*

comed to Rome amid the greatest rejoicings on the 16th of October. He was besieged by the merchants, who had lent the late Pope forty thousand marks. Innocent was forced to live in private so as to shun these noisy creditors, but in the end he contrived to pay them all, and confounded them by his patience. He gave a hearing to the Count of Toulouse, who had come on Frederick's behalf, after having spent several days in hunting at Melfi.+ The Emperor had also called in the mediation of his English brother-in-law. He strengthened himself still further by sending Brother Elias to the East, to make a match between Vataces and Manfred's sister. Another object of the mission was to solicit a truce between the Greek and Latin pretenders to Constantinople. Frederick was now, in addition to his other misdemeanours, denounced as a schismatic, for giving his daughter to Vataces.

He had drawn off from Viterbo, after seeing his engines and waggons burnt; two months had been wasted on the siege. While he was at Acquapendente, his camp was visited by John von Wildeshusen, the General of the Dominicans. This friar was accompanied by a novice of sixteen, who was a born subject of Frederick's, being a son of *Landulf, one of the Lords of Aquino. The boy had studied at Monte Cassino and Naples under the best masters. His elder brother Rinaldo, at this time serving under the Emperor's banner, wished to draw the youthful Dominican back into the world. The

СНАР.

XVI. 1241-1245.

*De Curbio.

† Ric. San Germano, who unhappily stops at this point
+ M. Paris.

XVI.

1241-1245.

CHAP. knight accordingly who had great influence at Court, gained the help of Peter de Vinea and wrested the boy out of the hands of the General, while the travellers were resting by the side of a fountain. The youthful captive was sent back to the Kingdom under a guard of soldiers, there to be shut up in a Castle belonging to his own family, and to be assailed with threats and prayers, until he should give up the Preacher's garb. He made his escape from a window after a year's imprisonment, and then hastened to sit at the feet of Albert the Great at Cologne and Paris, far from the din of Italian broils. This boy of sixteen, who was seized at Acquapendente with the Emperor's connivance, became the most shining light of the Dominican Order, and is well known as Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the Schoolmen.*

In the beginning of 1244, the Emperor seemed bent on maintaining his grasp on Central Italy. We find him near Foligno in January, whence he passed to Grosseto in Tuscany, returning to his old quarters at Acquapendente for March and April. He was surrounded by his officers of state and by the noble foreigners whom he gathered around him. He added at this time some new laws to the Sicilian Code. He rebuked the Dalmatian seamen for hoisting his Eagle on their masts, in order to make piratical seizures of Apulian vessels; all such damages must be made good within two months. He bestowed a charter upon the Ghibellines of Imola, who had vowed to live and die for him and his Empire. He made a grant of silver mines to a citizen of Prata,

* Ptol. Lucensis, who was his confessor, and who lived far into the next century.

XVI.

1241-1245.

and rewarded other lieges in Tuscany. All this time, CHAP. the Count of Toulouse was untiring in his efforts for peace between the Church and Empire; Frederick became so hopeful as to summon the Bishop of Worms and other Princes to a Diet shortly to be held at Verona. On the 12th of March, Peter de Vinea and Thaddeus of Sessa were sent to Rome with full powers for treating; and a fortnight later these powers were renewed. The learned envoys were now reinforced by the Count of Toulouse, to whom the Pope had been most gracious. Innocent had even recommended Raymond to King Louis, alleging that the Count had no small place among the Princes of Earth. It would be desirable to arrange a truce between the Lords of Languedoc and Provence. A far more important truce seemed to be now on the eve of accomplishment. The Bishop of Ostia, with three other Cardinals, Stephen, Giles, and Otho, acted for the Pope; and articles of peace were at last drawn up. All the lands of the Church were to be given back to the Papacy. An Imperial letter was to certify the world of Frederick's repentance, and of his acknowledgment of the Papal claims. Alms and fasting were to atone for his past misdeeds. Full compensation was to be made to the captured Prelates. All who had fought on the side of the Church were to obtain a free pardon and indemnity. The Northern Guelf nobles were to be judged by their peers, and a Bishop was to be appointed to watch the proceedings. All prisoners in Frederick's hands must be given up; all exiles were to be recalled. The Pope and Cardinals were to act as umpires

• Raynaldus.

XVI.

CHAP. between the Emperor and the Roman citizens. Montelongo was forgiven, and the land of Count Wil1241-1245. liam restored. Everything seemed to be granted to

the Pope; nothing to the Emperor. A number of the articles were very loosely worded, and were specially left to the future decision of Innocent and his brethren. The Latin Emperor of Constantinople, who had by this time arrived in Italy, Cardinal Otho, and the Archbishop of Rouen were the three Papal commissioners.

On Holy Thursday, March 31, the three Imperial envoys took the oath on Frederick's behalf in the great square before the Lateran Palace. The Cardinals, the Senator and people of Rome, and a vast multitude from all parts of the world, drawn to the city for the Easter services, were witnesses to the engagement. Then Innocent preached a sermon, and announced Frederick's speedy return to the bosom of the Church.* The Emperor sent the joyful news to Conrad, and bade his son and the other German Princes prepare for the Diet, soon to be assembled at Verona. Praise the Lord,' wrote a Ghibelline to the captives, the prisons on either side will soon be thrown open!' But the second attempt at peace fared no better than that undertaken in the former year. Innocent grew uneasy at the underhand plots of the Ghibellines in Rome. One of the Cardinals wrote to Frederick, charging him with having bribed these men to revolt. 'O Dearest of Princes,' so ended the letter, 'be watchful to uphold the union of Church and Empire; keep for your descendants the breasts that you

* De Curbio.

CHAP.

XVI.

have sucked!' Two of the Frangipani had been frightened into handing over to Frederick half of the Coliseum and a palace on the outside of that 1241-1245. ruin. Innocent, having no wish to see Imperial garrisons so close to the Lateran, declared that the fortresses in question were a fief of the Roman Church, and annulled the gift, which had been extorted at Acquapendente. He declared that he would not take the advice of the Ghibelline Cardinals. Contrary to his engagements to keep the proposed treaty a secret, he made it public; and copies of it were openly sold at the Lateran for sixpence, to the grief of his Brethren. He avowed his belief that it would cost the Imperial Treasury more than 400,000 marks of silver to compensate the wrongs done to the Prelates. He flew into a rage, when speaking of the compromise attempted with the Lombard states, because he could not have his own way exactly in that matter. He boldly promised to help these rebels, even should the Emperor obtain absolution. There was but slender hope of peace, if the Pope was to act in this way. On the 30th of April, he avowed his conviction that Frederick had not been sincere in the late negotiations. The Pope animated the Landgrave of Thuringia to carry out some mysterious purpose just begun; a purpose which came to light two years afterwards. The Emperor on his side vehemently protested that some forger of truth had fabricated adulterous letters to defame him; the Imperial seal had been fraudulently used. He appealed to God that he was guiltless of stirring up strife among the Romans. He refused, in the critical

*See Frederick's circular of July.