XI. 1235-1239. Gregory In April CHAP. upon harassing the Commons of the city. was zealous as ever in the cause of peace. the task of restoring concord had been given to the Bishop of Ascoli; but in June the Pope made one more effort to stave off the threatening war. He summoned Von Salza from Germany to Rome. He refused to grant the Emperor's request, that the Patriarch of Antioch might again be sent into Lombardy; but a new Legate was despatched, James the Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina, a Cistercian whom Frederick always regarded with the greatest disgust. The Bishop's efforts in Lombardy, during former years, had been most unsuccessful. He now made Piacenza his head-quarters, banished the Podesta, and brought in soldiers of the other faction; thenceforward that city became Guelf. Gregory thus writes of him, from Terni, in June; We have sent our venerable Brother, in whom we have always firm trust, that he will cherish the honour of both Church and Empire.' The Pope also warns the Archbishops of Milan and Ravenna and the other Northern Prelates to bestir themselves in the work of peace; he complains of a false report that had been spread, which marked the Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina as a favourer of the Lombard rebels. Frederick himself branded the new Mediator as a wolf in sheep's clothing, declaring that the Bishop had brought over Piacenza to the side of Milan, thus withdrawing the little state from the Ghibelline side. Gregory on the other hand pointed to the union effected at Piacenza between fathers, sons, brethren, and cousins, and to the protestations of the Bishop that nothing had been XI. 1235-1239. done to prejudice the rights of the Empire.* Fre- CHAP. derick threatened James, and wrote to the Pope respecting the new envoy; Gregory sent his answer from Rieti in October; one part of the epistle bearing on Sicily has already been given. Since, like the Mediator between God and man, we have despatched a Legate into Lombardy, in order to make peace, (the interests of the Empire, the advantage of the Church, and the peril of souls called us to peace,) our messenger is one who ought not to be viewed with jealousy by you, being a man who has flown up to the height of Divine love. Who can object to him a wrinkle of suspicion, or a mole upon his purity and holiness of life? You say, his birth is not high enough; still his office changes him into another man. We sent him to aid your projects; the loss of the Empire is the loss of the Church. We have usurped none of your rights or offices, although you gainsay this. We chose a minister who cannot be suspected by you, and whose mind is free from worldly thoughts. Ask Hermann von Salza, who told us openly that the Bishop had done nothing wrong, and who praised him for his love of justice. Nought can be laid to his charge, if he has restored peace at Piacenza. It is infamy to you, if you disdain the mediation of the Church. Even if the Bishop be not altogether on your side, you ought not on that account to call him your enemy; we will do you justice against him. We have not been slothful about the business of Lombardy, as Von Salza will satisfy you; he it was, who advised us to send to you our Chaplain on the subject of the peace. The Lombards cannot be CHAP. XI. accused of refusing peace; the Patriarch of Antioch has been among them for that object. They have 1235-1239. altogether wiped out that blot of contumacy, if so it may be called, of not appearing in proper time.' Later in the year Gregory sent other Legates into Lombardy for the Imperial satisfaction; they were his own nephew Rinaldo the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, and Thomas the Cardinal of St. Sabina. The Pope at the same time wrote to all the Archbishops and their suffragans; 'We ask you to receive our Legates as Angels of peace, and to set your thoughts on the alliance between Church and Empire, on the correction of heresy, and on the Crusade.' But Frederick would not agree to the proposals of the two new Legates, though the one was his old correspondent, and the other was a subject of the Kingdom; and though they were ready to come up to, and even to go beyond, the terms he had before demanded. He resolved, as the Pope says, to gall his own and his follower's shoulders with long and useless toils, rather than allow the Church to re-establish his rights.* At the same time, he is accused of having stirred up Peter Frangipane and other partizans of the Empire at Rome to a fresh sedition, directed against Gregory. 6 While these complicated negotiations were thus tediously dragging on, Frederick had at last appeared in Italy. He had first made the following proclamation of his intentions in May. We are ready to pay our own debts, we must exact those due to us from others. Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, as the Scriptures say.' Here follows much about the renown of the Holy Roman Empire; Fre Letters for 1239. derick will not allow the city of Rome to be harassed by heretics. Jerusalem, Sicily, and Germany are obedient to us; we wish to make Northern Italy equally docile. This also will further the Crusade; for we cannot undertake it, with Northern Italy in revolt; from that country we expect great assistance in the cause of the Holy Land. We have given out that in the present summer we shall enter Lombardy in person, together with our Princes. We are moved by three considerations; the wish to root out heresy; the desire to administer peace and justice; and the furtherance of the Crusade. The Truce with the Sultan is almost at an end. We have proclaimed a solemn Diet at Piacenza, whither we invite envoys from all the cities in Italy. We shall have many of our Princes there, and ambassadors from all the Kings of the West, who are almost all connected with us. If the insolence of the rebels be so great, that they will regard neither the business of God nor the honour of the Empire, we shall draw the sword against them. We shall send one of our Princes before us, to receive into favour the repentant, and to proclaim the Ban against the rebels. On the Feast of St. John the Baptist we shall move our conquering Eagles from Augsburg, fixing the Diet for St. James' day.' Frederick now bethought him of assembling an army for the conquest of Italy. But times were changed since the days of his grandfather and father. The former had been able to lead a host of 100,000 men across the Alps to the siege of Milan, when even the King of Bohemia had been proud to serve. Henry the Sixth had been able to prevail on many of the highest Princes to follow him to the con CHAP. 1235-1239. XI. CHAP. quest of Sicily. But Frederick the Second found that the old Empire was breaking up; the Princes 1235-1239. cared little for barren laurels to be won in Italy; they had a more tempting object at home, in rooting fast the power of their respective families, according to the license granted them in 1220 and 1232; the houses of Guelf and Wittelsbach needed consolidation. As to the spiritual Princes, there were none among them ready to serve their Kaiser, as Christian of Mayence and Raynald of Cologne had served his grandsire, even attacking the Pope himself, if so ordered. Not one Prince could be found to pave the way for his master in Italy, according to the promise held out in Frederick's last-quoted proclamation. Henceforward, but few of the Princes took the trouble even to appear at the Diets held to the South of the Alps. The old order of things was speedily passing away; old ties were being loosened; new interests were being established; and a change was fast taking place in Germany, at which Charlemagne, Otho, or even Henry the Sixth would have stood aghast. Frederick found it hard to get together an army. Most of the Germans thought that he should trust to the Italian Ghibellines, or to the forces of his own Kingdom. Very few could be made to enlist in the district of the Lower Rhine. Even in Alsace and Suabia, where the Hohenstaufen interest was of course strongest, the Kaiser could only gain followers by a free-handed distribution of the English gold, brought him by his new Empress. He had named Gebhard von Arnstein his Vicar in Italy, to whom he thus writes from Augsburg; 'We have received with joy the letters of your devotion; you mention a report in Lombardy, that we shall be de |