Pope Adrian IV Part 3

The political was in complete harmony with the religious state of the country. Parcelled out among petty kings and chiefs, who seemed only to subsist by devouring each other, and, in the crush and tumult of their feuds, stood so thick on the ground, as hardly to have elbow room, the whole island presented one untiring round of treacheries, ma.s.sacres, conflagrations and plunderings, wholesale and retail, such as is without example elsewhere in history, with no other hope, so long as left to itself, of anything but an aggravation of the evil--if that were possible. That Adrian, with such a state of things before his eyes, should readily give his sanction to a project which, however liable to be clogged by human imperfection, could not at any rate make things worse, but haply might make them better, was surely a proceeding quite consistent with the character of a wise and zealous pope; of a pope too, who lived and thought when the crusades were at their height, and who may, therefore, be very well supposed to have viewed the condition of Ireland,--once the island of saints, but now the scene of worse than pagan abominations,--as not less calculated for the efforts of holy chivalry, than Palestine.

If then it can appear that Adrian might have acted, in his brief to Henry, just as well out of motives of religious duty, as out of those of court policy, it is a perverse thing to award him the latter rather than the former; because to do so is to make him not less absurdly than wickedly inconsistent with his previous and subsequent career:--which was marked by one unswerving purpose to defend the Church against the encroachments of secular power, to maintain her doctrines intact, and to extend her boundaries to the utmost. Besides, it should not be forgotten, that his brief was confirmed by his ill.u.s.trious successor, Alexander III., who thus gave his testimony to the uprightness of intention which originated it, as well as to its proper adaptation in the spirit of that age, to the emergency which elicited it; an emergency which, from the terms used by Alexander in conveying his confirmation, would seem by no means to have diminished, but rather to have increased in the mean time. In short, it is nothing better than a logical solecism, to wish to maintain that two such popes as Adrian IV. and Alexander III., educated in the school of the sublime Hildebrand, and ranking among the very foremost of his disciples, by the intelligent and dauntless manner in which they withstood the storm of imperial usurpation, which threatened to shatter the Church under their pontificates, should deviate from their glorious career, to belie their principles,--the one, by granting out of national prejudice and court sycophancy a license of spoliation to a king of England,--and the other, by confirming it out of reasons just as unworthy.

As it was, Providence did not see fit to allow the views either of Adrian or Henry, to be carried out as originally intended. For the expedition of the king against Ireland, was put off, on account of various obstacles, for fourteen years, during which term, the papal brief was consigned to the royal archives, and there forgotten. Nor was it till six years after the actual invasion of Ireland by Strongbow, that its existence was remembered by Henry; who, anxious to consolidate his new conquest, had the authority of Adrian's brief renewed, by procuring another in confirmation of it from Alexander, and then caused both doc.u.ments to be read up before the Irish bishops, a.s.sembled in synod at Waterford; by whom his sovereignty had already, without any reference to papal commands, been acknowledged.

That the English sway turned out so unjust and disastrous to Ireland, reflects no blame on Adrian, than whom no one would have more deplored the evil, and striven against its true causes, than he. Rather ought he, from the spirit of his brief,--the only fair test to apply to him,--to be regarded as the head of that small, unfortunately so very small, band of Englishmen, who have ever meant well to the sister isle; and who, to speak the sober truth, if their views might prevail, would alone be likely to promote her true prosperity, by shielding her not only against her outward, but her inward foes; to which latter,--consisting in those elements of social discord so profusely, so deeply rooted, as it would seem, in the nature of her people,---she owes by far the worst portion of her calamities. No doubt Pope Adrian, a man of the most shrewd practical intellect, and from the circ.u.mstances of his life, of the deepest experience in human nature, saw clearly enough then,--what continues to be seen so clearly by men of his stamp now,--that Ireland could never truly prosper, so long as left to her own management, by reason of the incurable defect mentioned above; and that, therefore, to sanction her sisterly, not her slavish connection, with a nation like the English, so eminent for those very qualities of order and self maintenance, in which she is so wanting, would be a work of as great charity in itself, as of mutual advantage to the parties concerned. For the rest, it should not be forgotten, that, however much the English occupation of Ireland may, through a series of causes, not to be foreseen in Adrian's time, have turned out a curse; yet the occupation in question had the immediate effect of producing the reform of those religious abuses, which const.i.tuted the worst misfortunes of the country, and which, till Henry had actually arrived thither, continued in all their hideous deformity. This happy result took place, under the auspices of Henry, at the synod of Cashel, summoned by him at the beginning of the year 1172, and attended by all the heads of the Irish clergy.

Besides the brief in question, Adrian gave to John of Salisbury, as the latter relates in the last chapter of his Metalogicus, a gold ring set with a fine emerald, for the king his master, in token of investment with the Lordship of Ireland; which important jewel, whose rare virtues, John of Salisbury adds, were he to describe, would require a volume to enumerate, was also deposited in the royal archives.

Not only Henry II. of England, but Louis VII. of France, a year or two later, solicited Adrian's approbation of a scheme of foreign conquest, which, in this case was intended to be carried out in Spain, where the French monarch pretended he wanted to serve the Church, by expelling the Saracens. But the pope treated the application of Louis, very differently to that of Henry. For in his brief of reply [5] after awarding all praise to the religious zeal alleged by the French king as his motive, he points out the flagrant wrong which Louis would commit in gratuitously interfering in the affairs of an independent nation like Spain,--the consent of whose princes could alone justify such a step: so that until such consent should be obtained, he, Adrian, could do nothing else than totally condemn and warn, him against his project.

Adrian's conduct in this instance, was not less consistent than in the other. For as over Ireland in its character of an island, he believed himself to possess, through the supposed testament of Constantine, certain rights, and thought proper to exercise them; so over Spain, being ignorant of any such rights, he arrogated none, but acted as became him on the general principles of Christian justice.

[1] Baronius, Annus, 1154

[2] Baronius, Annus 1159; rectified by Pagi to 1155.

[3] Topograp. Hiber. Distinc. tertia cap. 14.

[4] De vita Malachiae Episcopi, cap. viii.

[5] Bouquet's Receuil, &c. t. 15. P. 690.

VII.

It was most likely on occasion of this emba.s.sy, that John of Salisbury,--although he mentions other visits paid by him to Adrian,--held the interesting conversation with the English pope, which he reports at length, in his Polycraticus. [1] In that work, he says, he well remembers how, during a sojourn at the papal court in Beneventum, he was treated on the most familiar footing by his Holiness; whose habit it was to gather round him a few select friends, with whom he would freely discuss a variety of topics; and how, among others, he once asked John to state candidly what he knew of the people's opinion, touching the Roman Church and her head. Whereupon, the envoy of Henry, using the liberty of the spirit, told without disguise, all that he had heard in various parts on the subject. For example: that the Roman Church, the mother of all others, showed herself according to many not so much a mother as a step-mother to her daughters. That scribes and pharisees sat in her, who loaded other mens' shoulders with burdens, which they would not touch even with their fingers. That these said scribes and pharisees played the tyrant over the clergy, and bore no palpable resemblance to such shepherds as tread the true path of life; but that they heaped up rich furniture, ornamented their tables with gold and silver plate, distracted the Church with controversies and by setting the pastors and the people by the ears.

That they, in no manner, commiserated the sorrows of the unfortunate; but made merry over the plunder of churches, and administered justice, not according to the truth, but the price. Then, that other people said the Roman Pontiff himself was a tyrant; and that, while the churches, which their ancestors had built, were falling to ruin, and the altars stood desolate, he appeared abroad arrayed in gold and purple. But that the divine wrath would eventually overtake such priests as lived in pride and luxury, and levied taxes on the provinces like men, who meant to equal the wealth of Croesus: "for the Lord had said, that as they measured out to others, so would he measure out to them: and the Ancient of Days could not lie." Upon hearing this, and much more to the same effect, the pope asked John of Salisbury what he himself thought? Who replied, that the question very much perplexed him, as, on the one hand, he feared to pa.s.s for a flatterer, if he went contrary to public opinion, and on the other, to give offence, if he spoke the truth. Nevertheless, as cardinal Guido Clement had bore witness in favour of the people, he, John of Salisbury, dared not contradict him. For the cardinal had said that the Church of Rome contained a world of avarice and deceit, from which every evil sprung. This he had not said in a corner, but before all his brethren, in presence of Pope Eugenius; and yet he, John of Salisbury, would not hesitate to declare that, as far as his experience went, he had never seen anywhere clergymen of greater virtue, or more opposed to avarice, than those of Rome. Such was the gravity and modesty of many of them, that in those respects they equalled Fabricius, while, in possessing the true faith, they had the advantage over him. Then, with regard to the pope himself,--as his Holiness insisted on being plainly spoken to,--he would say, that, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost could not err, so whatever his Holiness might teach, must be followed; though, what his Holiness might do, was not always to be imitated. His Holiness was styled Father and Lord of all: but why, if he was the Father, did he require presents from his children? and why, if he was the Lord, did he not strike awe into the Romans, curb their insolence, and reclaim them to their duty? At all this the pope laughed heartily, and expressed himself well pleased at having found a man so honest and plain spoken; adding, that if ever he should hear anything further to the same purpose, by no means to omit reporting it. Adrian then proceeded to pa.s.s his own conduct in review, said many things for and against himself, and made reflections on the arduousness of the papal office, affirming that no other was so full of cares, and that no man was more wretched than a Roman Pontiff: "for his throne was set with thorns, his mantle pierced with sharp points, and so heavy as to weigh the strongest shoulders to the ground." Much sooner would he prefer never to have left his native English soil, or to have remained for ever hidden in his cell at St. Rums, than to have entered such straits; but the divine dispensation had called him, and he dared not disobey. He further said, that it had always been the Lord's pleasure, that he should grow between the hammer and the anvil; that now he prayed the Lord would be pleased to put his hand under the burden, as it was become insupportable. The pope then concluded his observations, by relating to the company, the fable of the Belly and the Members,--which the charges laid at his door suggested to him, and which John of Salisbury gives at length in Adrian's words; a fable, by the way, which a.s.suredly has lost none of its point since those times, but remains as pregnant with wisdom for the nineteenth, as for the twelfth century.

Pope Anastasius IV. had conferred on the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem the privilege of exemption from t.i.thes on their property, in consideration of its exclusive destination to the relief of pilgrims and of the poor. This privilege soon gave rise to a quarrel between the knights and the clergy of Jerusalem,---who naturally took it ill, that so important a source of revenue, as the t.i.thes on the possessions of the order of St. John no doubt const.i.tuted, should thus be stopped. The patriarch reproached the grand master with abusing his privilege, and, at last, grew so embittered, that he drew up a charge against him, of acts of aggression on the rights of the oriental church,--for example: "That the Hospitallers allowed all such persons to attend their church as were excommunicated by the bishops, and did not even refuse such outcasts the holy sacrament and extreme unction when dying, as well as Christian burial when dead; that when, for some great crime, silence was imposed on the churches of a town or district, the knights were always the first to ring their bells, and call the people, on whom the interdict was laid, to Ma.s.s, for no other purpose, than to get the offerings and fees, which otherwise would accrue to the parish church; that the priests of St. John did not, on their ordination, present themselves, according to ancient custom, before the bishop of the diocese, to ask his permission to do duty therein; that the bishop was never advised of the lawful or unlawful suspension of a priest; lastly, that the knights of St. John absolutely refused to pay t.i.thes on their property." From these general charges the patriarch next descended to particular ones of affronts to himself,--for instance: "That, as the hospital of St. John stood opposite the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the knights had erected their buildings on a scale of magnificence superior to the latter church, purely out of a feeling to insult the patriarch; moreover, that, when the patriarch ascended according to traditional usage, the place of our Saviour's pa.s.sion, to absolve the people from their sins and preach to them, the Hospitallers invariably set all their bells a-ringing with such violence, as plainly proved that they meant to drown his voice and interrupt him in the performance of his duty; that when he had often complained to the citizens of this misconduct, and these had expostulated with the perpetrators, the latter only replied, that they would yet play him worse turns; that they had, in fact, kept their word; for they had shot arrows at him in the church itself, while celebrating there the divine offices. These arrows he (the patriarch) had caused to be picked up, and exposed in a bundle on Mount Calvary as a memorial." [2]

With these charges the patriarch, attended by other oriental prelates, set out for Italy, to lay his case before the pope. After running many perils by reason of the war, then going on between the pope and the king of Sicily, the party at last reached Beneventum. The trial that took place lasted several days; when the result of the pleadings for and against was, that Adrian became convinced of the hollowness of the accusations, laid by the patriarch against the knights of St. John, and, therefore, refused to grant the redress sought for,--namely, to annul the patent of privileges conferred by Anastasius. William of Tyre,--who describes the transaction as a partisan of the patriarch,--plainly says that the pope took bribes to decide as he did. But Pagi [3] denies this flatly, and affirms that Adrian proceeded in this, as well as in every other act of his authority, conscientiously and disinterestedly. Indeed, it is rather unfortunate for William of Tyre, that of the three cardinals, whom he alone excepts from the charge of bribery, two, namely, Octavian, and John of St. Martin,--afterwards figured as princ.i.p.al actors in the scandalous schism which rent the Church after Adrian's death: the first as Frederic Barbarossa's anti-pope, under the name of Victor IV. in opposition to Alexander III. the lawful pope; the second as Victor's legate, and as chief supporter, after his death, of Anacletus III., whom the emperor next started against Alexander.

Peter of Blois, too, in his letter [4] to cardinal Papiensis, describes Octavian as having pa.s.sed his whole life in ama.s.sing riches wherewith to disturb the Church, and as having been but too successful in corrupting a powerful party in the Roman curia to his views.

It had always been a leading concern of the popes to heal the schism between Constantinople and Rome. Adrian did his part, though fruitlessly, towards so great a work. Shortly after his accession, he sent to the Emperor Constantine legates on the subject, who also carried a letter from the pope to Basilius, bishop of Thessalonica,--one of the most influential and well disposed prelates, at that day, in the east. This letter was to request his co-operation in bringing about the re-union of the severed Churches. Basilius made answer, that unity might easily be restored, as no essential difference of belief existed between the two communions; in both of which one and the same doctrine was taught, and one and the same Lamb, namely Christ, offered up for the sins of the world; though without doubt, some minor discrepancies existed between the two, whose removal however belonged wholly to the pope: who, as he had the will had also the power, no less than our Saviour himself, to unite into _one_ what stood now so widely separated. Basilius would thus seem, to have been of opinion that he was in no wise cut off from the Catholic Church, notwithstanding the oriental might differ in certain rites from the western Church. [5]

It was an old and gross abuse of the age, that the n.o.bles a.s.serted the right to seize the effects of a bishop on his death. This abuse did not escape severe censure, from several synods. But Pope Adrian, it was, who condemned it the most effectually, by his bull to Berengarius, archbishop of Narbonne, (A. D. 1156,) on occasion of Ermengarda, Viscountess of Narbonne, renouncing the abuse in favour of that prelate, which renunciation, the papal bull was issued to confirm. In the year 1150, Raymond, count of Barcelona, made a similar renunciation by charter, when about to go on a distant and perilous journey. In it he says: "I hereby promise to G.o.d, to abolish the detestable custom which has. .h.i.therto prevailed in my states,--to wit, the custom whereby my bailiffs plundered the goods of a bishop when he died:--a proceeding which I own to be contrary to divine and human laws; wherefore, I renounce the said custom, and order that for the future, if any thing be found in the house or grounds of a bishop deceased, it shall be reserved for his successor." [6]

[1] Polycraticus, &c. lib. 6, cap, 24, and lib. 8, cap. 23.

[2] William of Tyre, lib. 18. cap. 3 & 7.

[3] Brev. Pontif. Rom. Annus 1154.

[4] No. 48.

[5] Pagi, ibid.

[6] Fleury, Livre 76.

VIII.

The peace, which Adrian had concluded with the king of Sicily, was soon seized by Frederic Barbarossa as the pretext for a new quarrel with the Church. The grounds on which the German despot professed to be aggrieved were as follow: a predecessor of his, Lothair II., had in his Italian war, in the foregoing century, obliged the king of Sicily to own the feudal superiority of Germany over Apulia. Pope Innocent II., who protested against this proceeding as a violation of his rights, could only so far induce Lothair to respect them, as to agree to let their lawful owner for the future jointly exercise them with their lawless usurper. So that, when the Sicilian King, as Duke of Apulia, should be presented, at the ceremony of his installation, with a flag, the Pope was to hold the pole with one hand, and the Emperor with the other.

Frederic Barbarossa renewed this right of joint lordship over Apulia by a concordat with Eugenius III., in which he expressly stipulated not to make any treaty with the king of Sicily, without the previous consent of the Pope, who, however, was not required to enter into any such obligation towards the German monarch.

And yet Frederic now put on the face of an injured man, declaring that what had not been stipulated, had yet always been taken for granted; and that Adrian, by making peace with King William, unknown to the emperor, had flagrantly violated the concordat. In the height of his ill-will, an incident fell out which gave free vent to his animosity against the pope.

To settle his power in Burgundy, he summoned a Diet of the Empire to meet at Besancon, in October, 1157. This Diet was numerously and splendidly attended, not only by German but by foreign princes and amba.s.sadors from all parts of Europe; among the rest, by two cardinals, namely, Roland and Bernard, as legates from the pope. The emperor received their credentials in his oratory, where he gave them a special audience; at which they also presented him a letter from Adrian, who complained in it of the impunity with which Frederic had allowed certain marauding knights to detain and plunder Eskill, Archbishop of Lund, while travelling through Burgundy to his diocese.

In chiding him for so faithless a discharge of his duty, as sworn champion of the Roman Church, the pope reminded the emperor of the favours he owed that Church, especially mentioning among them his imperial crown: "not that she repented of having so far obliged him, on the contrary, she would rejoice if she could confer on him still greater benefits."

As Frederic listened to this letter, which his chancellor Raynald read up to him, he reddened with anger at that part of it which spoke of his crown as a gift of the Church; but at the word "benefits" he could not control himself, for, by this word he insisted, in the blindness of pa.s.sion, that the pope meant to a.s.sert that the empire was a feoff of the Holy See.

The fact was, the original word _beneficium_ did signify, in the corrupt Latin of the middle ages, a feoff as well as a benefit in general; and this was enough for the emperor's humour, who would listen to no explanation from the legates, that the word was used, not in its technical, but its cla.s.sical sense. In the heat of the dispute which ensued, Cardinal Roland,--afterwards Pope Alexander III.--exclaimed: "From whom then hath the Emperor his dignity, if not from the Pope?" Whereupon, the Count Palatine, Otho of Bavaria, one of the courtiers present, seized by a fit of fury, drew his sword, and rushed towards the cardinal; but was checked in his purpose by Frederic, who threw himself between the two; and then closed the audience by ordering the legates to be escorted back to Rome, with injunctions not to deviate from the directest line of route, nor to tarry in any ecclesiastical domain through which they might pa.s.s.

Historians are agreed that Adrian had no intention, in the present case, of practically a.s.serting,--as Frederic in his politic wrath said he did,--the feudal superiority in question. The English pope, however, was not the less a stickler for that superiority in theory, as well as Cardinal Roland and the rest of the hierarchy;--a superiority which Pope Gregory VII. supported by the feelings and convictions of Christendom at his day, taught as follows: that the Pope, as Vicar on earth of our Lord in heaven, ought to stand superior over every human power; and sought to realize it as the only means of reforming the frightful disorders of that age.

Frederic Barbarossa, on the other hand, took, as was natural to a man like him, bent on crushing the spiritual beneath the temporal power, the opposite side of the question;--a side which was just as repugnant to the feeling of the overwhelming majority of Christendom then, as it was a century before; nay, which was at variance with his own conscience, if one may judge from his conduct at a later period, when, abandoned by fortune, and his pride humbled in the dust, he was driven to hearken to its voice. For the present, he proclaimed the only doctrine which his pride could brook, namely,--that he held his crown from G.o.d alone, to whose Servant, the Pope, it simply belonged to perform the ceremony of coronation. This doctrine of his imperial dignity he caused to be stated in a circular, which he addressed to all the provinces of Germany in vindication of his behaviour towards the papal legates:--a measure rendered imperative by the religious temper of the age. In this circular, [1] he denounces all, who differ from its views, as enemies of the doctrine of our Lord and His Apostles, as, in short, their slanderers; and, among other extravagancies of his virulence, declares that one cause, among the rest, why he so unceremoniously dismissed the legates, was the discovery which he had made of blank papers in their possession, ready signed and sealed; which they could fill up at pleasure, and which were meant to empower them to dismantle the altars, plunder the sacred vessels, and deface the crucifixes in the German churches. He further informs the bishops of Germany, that _he_, and _he_ alone, it is who really strives to protect their liberties against the Roman See, whose yoke they groaned under.

Those, however, to whom this consoling piece of news was sent, knew but too well what a mockery the word liberty was in the mouth of a man who like Frederic had long ago trampled on the Concordat of Worms, and who disposed of the benefices of the Church after the arbitrary manner of Henry IV., to subserve his political ends.

As companion-piece to his circular, Frederic published an edict forbidding, in future, all correspondence between his clergy and Rome.

The account which the cardinals Roland and Bernard gave, on their arrival at Rome, of the way in which they had been treated by Frederic, created a lively sensation at the papal court. The imperial party in the conclave sought to exculpate their patron in the face of the reproaches heaped upon him, by ascribing all the blame to the ignorance and mismanagement of the legates. In the midst of the conflicting opinions of his clergy, Pope Adrian deeply felt the indignity which he had suffered in the persons of his representatives, but did not allow himself to be betrayed into any violent manifestation of displeasure; on the contrary, after the first excitement of his feelings was over, he wisely resolved to do all in his power to conciliate the emperor, without derogating from his own dignity. To this end he wrote a brief, of which the substance is as follows, to all the archbishops and bishops of Germany:

"As often as anything is attempted in the Church contrary to the honor of G.o.d and the salvation of souls, it should be the care of our brother bishops, and of all who profess to act according to the Holy Spirit, to chastise such deeds as have been wickedly done, in a manner pleasing to G.o.d. Our ill.u.s.trious son Frederic, Emperor of the Romans, we say it with profound sorrow, hath lately done what, so far as we know, is without example in the times of his predecessors. For, on our sending him two of our worthiest brethren,--namely, Cardinals Bernard of St. Clement and Roland of St. Mark, our chancellor,--he appeared at first to receive them with cordiality; but the next day, when they read to him our letter, he broke out into such violence of pa.s.sion at a certain expression contained therein, namely, 'We have conferred on thee the benefit of the crown,' that it is lamentable to think of the reproaches which he is said to have cast at them, of the insults which he obliged them to bear from him, of the dishonourable manner in which he dismissed them from his presence, and drove them out of his states.

And then he issued an edict, forbidding you to leave the kingdom to visit the Apostolic See. Concerning which things, though we are much troubled, yet we derive the greatest consolation from this, that he did not go to such lengths by your advice or by that of his princes.

Wherefore, we feel a.s.sured, that by your advice it will be easy to recover him from the infatuation of his mind. For which reason, Brethren, since it is plain that in this matter not only our, but your cause, and that of the entire Church is at stake, we exhort you in the Lord to oppose yourselves as a wall before the house of G.o.d, and to spare no pains in reclaiming as soon as possible our said son to the right path; taking especial care, at the same time, that Raynald, his chancellor, and the Count Palatine, who dared to vomit out the greatest blasphemies against our said legates and the Roman Church, make full and public satisfaction, to the end, that as many ears were wounded by their virulent speech, so many may be reclaimed by their return to the right path. And let our said son reflect on past and present events, and enter on that path along which it is known that Justinian and other Catholic emperors walked; as, by following their example, he will not fail to obtain honor on earth and happiness in heaven. You, too, should you succeed in reclaiming him, will at once offer a grateful tribute of obedience to St. Peter, and a.s.sert your own and the Church's liberty. At all events, our ill.u.s.trious son will learn from your admonitions,--will learn from the infallible Gospel,--that the most holy Roman Church, built by G.o.d's hand on a most firm rock, however much she may be shaken by the winds, will yet endure throughout all ages under the Lord's protection."

This brief threw those to whom it was addressed into no small perplexity; for while, on the one hand, they secretly leaned to the cause of the Church, they had become on the other so cowed and truckling under the iron despotism of the emperor, that they felt themselves unequal to the task of responding to the pope as their duty prompted; so that they resolved, after some deliberation on the subject, to lay the brief before Frederic, and to square their reply according to his remarks. These were a tissue of the most contemptible subterfuges and trifling,--as for example, "that he had issued no edict against his clergy pa.s.sing into Italy as pilgrims, and all others that wished to go thither, on reasonable grounds, attested by their bishops, could still do so; that he was chiefly actuated in his proceedings by the wish to correct those abuses under which his churches were overtaxed, and the discipline of his convents almost ruined; that, though G.o.d had raised the Church by means of the state, yet the Church now sought to overthrow the state--a requital which he (Frederic) viewed as by no means divine; that the evil designs of the Church against the Empire were not only proved by her writings, but by the pictures, which, contrary to the imperial wishes, were allowed to continue undefaced at Rome, under one of which, representing the Emperor Conrad kneeling to the Pope, and receiving the crown, an inscription a.s.serted that he did so as the va.s.sal of his Holiness."

For the rest, the bishops begged of the pope to appease their sovereign by apologetic letters, so that the Church might continue at peace, and the Empire lose none of its dignity.

Adrian smiled at the perverse spirit of pride which this reply from the German hierarchy showed Frederic to be possessed of; and took only the firmer resolution to get the better of him, by opposing a calm dignity to his pa.s.sion. He accordingly selected Cardinals Henry and Hyacinth,--men of more experience in diplomacy than the rest of their brethren in the conclave,--to go as legates on a new emba.s.sy to the emperor; who in the meanwhile had arrived at Augsburg to review his troops, previous to his second invasion of Italy. The two cardinals, after being plundered and imprisoned on their pa.s.sage of the Alps, into Tyrol, by robber knights, who infested those parts, and, aware of the quarrel between the emperor and the pope, thought they might thus turn it to account; but were severely punished for their pains by Henry, duke of Bavaria, who freed the sufferers; enabled them to reach Augsburg in safety; where they had audience of the emperor.

The brief which they read to him from the pope, expressed the sorrow of his Holiness at finding how greatly the term "beneficium" had been misunderstood, and declared that no other than its ordinary meaning in the Latin language was intended by it, and that the meaning of feoff had not for a moment been entertained. Moreover, the word "contulimus"

in speaking of "conferring" the crown, was explained to have meant, not that his Holiness had done so as though the emperor were his va.s.sal, but that he had simply set it on the emperor's head; an act whereby it might be supposed that, at least, a feeling of thankfulness and goodwill would be produced.

The brief ascribed to maliciously disposed persons the wrong interpretations given to the pope's words, which had so deeply incensed the emperor; and concluded by recommending to his good favour the legates now accredited to him.

Frederic professed himself pacified by this brief; and, as soon as some other points of difference were at his request satisfactorily settled, he embraced the cardinals in token of his reconciliation with the pope; and loaded them with such rich presents that they returned home in the best humour.

[1] Radevicus, lib. i. cap. 10.

IX.