CHAP. confirmed every word of the Charter granted on that occasion, acting at the request of three envoys from Aix-la-Chapelle who appeared at Pisa. Thus the 1241-1245. honours of the most holy Charles' were ratified by his Imperial successors, without the slightest reference to the rightful Papal authority. After rebuking the ingratitude of the citizens of Avignon and the Bishop of Viviers, the enemies of Raymond, and after visiting Lucca, Frederick returned to his Kingdom. He recruited his finances by laying a poll-tax of one taren upon his subjects; and this taxation was enforced more harshly than ever before. The Emperor was at Castel del Monte in October, where he received seven hundred ounces of gold from Caraccioli, the Justiciary of the province of Bari. This deputy, on being rated by his master for not having brought more money, answered; "Lord, if my service displeases you, provide yourself with another agent; the towns are thoroughly stripped.' Frederick, more angry than ever, turned to Thaddeus of Sessa, and declared that it was only from love to Master John that the life of Caraccioli was spared; otherwise the Justiciary would have been thrown from the battlements of the Castle. He was speedily replaced in his office by Raalch, a Saracen, who had been harbour-master of Barletta. Every one of the lieges was ordered to pay his quota, under pain of the galleys, by the feast of St. Andrew.* While the great enemy was bending his steps to the South, Innocent was moving towards the North. Mat. Spinello. I follow the Duc de Luynes in his arrangement of this author's dates. XVI. 1241-1245. CHAP. Disabled by sickness, the Pope was borne in a litter to the convent of Sestri, where his friends despaired of his life. After his recovery, he granted interviews to the Marquesses of Carretto and Montferrat, and boldly advanced to Asti. On the gates being shut in his face, he lodged in a neighbouring convent, until later in the day the repentant Ghibellines knelt at his feet and besought him to enter their walls. He then went on to Susa at the foot of Mont Cenis, where he was met by several of the Cardinals, who had made their way in disguise through Italy and now rejoined their Lord. The illustrious party crossed the Alps, toiling through the November snows. At Chambery, Innocent had the joy of welcoming the absent King of Bohemia back to the side of the Church. A dangerous voyage of three days up the Rhone brought the exiles, on the 2nd of December, to Lyons, their destined abode for six years. A better spot for their great purpose could not have been chosen. It nominally belonged to the Empire, but was practically a free city under its Archbishop. It was situated midway between France, Germany, and Italy; and provisions in abundance could be brought down the Rhone and the Sâone. The King of France had refused to throw open his realm to Innocent, although the whole of the Cistercian Order had begged the favour on their knees. The nobles were afraid of the Pope's approach, and even the clergy were not all of one mind. A priest in Paris, on receiving the Papal mandate to excommunicate Frederick, thus addressed his flock; I know * De Curbio. not whether the Pope or the Emperor be the cause of the serious controversy that has arisen; but I excommunicate the guilty party, whichever of the two it be; and I absolve the innocent party.' The priest, whose jest was widely circulated, was punished by Innocent, but rewarded by Frederick.* The Pope had looked to England also for shelter, but in vain. The nobles were enraged at his interference in behalf of the Welsh; the clergy were ground down by his exactions. The greatest Prelates were degraded into becoming his agents. Among other letters of the time, we find briefs directed by Innocent to Grosseteste, ordering him to put Gregory of Romagna, the rash Legate, into possession of the living of Coleby, the revenues of which were collected by the Italian's Proctor. A struggle was going on in London between Master Martin, the Pope's agent, and Walter of Ocra, the Emperor's envoy. Frederick caused a letter to be laid before the English statesmen, in which he defended himself, promised to free England from the tax laid on it by Innocent the Third, but threatened vengeance if more money were collected for the Pope's behoof. The King indeed was very willing, at the suggestion of the Cardinals, to gratify Innocent the Fourth with an invitation to England; but the King's councillors withstood the project, although the Holy Father had openly avowed his wish to see the enjoyments of Westminster and the riches of London. The usury and simony of the Roman Court made CHAP. XVI. 1241-1245. *M. Paris. Regesta of Innocent, MSS. British Museum; II and III years. CHAP England, France, and Arragon alike averse to its presence.* XVI. 1241-1245. In spite of these rebuffs, Innocent's finances began to prosper after his Court had been transferred to Lyons. The French Abbots and Bishops were most bountiful, and were rewarded by promotion in the Church. The old and virtuous Archbishop of Lyons was persuaded after a few months to resign his mitre, which was given to Philip, one of the brothers of the Count of Savoy, a fierce warrior not yet in priest's orders, who already held the See of Valence. This was strongly suspected to be a simoniacal bargain.† All being now ready for his purpose, the Pope on the 3rd of January, 1245, sent forth his summons to a General Council, whither Frederick himself was cited. On Holy Thursday, the Emperor, King Enzio, and Lancia were excommunicated. Innocent's time in the interval before the meeting of the Council was fully occupied. He applied himself to the hearing of causes, and in a very short space decided many that his predecessors had left in arrear. He established in his Court a school for theology, law, and the Decretals. He filled his Palace with Minorite friars, whom he employed to distribute his alms among the sick and poor of Lyons, sending the brethren every day to the hospitals and from house to house. Both Dominicans and Franciscans were often charged with still more weighty errands; they were despatched to the frozen shores of the Baltic, and into the deserts of Tartary, on the messages of the Church. The influence of Rome grew apace. XVI. 1241-1245. Money was extorted from all quarters, and it was CHAP. said that no Pope was ever richer than Innocent the Fourth. The revenues wrung by the Italian priests from England alone amounted to sixty thousand marks a year, a sum larger than King Henry's income; that long-suffering Monarch was at length beginning to turn restive, and found that his subjects were eager to back him. Satires were freely bandied about; one of them ran as follows; Pecunia, Empress of the Romans and of all the earth, to all her beloved sons, greeting. I lift up my voice in all the streets; I say unto you, that before Abraham was, I was. O all ye that pass by, give heed and see whether ever honour was like unto my honour! To me flee all Kings and nations; the Roman Court serves me. Here will I dwell unto the end of time; the Roman Court have I chosen out. What greater joy could befall me, than that all the Cardinals should bow their necks and run after the savour of my incense? The Church never closes her breast against me; the Pope willingly opens his arms to me. I will give you abundance, and our best friend in maintaining it will be Avarice.' † The money thus gained was freely spent, but all the Pope's lavish expenditure could not reconcile the townsmen of Lyons to his interference. They threatened to throw the Canons, whom he intruded upon their Cathedral, into the Rhone. His saucy doorkeeper lost a hand, which an angry citizen cut off. Innocent's wardrobe and many valuable papers were burnt. His life was chequered by alternate success and defeat. At one time, he was rejoiced by a train of * M. Paris. † Vatican MSS. quoted by Von Raumer. |