CHAP. XI. FREDERICK CROWNED IN ROME. 293 conciliated some cities. On the thirtieth of September he was in Verona, on the fourth of October in Bologna. His Chancellor, Conrad of Metz, had arranged the terms on which he was to receive the Imperial crown. Frederick advanced with a great array of churchmen in his retinuethe Archbishops of Mentz, of Ravenna, the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Bishops of Metz, Passau, Trent, Brixen, Augsburg, Duke Louis of Bavaria, and Henry Count Palatine. Ambassadors appeared from almost all the cities of Italy from Apulia, from the Counts of Celano, St. Severino, and Aquila; deputies from the city of Naples. The people of Rome were quiet and well pleased. The only untoward incident which disturbed the peace was a quarrel about a dog between the Ambassadors of Florence and Pisa, which led to a bloody war. On the twenty-second of November Frederick and his Queen were crowned in St. Peter's amid universal acclamations. Frederick disputed not the covenanted price to be paid for the Imperial crown. He received the Cross once more from the hand of Cardinal Ugolino. He swore that part of his forces should set forth for the Holy Land in the March of the following year, himself in August. He released his vassals from their fealty in all the territories of the Countess Matilda, and made over the appointment of all the podestas to the Pope; some who refused to submit were placed by the Chancellor Conrad under the ban of the Empire. He put the Pope in possession of the whole region from Radicofani to Ceperano, with the March of Ancona and the Dutchy of Spoleto. favour of His liberality was not limited by these grants. Two laws concerning the immunities of ecclesiastics Laws in and the suppression of heretics, might satisfy the ecclesiastics. severest churchman. The first absolutely annulled all laws or usages of cities, communities, or ruling powers which might be or were employed against the liberties of the churches or of spiritual persons, or against the laws of the Church and of the Empire. Outlawry and heavy fines were enacted not only against those who enforced, but who counselled or aided in the enforcement of such usages: the offenders forfeited, if contumacious for a whole year, all their goods. No tax or burthen could be set upon ecclesiastics, churches, or spiritual foundations. Whoever arraigned a spiritual person before a civil tribunal forfeited his right to implead; the tribunal which admitted such arraignment lost its jurisdiction; the judge who refused justice three times to a spiritual person in any matter forfeited his judicial authority. The law against heretics vied in sternness with that of Innocent III., confirmed by Otho IV. All Law against heretics. Cathari, Paterines, Leonists, Speronists, Arnoldists, and dissidents of all other descriptions, were incapable of holding places of honour, and under ban. Their goods. were confiscated, and not restored to their children; "for outrages against the Lord of Heaven were more heinous than against a temporal lord." Whoever, suspected of heresy, did not clear himself after a year's trial was to be treated as a heretic. Every magistrate on entering upon office must himself take an oath of orthodoxy, and swear to punish all whom the Church might denounce as heretics. If any temporal lord did not rid his lands of heretics, the true believers might take the business into their own hands, and seize the goods of the delinquent, provided that the rights of an innocent lord were not thereby impeached. All who concealed, aided, protected heretics were under ban and interdict; if they did not make satisfaction within two years, under outlawry; they could hold no office, nor inherit, nor enter any plea, nor bear testimony. Three other laws, based on the eternal principles of morality, accompanied these acts of ecclesiastical legislation, or of temporal legislation in the spirit of the Church. One prohibited the plundering of wrecks, excepting the ships of pirates and infidels. Another protected pilgrims; they were to be received Other laws. with kindness; if they died, their property was to be restored to their rightful heirs. The third protected the persons and labours of the cultivators of the soil. The Pope and the Emperor, notwithstanding some Constit. Frederick II. in Corp. Jur. more severe, 1224. Raynold. sub ann. tit i. Bullar. Roman. i. 63. This law was renewed and made 1231. CHAP. XI. DISASTROUS NEWS FROM THE EAST. 295 trifling differences, parted in perfect amity. "Never," writes Honorius, "did Pope love Emperor as he loved his son Frederick." Each had obtained some great objects: the Pope the peaceable surrender of the Mathildine territories, and the solemn oath that Frederick would speedily set forth on the Crusade. The Emperor retired in peace and joy to the beloved land of his youth. The perilous question of his right to the kingdom of Sicily had been intentionally or happily avoided; he had been recognised by the Pope as Emperor and King of Sicily. There were still brooding causes of mutual suspicion and dissatisfaction. Frederick pursued with vigour his determination of repressing the turbulent nobles of Apulia; the castles of the partisans of Otho were seized; they fled, and, he bitterly complained, were received with more than hospitality in the Papal dominions. He spared not the inimical bishops; they were driven from their sees; some imprisoned. The Pope loudly protested against this audacious violation of the immunities of Churchmen. Frederick refused them Sept. 8. entrance into the kingdom; he had rather forfeit his crown than the inalienable right of the sovereign, of which he had been defrauded by Innocent III., of visiting treason on all his subjects." Loss of Then in the next year came the fatal news from the East-the capture, the disasters which followed A.D. 1221. the capture of Damietta. The Pope and the Damietta. Emperor expressed their common grief: the Pope was bowed with dismay and sorrow;" the tidings pierced as a sword to the heart of Frederick.° Frederick had sent forty triremes, under the Bishop of Catania and the Count of Malta; they had arrived too late. But this dire reverse showed that nothing less than an overwhelming force could restore the Christian cause in the East; and in those days of colder religious zeal, even the Emperor and King of Sicily could not at once summon such overwhelming force. Dec. 1120 to Meeting at Frederick was fully occupied in the Sicilian dominions : during his minority, and during his absence, the powerful Germans, Normans, Italians, even Churchmen, had usurped fiefs, castles, cities:" he had to resume by force rights unlawfully obtained, to dispossess men whose only title had been open or secret leanings to the Emperor Otho; to punish arbitrary oppression of the people; to destroy strong castles built without licence; to settle ancient feuds and suppress private wars: it needed all his power, his popularity, his firmness, to avert insurrection during these vigorous but necessary measures. Two great May, 1121. assizes held at Capua and Messina showed the confusion in the affairs of both kingdoms. But from such nobles he could expect no ready obedience to assemble around his banner for an expedition to the Holy Land. Instead of a great fleet, suddenly raised, as by the wand of an enchanter, as the Pope seemed to expect, and a powerful army, in April in the year 1222 the Pope and the Emperor met at Veroli to deliberate on the Crusade. They agreed to proclaim a great assembly at Verona in the November of that at which the Pope and the Emperor were to be present. All princes, prelates, knights, and vassals were to be summoned to unite in one irresistible effort for the relief of the East. The assembly at Verona did not take place; the illness of the Pope, the occupations of the Emperor, were alleged as excuses for the further delay. A second time the Pope and the Emperor met at Ferentino; with them King John of Jerusalem, the Patriarch, the March, 1223. Grand Master of the Knights Templars. Frederick explained the difficulties which had impeded his movements, first in Germany, now in Sicily. To the opposition of his turbulent barons was now added the danger of an insurrection of the Saracens in Sicily. Frederick himself was engaged in a short but obstinate war. Even the King of Jerusalem deprecated the At Ferentino, P Letter of Frederick to the Pope from Trani, March 3, 1221. The two following passages show that this was no feigned excuse:"Imperator in Sicilia de Mirabello triumphavit, et de ipso et suis fecit year, quod eorum meruerat exigentia com- CHAP. XI. INDIFFERENCE ABOUT CRUSADE. 297 despatch of an insufficient force. Two full years were to be employed, by deliberate agreement, in awakening the dormant zeal of Christendom; but Frederick, now a widower, bound himself, it might seem, in the inextricable fetters of his own personal interest and ambition, by engaging to marry Iolante, the beautiful daughter of King John. Two years passed away; King John of Jerusalem travelled over Western Christendom, to England, France, Germany, to represent in all lands the state of extreme peril and distress to which his kingdom was reduced. Everywhere he met with the most courteous and royal reception; but the days of Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard were gone by. France, England, Germany, Spain, were involved in their own affairs; a few took the Cross, and offered sums of money to no great amount; and this was all which was done by the royal preacher of the Crusade. Tuscany and Lombardy were almost as indifferent to the expostulations of Cardinal Ugolino, who had for some years received full power from the Emperor to awaken, if possible, the sluggish ardour of those provinces. King John and the Patriarch, after visiting Apulia, reported to the Pope the absolute impossibility of raising any powerful armament by the time appointed in the treaty of Ferentino. mano. Honorius was compelled to submit; at St. Germano was framed a new agreement, by two Cardinals At San Gercommissioned by the Pope, which deferred for July, 1225. two years longer (till August, 1227) the final departure of the Crusade. Frederick permitted himself to be bound by stringent articles. In that month of that year he would proceed on the Crusade, and maintain one thousand knights at his own cost for two years: for each knight who was deficient, he was to pay the penalty of fifty marks, to be at the disposal of the King, the Patriarch, and the Master of the Knights Templars, for the benefit afterwards transplanted many of them to Lucera. So far was Frederick as yet from any suspicious dealings with the Saracens. The Parliament at Messina had passed persecuting laws against the Jews. A law of the same year protected the churches and the clergy from the burthens laid upon them by the nobles. Ric. San Germ., sub ann. |