XI. 1235-1239. CHAP. There are great tokens that the Lord Emperor will not quit Lombardy either in summer or winter, until he bring the business to an honourable end. It is believed as certain that he will send thither the Empress his illustrious consort, and that he will keep her there.' Von Salza was the finest combination of the soldier, the statesman, and the Christian, that adorned the Thirteenth Century; happy had it been for all parties, if his warning voice had not been raised in vain. The Cardinals, to whom this letter was addressed, were well known to the Emperor, and had both corresponded with him; one of them, Thomas of Capua, had proved himself equally ready to pen a hymn in praise of St. Francis or a despatch in opposition to the Imperial policy. The other, Rinaldo the Bishop of Ostia, the future Pope Alexander IV., was fat as King Eglon, and a lover of quiet. He delighted in preaching, studying theology, and consecrating Churches; he had charity for all mankind, except for wicked friars and priests who abused the confessional.* His abhorrence of war made him ready to entertain Frederick's new proposals, harsh as they seem to us. These were sent to the two Legates in July, when they were at a Castle near Piacenza. The Emperor demanded that the peace of Constance, forced on his grandfather, should be considered as null and void; that the Lombards should throw down their banners at his feet; that they should raise five hundred knights for his service in Italy; that the Milanese should pay their arrears of tribute from the day of his Coronation up to the present Salimbene. XI. time, and hand over Crema to him, on his promising CHAP. never to place it in the hands of the Cremonese; that the Imperial allies should have their losses made 1235-1239. good; and that he should have everything restored to him that his father had held. These hard conditions, if we may believe the Emperor's own statement, were agreed to by the Lombards, who must have been dismayed at the results of the late campaign. In return, they demanded from him a confirmation of the privileges of Milan, forgiveness for all their misdeeds of the past, and the right to keep their walls and gates. The question of their jurisdictions might be settled by the Princes of the Empire. Each city wished to have its own charter of pardon. But the two parties could not come to an agreement; the Lombards would have the guarantee of the Church; the Emperor insisted on his natural sons and the Princes of the Empire being the only sureties. Moreover he demanded hostages, while the other side thought an oath was enough.* In particular, Frederick wished that Piacenza should once more bring home her exiled Ghibellines, among whom the house of Andito were conspicuous, and that she should make them full compensation for their losses. The Doge of Venice overturned the whole scheme of peace. He instigated his countryman, Regnier Zeno, the Podesta of Piacenza, to refuse any terms which did not include Venice. The negotiations, which would otherwise have been completed, were therefore broken off on the 25th of July. Zeno hurried back to Piacenza, and made the burghers take an oath to banish the Ghibellines. Thus, * See Frederick's Circular in July, 1244. XI. CHAP. while the country to the east of the Adige was yielding to Frederick, the towns to the west of that river 1235-1239. were welcoming war. The Cardinals, forced to depart without attaining their object, went away muttering an ominous Latin jingle.* Peter de Vinea afterwards declared, that what with these holy men and the Lombards, he had been steering between Scylla and Charybdis. While the balance was thus trembling between peace and war in Italy, Frederick had quitted that country for Germany in November, 1236. He kept his Christmas at Gratz, where he received the homage of the Styrian officials. His son Conrad, who had been left at Nuremberg, was being brought by degrees before the eyes of the public; but the Emperor towards the end of this year found another child added to his family. He wrote to his faithful subjects at Palermo, whom he calls his peculiar people, that his new Empress had given birth to a daughter, the earnest, it was to be hoped, of male offspring. In another letter he appealed to the loyalty of his Sicilian subjects. They had seen their King promoted to the Roman Empire; Lombardy was in full rebellion, which the men whom Germany germinated sufficed to crush; Sicily therefore would not be called upon to furnish men, as of old in the African wars, but only money. If the persons of Frederick's Southern subjects were spared, the least they could do would be to contribute their wealth, in order to insure the future peace of the world. The taxes were collected very soon after the arrival of this letter. * Lombardus pactum post damnum suscipit actum.- Chronicon. † Ann. Argentin. XI. 1235-1239. Early in January, 1237, Frederick left the Styrian CHAP. capital, where he had curbed the oppressive proceedings of certain laymen towards the Church. He took and laid in ruins the strong Castles in Styria, and then passed on to Vienna, which became his headquarters for three months. The Duke of Austria had been more than a match for the Imperial lieutenants, who did little but ravage the land; he wisely retired into the walls of Neustadt, the only city which remained faithful to him, on the Kaiser's arrival from Italy. The wife of the rebel, to his great disgrace, fell into the hands of his enemy. The Austrian convents, which had been heavily taxed by their Duke for the defence of the country, had reason to rejoice at Frederick's success, and hastened to procure Charters from him.* Before the end of January the Patriarch of Aquileia, who had taken a leading part in the war, the Archbishops of Mayence, Treves, and Salzburg, the Bishops of Bamberg and Ratisbon, the Dukes of Bavaria and Carinthia, the Landgrave of Thuringia, Hermann von Salza, and many other nobles, had assembled at Vienna. The King of Bohemia and the Bishops of Passau and Freisingen arrived soon afterwards. It is said that they staid at Vienna eating and drinking and doing nothing else.† One event at least marked their sojourn in the Austrian capital, the election of Frederick's second son as King of the Romans. The opening of their declaration unfolds a new view of prophetical interpretation. 'Christ, taking the sceptre from Judah and binding his colt to a vine, that is, binding the Roman Empire to the Church of his new plantation, most evidently * Continuatio Sancrucensis. † Con. Sancrucensis. 1235-1239. CHAP. foretold the defence of our religion placed under the XI. shield of the Empire. When this is shaken by storms, heresies uncut by the saw of the Empire grow up, to ruin the vine of the Lord of Sabaoth. If the prop of the vine be neglected, the vine itself is in danger. When Troy had fallen, Rome became the seat of the Empire; but so lofty a fortune could not be preserved in one single city. After long wanderings, Necessity adjudged the source of the Empire to the Princes of Germany. Since then we who stand in the place of the Roman Senate, we who are held the fathers and lights of the Empire, have to give an account to an awful Judge, we are bound to guard against the dangers of an Interregnum. Although there is no immediate peril, thanks to the strength, diligence, and toils of our most excellent Lord Frederick; yet, since the length of his life is uncertain, we have determined to choose his successor during his reign. We remember that the godlike Kaisers his forefathers not only held the throne as Lords of justice, but had a fatherly love towards each and all, like Fathers of the Empire, and never spared their persons in wars at home or abroad. Our ancestors were loth to cheat the sons out of the toils of their fathers; we therefore have resolved to honour in his offspring the present Emperor, the true successor of his predecessors. We elect his son as our future Emperor, that the father may toil on for the benefit of his child. Thus, at the Emperor's prayer, we have at Vienna with one consent elected his son Conrad as King of the Romans and as the future Emperor, and we have confirmed our election by an oath. It is true that we formerly elected Henry, the Emperor's eldest son; but since he has |