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СНАР.
XII.

1237-1239.

ture, and his noble birth endeared him alike to the
Imperial and the Papal Courts. He it was who built
the Bishop's palace at Reggio; though Frederick had
made him a present of the Imperial mansion there,
reserving only the right of lodging in it. The Bishop
was a good friend to the Franciscans and offered to
install them in his own Cathedral, having first turned
out the Canons; he threw his steward into a dungeon
for cutting short the commons of bread meant for
the brethren.* This instance proves that all the Im-
perial partizans were not abandoned men; though it
was the practice to denounce as excommunicated
every one who consorted with Frederick, a fact
which perhaps accounts for the reckless wicked-
ness which we remark in more than one of the
Ghibelline chieftains. This very year the Pope
ordered Eccelin to be excommunicated, after the
Bishop of Treviso had lodged a complaint against
that noble for seizing on Church property at
Belluno. Eccelin was
was accordingly deprived of
his lands, but he laughed the Papal sentence to
scorn. It was not until after this date that he began
that frightful series of cruelties, which have branded
his name with everlasting infamy. The upshot of
the Crusade waged in the cause of religion was,
that practical piety came in time to be altogether
banished from the thoughts of the combatants. Still
their language, if not their morals, was drawn from
the best of sources. The phrases supplied by the
Scriptures were used as engines in the war that was

Salimbene, who introduces us to many other pious Ghibellines. His own bastard brother atoned for his Ghibelline politics by a pilgrimage to Compostella.

† Raynaldus.

СНАР.

XII.

now beginning to rage between the Holy Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Church; between the successor of Augustus, Constantine, and Charle- 1237-1239. magne, and the successor of Peter, Gregory, and Hildebrand. Frederick reviled the Pope as a Pharisee who made religion the cloak for worldly ambition, while Gregory denounced the Emperor as a Sadducee who would believe in neither Resurrection, nor Angel, nor Spirit. Frederick in his state papers relies more especially on the New Testament, contrasting the lowly spirit of St. Peter and his yokefellows with the bloodthirsty fury of St. Peter's successor. Gregory on the other hand turns to the more warlike annals of the Old Testament, and appeals to the example of the Prophets who so unsparingly rebuked unrighteous Rulers. An Ehud or a Jael was again needed by the Church.

We may here draw a comparison between Italian parties in the Thirteenth and English parties in the Seventeenth Century. In Italy, as in England, loyalty was the badge of the one faction, religion of the other. The Ghibellines, like the Cavaliers, looked up to a Prince who was the model of good breeding, though by no means the model of good faith. Frederick was accused by his enemies of being a traitor to Christianity, just as Charles was afterwards taunted with betraying the cause of Protestantism. Each Monarch, by his personal habits, gave a pretext for the charge. The Arabs of Lucera, reinforced from Africa, were regarded by the Guelfs much as the Kernes brought over from Munster were regarded by the Puritans. This last named party, like Frederick's enemies, recruited their ranks by means of the drum ecclesiastic. The Dominican and Franciscan friars,

XII.

1237-1239.

CHAP. revelling in Old Testament phraseology, were the forerunners of the Independent and Anabaptist preachers, who brought down the Crown of England. In both countries, the war was fertile in sieges. Brescia was to Italy, what Gloucester was to England, the turning-point of the whole struggle. The Hohenstaufen, like the Stuart, made many fruitless attempts at accommodation, which were always rejected by his enemies. Young Enzio, the most dashing leader of the day, was the prototype of Prince Rupert. At last the Guelfs, like the Parliamentarians, found that they could only triumph by calling in foreigners to their aid. As happened in our own country, the votaries of freedom employed a power, which first appearing in Italy as their servant, ended by becoming their master. But the appearance of this power does not fall within our limits.

The state papers already quoted show the fierce hatred with which Gregory and Frederick regarded each other. Old charges were raked up, and prophecies were revived or invented to cheer their respective partizans. The verses of Merlin, Abbot Joachim, and Michael Scott were in the mouths of all. At the outbreak of the war, some daring Ghibelline contrived to hang up in the Pope's own bedchamber the following lines, the production probably of one of Frederick's astrologers, long remembered in Italy,

By stars, by flight of birds, by fate we see
Of all the world one man shall hammer be.
Rome staggering, through mazy errors led,
Of all the world shall cease to be the head.'

Gregory was little moved by this presage of the

He retorted

CHAP.

XII.

approaching downfall of his power.
in a pithy couplet, addressed to the Emperor,

The fates, the Scripture, and your sins foretell
Your doom; short life, and everlasting hell.'*

1237-1239.

* M. Paris. The originals run thus;

'Fata docent, stellæque monent, aviumque volatus ;

Totius mundi malleus unus erit.

Roma diu titubans, variis erroribus acta,
Totius mundi desinet esse caput.'

'Fama refert, Scriptura docet, peccata loquuntur;
Quod tua vita brevis, pœna perennis erit.'

These lines were long remembered. I have seen parts of them
worked up into a prophecy of the Fourteenth Century, where
the second line is thus altered;

'Quod Fridericus malleus orbis erit.'

CHAP.
XIII.

1239-1241.

IN

CHAPTER XIII.

A.D. 1239 A.D. 1241.

'Romagna tua non è, e non fu mai,

Senza guerra ne' cuor de' suoi tiranni.'-DANTE, Inferno, 27.

N the month of June, 1239, Frederick for the first time carried the war into Romagna. This province, the daring spirit of which he knew by experience, became the principal theatre of the struggle for three successive years. He brought from Reggio an army made up of the various nations that remained true in their allegiance to him, and the Bolognese were the first to feel his vengeance. They had thrown a strong garrison into the Castle of Piumazzo, and had filled its deep moats with water. The best knights of Bologna manned the walls, and entertained no doubt of beating off the Emperor. Within a few days, however, he contrived to drain the water out of the moats, and to batter the towers of the Castle with his engines. It was set on fire and taken at the first onslaught. The greater part of the garrison perished in the flames or fell by the sword; almost 500 were taken prisoners. The lands of the Bolognese were ruthlessly laid waste and their trees were cut down.

Frederick, boasting that he had stripped Piumazzo of its plumes, sent a triumphant despatch to his friends in Lombardy, and promised them speedy succour. He then besieged Crevalcuore, another Bolognese

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