopes of the crown ; the object of the treaty was the 
annihilation of the Guelf party. The inconsistency 
of Brancaleone, a republican by character and in- 
clination, forming an alliance with the national 
enemy of Italian civic freedom, originated in the 
attitude of the city of Rome to the Pope. If the 
Pope appears as the natural head of the Guelfs and 
as the protector of municipal independence, he comes 
forward in Rome as a Ghibelline, as the defender of 
the feudal barons, by whose help alone he held the 
democracy in check. Alexander IV. excommuni- 

as also in his belief, that, under the leadership of the baker, the 
populace released Brancaleone. He is acquainted with but one 
imprisonment, but erroneously repeats it in a second year. Branca- 
leone remained in Bologna until recalled by the Revolution. Docum. 
2 in Lazzari, it is true, does not show that he was in Bologna on 
May 9. We may, however, conclude that he was back in Rome 
before May 30, 1257. The documents of the Senate ^lil us for the 
time immediately subsequent to Emmanuel's faXL It is possible that 
he was at once succeeded by another foreign Senator ; this seems to 
follow from a passage in Manfred's Manifesto to the Romans (Foggia, 
24 Maij 1265 ; Cappasso, Ifist Dip/, regni Stc, n. 460), in whidi he 
speaks of Rome being governed by the following men : Brancaleonis 
bofumtensis, Manuelis dc Majo^ Boncontis urbevetani, nee non, ilL 
comitis B (?). 



Ch. VII.] DESTRUCTION OF TOWERS IN ROME. 323 

cated Brancaleone and his advisers. His impotence The Pope 
was answered with derision. The Senator explained mi^iites 
that the Pope had no right to excommunicate the ^^tor. 
Roman magistrate. He publicly proclaimed an ex- 
pedition of revenge against Anagni ; he announced 
that the native town of the Pope was to be rendered 
subject to the Senate, if not razed to the soil Alex* 
ander's relatives, sent to Viterbo by the dismayed 
commune of Anagni, threw themselves with en- 
treaties at the feet of the Pope; Alexander was 
consequently forced to humble himself and sue for 
mercy at the hands of the dreaded Senator,^ whom 
he probably released from the ban. His civil power 
in Rome was no longer recognised. 

Brancaleone now determined to break the defiance 
of the aristocracy by a master-stroke ; he ordered the 
towers of the nobles, fortresses for the oppression of 
the populace, prisons for debtors, dens of infamy and 
violence, to be pulled down. By this proscription 
sentence of demolition was passed on more than one 
hundred and forty strong towers, against which the 
populace rushed, thirsting for destruction. The 
number of fortresses destroyed may afford some idea Branca- 
of the multitude that existed, for although the just ^'J^ys 
law may have applied to the greater number of the ^^gj^s 
towers, it is difficult to believe that all were over- of the 
thrown by Brancaleone's orders, and many belonging ^Rome. 
to Ghibellines or friendly nobles probably escaped. 
If we may roughly estimate the towers of the nobles 
in the city at three hundred, may allot three hundred 
to the city walls, and reckon an equal number for the 

* Matt Paris, p. 959. 



324 MOMK MM THE MIDDIX AGSS. [l 



tnc Kotut of tnis period most hxvc pf^ 
tented the bdfigcvent a^prrt of a. city laising nme 
h m id i ed Us m tis Umjads the ddcs.^ When we le- 
fnember that several of these tuwcis tMinwl an 
esKntial pait of the hooses of nobles and were ooo- 
ftmcted on the h nildin gs of an i i q iii i y, it fellows diat 
this s ynrnn a tir destmction most have i nvolved the 
nun of many historic moanmentSL Biancaleooe 
fOSKy consequently be numbered amoi^st the wutst 
enemies of the Roman monument^ and a new period 
of die ruin of die ancient dtjr must take its date firom 
hinL* Indiefoortee n dicentniyit wasrqiorted that 
he had destroyed die Temple of Qnir^niSL' The 
palaces dedicated to destruction were abouidoQed to 
pillage, and on this occasoo many domestic archives 
with didr documents must have perished. 

^ Three hmidfed tofpen bdongnigto private pahoes uc mdier too 
few dttn too maoj for Rome, sinoe even Viterbo numbered 197 
(Bum, p. 131). As bte as tlie time of Maitin V. tbere woe still 
tattf'fom Umcn m tlie Boigo of the Vatkan akoe. Tanoffui, U 
sacregrotU^ p. 407. Coocenm^ the toven of the Italian dties, see 
G. Gozzadim, DelU Torri Gemtilme M Bdtgma^ Bologna, 1875, 
Introdnctioo. 

' Dind fecU-^ndniium turret drdter eaUmm ei quadragimia — : 
lfatt« Paris, pw 975 (A. 1258). William de Nangis places this better 
in 1257 : turres urbis defidens: pneter tttrrim Neopoiemis Camutis 
(an Ofnni). In 1248 the GfaibeDines overthiew tfaiity-siz palaces and 
toweis of the Guelfr in Florence, among which were some towers 
130 dls in hei^^ The building was mdermined, p ropped op with 
wood, the wood was burnt, and thus the tower fell. Villani, ri. c 53. 

' Fragment of the description of the dty bj Johannes rAKhaff ni de 
Cenronibns (in UrUchs, Cod, urbis R, Tcpegr., pw 144): m eod. 
Quirinali nwtte fuU Umplum Qtdrmale RomuU demoHtum ab oUm 
pro mediitaU regimine pcregrino BrcmckaUoms Bononiemis turn 
lenatorU urbis. 



\ 



Ch. VII.] RUINOUS ASPECT OF THE CITY. 325 

The sight which the city presented after this act 
of justice must have been sufficiently appalling. 
Rome, however, like all other cities, was accustomed 
to such destruction. The citizens of these times 
never enjoyed the feeling of a secure and well-ordered 
ancestral city. They walked in the midst of ruins, 
and saw the number of these ruins increase day 
by day. The barbarous destruction of houses was 
almost as common an occurrence as the issue of some 
fresh police regulation in the present day. The 
cities of the Middle Ages were involved in almost 
constant revolution, and streets, walls, and dwellings 
reflected in their rapid transformation the character 
of the party quarrels and the disturbances of an ever- 
changing rule. Whenever the people rose in revolt, 
they pulled down the houses of the enemy ; when 
one family made war upon another, the palaces be- 
longing to the vanquished were destroyed ; when the 
State authorities exiled the guilty, their dwellings 
were torn down ; when the Inquisition discovered 
heretics in a house, the house was, by order of the 
government, levelled to the ground.^ When an army 
conquered a hostile city, it threw down its walls, even 
if it did not destroy the city itself. After the cele- 
brated battle of Monteaperto, the indignant Ghibel- 
lines were only restrained from destroying Florence 
by the generous reluctance of a noble citizen ; and 

^ The fonnula used therefor in sac, xiii. : domum piaque tpstus 
{hereticty—Judicamusfundiius dtruendam^ ut sitdeatero receptaculum 
sordium^ quod muUts Umporib, fuit latibulum perfidarum. The 
Visconti in Milan were the first to order the houses of persons under 
the ban to be spared. Galvan. Flamma, p. 1041, and Murat, 51, 
Dissertation. 



326 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

even at the end of the thirteenth century the anger 
of a pope sufficed to level an entire ctty with the soiL 
Boniface VIII. had salt scattered over the ruins of 
Palestrina, as Barbarossa had formeriy had it sown 
over Milan. 

In the ruin of these towers the families were also 
ruined; many nobles expiated their guilt by exile, 
confiscation of property, or execution. But peace 
and security now prevailed in the city and on the 
Campagna, where the predatory rabble was annihi- 
lated.^ 

Brancaleone ruled, feared and loved, for but a 
short time. Fever laid hold of him while he was 
besieging Cometo, a place important on account of 
its corn-market, which had refused him the oath of 
homage. He had himself conveyed to Rome and 
Death of died in the full vigour of life in 1258.* The 
^^^2ss. unanimous judgment of contemporaries honoured 
Brancaleone d'Andal6 as the inexorable avenger of 

* Matt Paris says Bedeweros ; these are the Beroveri or Bervertt, 
men armed with light weapons, who fought in the front ranks, and 
similar to the Ribaldi^ a name now applied to brigands. 

2 In ohsidicne Cameti infirtnitaU correptus^ Romam se fecit deferri^ 
€t ibi vUatn finivit. Again in 1257, in W. Nangis [Gesta Lud, IX, ^ 
p. 370). On July 6 Alexander IV, was still in Viterbo ; he probably 
only went to Anagni on Brancaleone*s death. A document in the 
City Archives of Temi shows that Brancaleone was still alive in April 
1258. Nami and Temi elected him as arbitrator ; his envoys pro- 
nounced their Laudum on April 18, 1258, in S, Trinitatis de castro 
Mirande : Petrm Riccardi de Blancis et Jacobus D, Petri Johis de 
Ilperino Ambasciaiores nob. viri D. Brancaleonis IlL Senatoris Urbis 
et commun. incliti Altni et Amplissimi Pop, Romani . . , Datum 
A, Dni, MCCLVIIL tpre D, Alex, IV, PP, Ind, I, m, Aprelis die 
XVIII, (Parchment n. i60| with other reports concerning the same 
compromise.) 



Ch. VII.] DEATH OF BRANCALEONE. 327 

all injustice, the firm friend of the law and the pro- 
tector of the people — the best eulogy that can be 
bestowed on a ruler in any age. In this great citizen 
of Bologna, the practical pupil of its school of law, 
reappears an ancient spirit, who finely embodied in 
himself the republican energy of his age. For his 
glory, suffice it to say, that for several years he was 
able to maintain order in the corrupt city, and to 
give it a legitimate freedom. Had he enjoyed a 
longer reign he would have introduced great changes 
in Rome's relations to the Pope, and even the long 
tyranny of a man of his stamp could not prove other- 
wise than beneficial to the inhabitants. 

The people honoured the memory of its best 
Senator in a curious fashion ; his head was deposited The 
like a relic in a valuable vase, and placed to his J^^^ 
lasting remembrance on a marble pillar — a strange p™ca- 
apotheosis, but a trophy that adorned the Capitol head 
more than the Carrocio of Milan.^ The recollection SipitoL 
of Brancaleone has vanished from Rome, where 
neither monument nor inscription recalls his name. 
His coins alone have been preserved. They display 
on one side the effigy of a lion passant and 
Brancaleone's name, on the other, Rome enthroned, 
holding in her hands an orb and a palm and 
the inscription, " Rome, head of the world." It 
was consequently the first time that the name of a 
senator was engraved on the Roman coins, which 

^ Matt Paris, p. 98a The Pope undoubtedly caused this relic to 
be afterwards destroyed, unwilling that beside the mythic heads of 
the apostles the veritable head of a senator should be worshipped by 
the people. 



328 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

bore in addition merely symbols of secular authority. 
The portrait or name of S. Peter, which had hitherto 
been customary, was omitted.^ 

The Pope, released by death from the formidable 
/ enemy in his own house, hoped to re-establish the 
dominion of the sacred chair in Rome. He sent 
envoys to the city and forbade the election of the 
new Senator without his sanction. The Romans, 
however, jeered at his command. On his deathbed 
Brancaleone had counselled them to elect his own 
Casteiiano uncle as his successor, and thus Castellano degli 
SSud6, Andal6, hitherto praetor of Fermo, was appointed 
^^^^* Senator.* In vain the Pope demanded his right of 
election, in vain he asserted that even as a simple 
Roman citizen he had a voice in the election of the 
Senator. Alexander IV. was at the time at Anagni, 
nor did he ever again come to Rome. Castellano, 
following the example of his nephew, secured his 
safety by means of hostages ; his position, however, 
was more difficult and his fall inevitable. The exiled 
nobles, as well as the Pope, undermined his power, so 
that it was only by an incessant struggle that he 
maintained his rule until the spring of 1259. The 
populace, who had been gained by bribes, rose 
against Brancaleone's uncle. Driven from the Capi- 
tol, Castellano threw himself into one of the Roman 

1 BRANCALEO S.P.Q.R.— ROMA CAPVT MVNDL Simi- 
larly the succeeding coins of the Senate. 

' Castellano, the son of AndaI6, had several brothers, among them 
the celebrated Loderingo, the founder of the Order of the F'rali 
Gaudentit and Brancaleone, whose son was the great Senator of 
Rome. Genealogical tree of the house of Andal6 in the Cromica 
di Ronzano by G. Gozzadini (Bologna, 1851), p. 89. 



Ch. VII.] TWO NATIVE SENATORS APPOINTED. 329 

fortresses, where he made a manful resistance against 
the besiegers.^ Through the influence of the Pope 
two native Senators were now again appointed: 
Napoleon, a son of the celebrated Matthew Rubeus Napoleon 
of the house of Orsini, and Richard, son of Peter Richard 
Anibaldi.2 Although, with this revival of an ancient |^^^' 
custom, the Guelf party rose again to power, these las?- 
Senators nevertheless continued to uphold the inde- 
pendence of the Capitol. They renewed the peace, 
which had been concluded with Tivoli by Bran- 
caleone and Emmanuel de Madio, in such wise that 
the town was obliged to surrender itself once for 
all as a vassal to the Roman people. Hencefor- 
ward Tivoli not only paid a yearly tribute of one 
thousand pounds, but also received a podesti ap- 
pointed by the council of the Roman commune 
under the title of count. It meanwhile retained the 
right of living according to its statutes, of appointing 
a SedicUis or city judge, a Capitaneus Militics or 
popular tribune, and other magistrates.^ 

^ In quodam castro Roma — 5$ strenue defendit^ ne a nobilitate sui 
nepotis — deviant — . Matt Paris, p. 986. 

" A letter of the Pope to Terradna of May 18, 1259, mentions both 
the Senators (Contatori) : nob, viri Neapolionus Mai hoi Rubei^ ot 
Ricardus Petri de Anibaldo Senaiores urbis, . . . The revolution 
must consequently have taken place in April at latest. 

• Document of August 7, 1259. Vitale, Appendiic, n. iv. Michele 
Giustiniani ( Vescovi e govematori di Tivoli, Rome, 1665) does not 
begin the series of Roman comites of Tivoli until the year 1 375. Viola, 
Tivoli f p. 183. The statutes of Tivoli of 1305, printed in 1522, show 
that the offices of the Comes Tiburis, Caput Militia and Sedialis, 
established in that document, were still retained. Caput Militia : a 
syndic, a guardian of justice and of the constitution. His office 
suryived, beside that of the Vicegerens (the former Comes)^ until the 
beginning of the nineteenth century. 



330 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

Castellano had laid down his arms ; he languished 
in prison, and, as formerly his nephew, was only 
saved from death by the Roman hostages, who were 
detained in custody by his friends in Bologna. The 
Romans, fearing for the fate of these boys, turned 
to the Pope, entreating him to protect them. Alex- 
ander consequently demanded that the commune 
of Bologna would take the hostages under their own 
keeping. The commune refused. The Pope con- 
sequently caused the Bishop of Viterbo to lay 
Bologna under the interdict.^ 

Castellano was finally saved by a remarkable 
movement in the cities of Italy, which followed on 
the fall of Ezzelino and his house. This tyrant of 
the Middle Ages, whose name has become a by- 
word, had gradually extended his rule over the 
most important communes of Lombardy. No 
inducements held out by the popes had availed to 
make Frederick's son-in-law false to his principles, 
or persuaded him to enter the service of the Church, 
which, at this price, would have pardoned every sin. 
After a heroic resistance he fell at last into the 
power of his united enemies at Cassano on Sep- 
tember 27, 1259. Historians depict the last struggles 
of this extraordinary man, in whom the spirit of the 
age transformed the germs of the highest virtues into 
diabolical crimes, so that he has become immor- 

* Alexander IV. to the Bishop of Viterbo, Anagni, April 30, 1259 : 
in Pinzi, Star, d, Vif,, it 76. The interdict also fell on the uni- 
versity. The celebrated jurist, Odofredus, writes : debemus regratiari 
Deo— quod hunc librum cotnplevimus . . . propter interdictum hujus 
CivitaiiSy que erat interdicta occasione ohstdum^ quos habebat Dam, 
CcuieUanus de AndcUb, Tiraboschi, Storiadella Lett,y iv. 5a 



Ch. VII.] FALL OF EZZELINO. 33 1 

talised as the Nero of his time.^ They describe the 
rejoicings of mankind, who crowded to enjoy the 
sight of the imprisoned tyrant, and they liken the 
terrible captive to an owl sitting silent in the midst 
of a swarm of noisy little birds. Ezzelino, laden 
with the threefold curse, filled with silent contempt 
for the world, the Papacy and the destiny which had 
been foretold him by astrologers, died on October 7, Death of 
1259, in the castle of Soncino, where he was honour- ^^^ 
ably buried. Terrible was the fate of his brother 1259- 
Alberic, who had a second time deserted the Church. 
After a desperate defence in the tower of S. Zeno, 
he had been obliged to surrender with his seven 
sons, two daughters, and his wife. His entire family 
was strangled before his eyes, and he himself was 
dragged to death by horses. 

The terrible fall of the house of Romano, following 
on other appalling events, combined to fill the cup of 
horror to overflowing. Incessant wars and scourges 
had visited the cities. " My soul shudders," writes a 
contemporary chronicler, " to describe the sufferingfs 
of the time, for it is now twenty years since the 
blood of Italy has flowed like a stream, on account 
of the discord between Church and empire." * Man- 
kind was suddenly thrilled by an electric shock 

^ Verci has defended Ezzelino. Rolandinus frequently speaks of 
him with ecstasy, and says : gtMd esse debet exemplum cunctts, ut sit 
modis omnibus defendenda libertas usque ad mortem (lib. viL c. 13). 
The Historia Cortusior, places in the mouth of Alberic words worthy 
of Tiberius : mundo dati sumus, ut saUra ukiscamur (Murat, zii. 

769). 

* Quod occasime Sedis Apostolicee ae Imperialism sanguis Italicus 
funditur velut aqua. The Monk of P^ua, ad A, 1258. 



332 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

which drove it to repentance ; countless multitudes 
rose with lamentations in the cities, and, scourging 
themselves until they bled, advanced in processions 
of hundreds, thousands, nay, even tens of thousands. 
City after city was drawn into this current of de- 
spair, and mountains and valleys soon re-echoed to 
The the touching cry: "Peace! peace! Lord, give us 

^§2™^^ peace ! " Many historians of the time speak of the 
Flagellants, strange occurrence with astonishment ; all say that 
this moral tempest first rose in Perugia and then 
spread to Rome. It laid hold of people of all ages 
and conditions. Even children of five years scourged 
themselves. Monks and priests grasped the crucifix 
and preached repentance. Aged hermits issued 
from their solitary caves in the wilderness, appeared 
for the first time in the streets, and taught the same 
lesson. Men threw aside their clothes down to the 
girdle, covered their heads in a cowl and seized the 
scourge. They formed processions, and in files of 
two and two, carrying tapers at night, walked bare- 
foot through the frosts of winter. They surrounded 
the churches with terror-striking songs ; threw them- 
selves weeping before the altars ; and chanting 
hymns of the passion of Christ, scourged themselves 
with frantic energy. At one moment they cast 
themselves on the ground; at another raised their 
bare arms to heaven. Looking upon them the be- 
holder must have been made of stone, to refrain 
from following their example. Dissensions ceased ; 
usurers and thieves surrendered themselves to justice ; 
sinners confessed ; the prisons were opened ; assas- 
sins made search for their enemies, and, placing a 



Ch. VII.] THE FLAGELLANTS. 333 

naked sword in their hand, implored them to kill 
them : these enemies, throwing aside the weapon in 
horror, fell weeping at the feet of their offenders. 
When these appalling bands of pilgrims approached 
another town, they rushed on it like a hurricane, 
and the infection of the flagellant brotherhood thus 
spread from city to city.^ It reached Rome from The 
Perugia late in the autumn of 1260. Even the stem S^^** 
Romans fell into ecstasies. Their prisons were *^^" 
opened, and Castellano of Andal6 was thus able to 
escape to his native city of Bologna.* 

The appearance of the Flagellants is one of the \ 
most striking phenomena of the Middle Ages. A 
long and serious social confusion, the consequence 
of the war between the empire and the priesthood, 
had found expression in the pious frenzy of the 
Crusades and the longing of mankind for re- 
demption ; the same longing was repeated in the 
Flagellant movement of 126a Suffering humanity 
collected in the depth of its consciousness the im- 
pressions of the events with which it had been 

^ See Salimbene, the Monk of Padua, Jacopo de Voragine, 
Hermann Altahensis, Cafiaras, Riccobald, F. Pipin, Galvan. Flamma, 
who tay: propter mortem Yuiini de Romano scuriaH infiniH 
afparueruni per totam Lombardiam (c. 296). Palavicini and Mwfred 
forbade this dangerous phenomenon under pain of death. The Torri 
erected 600 gallows in Milan, so that the Flagellants retired (Murat., 
Ant. IUU,y vi., Diss. 75). The Pope, scenting heresy, prohibited the 
processions ; they ceased in January 1261. 

* Cron, di Bologna (Murat, zviii. 271), A. 1260: I Perugini 
andarono nudi per Perugia battendosi; poscia i Romam andarono 
simUmente — aliora lasciarono i Romani tutti i prigioni-^per Pamor di 
DiOy e lasciarono la famiglia di Messer Castellano diprigione ; e M, 
Castellano fuggi daUa citth di Roma, 



334 ROME IN THE MIDDLE AGES. [Bk. ix. 

stirred — ^heresy, the Inquisition, and the stake; the 
fanaticism of the mendicant orders, the Tartars, the 
fierce struggle of the two universal powers, the 
devastating civil war in every city, the tyrznny of 
an Ezzelino, famine, pestilence, and leprosy; such 
were the scourges which chastised the world at this 
period. The processions of these Flagellants, who 
seemed like so many wandering demons, was the 
popular expression of a universal misery; the de- 
spairing protest and the self-inflicted chastisement 
of contemporary society, which was seized by a 
moral contagion as powerful as that which had laid 
hold of it in the time of the Crusades. In this dark 
form of penance mankind took leave of the historic 
period of the struggle between the Church and the 
empire. Towards its close a genius appeared as 
its result. This was Dante, who, alone of all this 
mediaeval world, created a unique monument His 
immortal poem resembles the marvellous pile of 
some Gothic cathedral, which displays on its pin- 
nacles all the most prominent figures of the time, 
emperors and popes, heretics and saints, tyrants and 
republicans, the Old and the New, sages and creators, 
slaves and freemen, all grouped around the penitent 
genius of humanity, who seeks for liberty.^ 

^ LibertH van cercando ch*i si cara. 
Corns sa e hi per lei vita rifitUa. 

--Purg., I