us." More than this, Innocent must listen in patience, with suppressed indignation, to the "grievances" against which the Nobles and whole realm of England solemnly protested by their proctors: the subsidies exacted beyond the Peter'spence, granted by the generosity of England; the usurpation of benefices by Italians, of whom there was an infinite number; the insolence and rapacity of the Nuncio Martin.'

The King of France, as has been seen, and the King of Arragon courteously declined this costly and dangerous visit of the fugitive Pope. The Pope, it was reported, was deeply offended at this stately and cautious reserve; on this occasion he betrayed the violence of his temper: "We must first crush or pacify the great dragon, and then we shall easily trample these small basilisks under foot." Such at least were the rumours spread abroad, and believed by all who were disposed to assert the dignity of the temporal power, or who groaned under the Church of heavy burthens of the Church. Even Lyons had Lyons. become, through the Pope's ill-timed favouritism, hardly a safe refuge. He had endeavoured to force some of his Italian followers into the Chapter of Lyons, the Canons swore in the face of the Pope that if they appeared, neither the Archbishop nor the Canons themselves could prevent their being cast into the Rhone. Some indeed of the French prelates and abbots (their enemies accused them of seeking preferment and promotion by their adulatory homage) hastened to show their devout attachment to the Pope, their sympathy for his perils and sufferings, and their compassion for the destitution of which he loudly complained. The Prior of Clugny astonished even the Pope's followers by the amount of his gifts in money. Besides these he gave eighty palfreys splendidly caparisoned to the Pope, one to each of the twelve Cardinals. The Pope appointed the Abbot to the office, no doubt not thought unseemly, of his Master of the Horse: he received soon after the more appropriate reward, the Bishopric of Langres.

* Matth. Paris, however in some respects not an absolutely trustworthy authority for events which happened out of England, is the best unquestionably for the rumours and impressions

prevalent in Christendom rumours, which as rumours, and showing the state of the public mind, are not to be disdained by history.

1 Matth. Paris, 1245.

СНАР. ХѴ.

COUNCIL OF LYONS.

429

The Cistercian Abbot would not be outdone by his rival of Clugny. The Archbishop of Rouen for the same purpose loaded his see with debts: he became Cardinal Bishop of Albano. The Abbot of St. Denys, who aspired to and attained the vacant Archbishopric, extorted many thousand livres from his see, which he presented to the Pope. But the King of France, the special patron of the church of St. Denys, forced the Abbot to regorge his exactions, and to beg them in other quarters. Yet with all these forced benevolences and lavish offerings it was bruited abroad that the Church of Rome had a capital debt, not including interest, of 150,000l.

Lyons.

The Council met at Lyons, in the convent of St. Just, on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Around Council of the Pope appeared his twelve Cardinals, two Pa- June 26. triarchs, the Latin of Constantinople who claimed likewise to be Patriarch of Antioch, and declared that the heretical Greeks had reduced by their conquests his suffragans from thirty to three, and the Patriarch of Aquileia who represented the church of Venice; the Emperor of Constantinople, the Count of Toulouse, Roger Bigod and other ambassadors of England who had their own object at the Council, the redress of their grievances from Papal exactions, and the canonisation of Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury. Only one hundred and forty prelates represented the whole of Christendom, of whom but very few were Germans. The Council and the person of the Pope were under the protection of Philip of Savoy at the head of a strong body of men-at-arms, of Knights of the Temple, and of the Hospital. Philip, brother of the Count of Savoy, was in his character a chief of Condottieri, in his profession an ecclesiastic; he enjoyed vast riches from spiritual benefices, was high in the confidence of the Pope. Aymeri Archbishop of Lyons, a pious and gentle prelate, beheld with deep sorrow the Pope as it were trampling upon him in his own diocese, despoiling his see, as he was laying intolerable burthens on the whole church of Christ. He resigned his see and retired into a convent. Philip of Savoy, yet but in deacon's orders, was advanced to the metropolitan dignity; he was at once Archbishop of

Lyons, Bishop of Valence, Provost of Bruges, Dean of Vienne. Of these benefices he drained with remorseless rapacity all the rich revenues, and remained at the head of the Papal forces. And this was the act of a Pope who convulsed the world with his assertion of ecclesiastical immunities, of the sacrilegious intrusion of secular princes into the affairs of the Church. During four pontificates Philip of Savoy enjoyed the title, and spent the revenues of the Archbishopric of Lyons. At length Clement IV. insisted on his ordination and on his consecration. Philip of Savoy threw off, under this compulsion, the dress (he had never even pretended to the decencies) of a bishop, married first the heiress of Franche Comté, and afterwards a niece of Pope Innocent IV., and died Duke of Savoy. And the brother of Philip and of Amadeus Duke of Savoy, Boniface, was Primate of England.TM

This then was the Council which was to depose the Emperor, and award the Empire. Even before the opening of the Council the intrepid, learned, and eloquent jurisconsult Thaddeus of Suessa, the principal proctor of the Emperor," advanced and made great offers in the name of his master: to compel the Eastern Empire to enter into the unity of the Church; to raise a vast army and to take the field in person against the Tartars, the Charismians, and the Saracens, the foes which threatened the life of Christendom; at his own cost, and in his own person, to re-establish the kingdom of Jerusalem; to restore all her territories to the See of Rome; to give satisfaction for all injuries. "Fine words and specious promises !" replied the Pope. "The axe is at the root of the tree, and he would avert it. If we were weak enough to believe this deceiver, who would guarantee his truth?" "The Kings of France and England," answered Thaddeus. "And if he violated the treaty, as he assuredly would, we should have instead of one, the three greatest monarchs of Christendom for our enemies." At the next session the Pope in full attire mounted the pulpit; this was his text: "See, ye who pass this

m Gallia Christiana, iv. 144. M. Paris, sub ann. 1251.

Sismondi says that Peter de Vineâ was one of the Emperor's representa

way, was

tives; that his silence raised suspicion of his treason. Was he there? The whole defence seems to have been entrusted to Thaddeus.

CHAP. XV.

THADDEUS OF SUESSA.

431

ever sorrow like unto my sorrow." He compared his five afflictions to the five wounds of the Lord: the desolations of the Mongols; the revolt of the Greek Church; the progress of heresy, especially that of the Paterins in Lombardy; the capture and destruction of Jerusalem and the devastation of the Holy Land by the Charismians; the persecutions of the Emperor. He wept himself; the tears of others interrupted his discourse. On this last head he enlarged with bitter eloquence; he accused the Emperor of heresy and sacrilege, of having built a great and strong city and peopled it with Saracens, of joining in their superstitious rites; of his close alliance with the Sultan of Egypt; of his voluptuous life, and shameless intercourse with Saracen courtesans; of his unnumbered perjuries, his violation of treaties: he produced a vast number of letters, sealed with the imperial seal, as irrefragable proofs of these perjuries.

Suessa.

66

Thaddeus of Suessa rose with calm dauntlessness. He too had letters with the Papal seal, damning Thaddeus of proofs of the Pope's insincerity. The assembly professed to examine these conflicting documents; they came to the singular conclusion that all the Pope's letters, and all his offers of peace were conditional; those of the Emperor all absolute. But Thaddeus was not to be overawed; he alleged the clashing and contradictory letters of the Pope which justified his master in not observing his promises. On no point did the bold advocate hesitate to defend his sovereign; he ventured to make reprisals. My lord and master is arraigned of heresy; for this no one can answer but himself; he must be present to declare his creed: who shall presume to read the secrets of his heart? But there is one strong argument that he is not guilty of heresy; (he fixed his eyes on the prelates,) "he endures no usurer in his dominions." The audience knew his meaning that was the heresy with which the whole world charged the Court of Rome. The orator justified the treaties of the Emperor with the Saracens as entered into for the good of Christendom; he denied all criminal intercourse with Saracen women; he had permitted them in his presence as jongleurs and dancers, but on account

June 26.

of the offence taken against them he had banished them for ever from his court." Thaddeus ended by demanding delay, that the Emperor his master might appear in person before the Council. The Pope shrunk from this proposal, "I have hardly escaped his snares. If he comes hither I must withdraw. I have no desire

July. for martyrdom or for captivity." But the ambassadors of France and England insisted on the justice of the demand; Innocent was forced to consent to an adjournment of fourteen days. The Pontiff was relieved of his fears. Frederick had advanced as far as Turin. But the hostile character of the assembly would not allow of his appearance. "I see that the Pope has sworn my ruin; he would revenge himself for my victory over his relatives, the pirates of Genoa. It becomes not the Emperor to appear before an assembly constituted of such persons." On the next meeting this determination encouraged the foes of Frederick. New accusers arose to multiply charges against the absent sovereign: many voices broke out against the contumacious rebel against the Church. But Thaddeus, though almost alone, having stood unabashed against the Pope, was not to be silenced by this clamour of accusations. The Bishop of Catana was among the loudest, he charged Frederick with treason against the Church for his imprisonment of the Prelates, and with other heinous crimes. "I can no longer keep silence," broke in Thaddeus, "thou son of a traitor, who was convicted and hanged by the justiciary of my Lord, you are but following the example of your father." Thaddeus took up the desperate defence, before such an assembly, of the seizure of the Prelates. The Pope again mingled in the fray; but Thaddeus assumed a lofty tone. "God delivered them into the hands of my master; God June 29. took away the strength of the rebel, and showed by this abandonment that their imprisonment was just." "If," replied the Pope, "the Emperor had not mistrusted his own cause, he would not have declined the judgement of such holy and righteous men: he was condemned by his own guilty conscience." "What could my lord hope from

• Carinola in Giannone.