CHAP. XI. 1235-1239. visited his consort Isabella at Noemta; all this time he had only given her the title of Queen, and her English brother began to remonstrate at the delay of her Coronation. Frederick was now attended by the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Bishop of Passau, and the Count of Goritz, whom he made Judges in a quarrel that had arisen between the Bishop of Freisingen and the Count of Tyrol. He rode to Monselice, at that time the Treasury of the Empire in the Paduan district, and ordered it to be fortified. Seeing the noble Castle of Este from this point, he summoned Azzo to a conference at Monselice. He was also waited upon by a suppliant, Arnold the Abbot of St. Justina, who is highly praised by the Paduan Chroniclers as a noble man, and as a lover of courtesy and liberality. The Abbot explained that he had fled from the hands of Eccelin, and that he had been forced to leave the very monastery where Frederick was then staying, which was the Emperor's, and would continue so to be as long as Arnold lived. Frederick brought him back to his Abbey, and allowed him to dwell there. Arnold gave to his benefactor two costly pieces of tapestry, a throne most exquisitely ornamented, with a footstool, two waggon-loads of the best wine which rivalled the produce of the grapes of Engaddi, thirty bushels of barley, twenty-four wains of hay, and some huge sturgeons, brought from Ferrara. Arnold also very often made gifts to the Emperor's courtiers.* In March, the new Abbot of Monte Cassino, Stephen by name, waited upon Frederick and took the oath * Rolandini. Mon. Patavinus. CHAP. XI. to him. This monk had been before confirmed in his office by Gregory, and he now met with a kind reception from Frederick.* It was probably the 1235-1239. last matter upon which the Pope ever agreed with the Emperor. The Peace, which had lasted for not quite nine years between the two powers, was now speedily drawing to an end. A fresh war in Palestine was about to be begun, and it had been hoped that Frederick would have led the new Crusade. A very different event was destined to render the spring of the year 1239 for ever remarkable, and to prove the ruin of this and of all future Crusades. On the 22nd of February, Frederick had thundered forth one more edict against heretics; little thinking that he himself would soon be numbered among the hated class. On Palm Sunday, late in March, the whole population of Padua, according to old custom, were assembled in Prato Valle. Here Frederick, clad in purple robes, and crowned with the Diadem of the Empire, exhibited himself to the citizens. His throne was placed upon a high spot, where he sat and charmed all by his demeanour. Peter de Vinea uttered an eloquent harangue in praise of his master, and knitted closer the bonds of love which bound the Paduans to their Lord. Easter Sunday followed; Frederick heard mass in the Cathedral and went back to his residence, wearing the Crown of the Empire in the sight of all, just as he had once worn another Crown in the streets of Jerusalem. But within a very few XI. CHAP. days a whisper was running through the crowd, that Frederick was an excommunicated man; that the 1235-1239. awful sentence had been passed upon him by his Holiness in the previous week.* And such indeed was the fact. * Rolandini. F CHAPTER XII. A.D. 1237-A.D. 1239. 'Ahi Costantin, di quanto mal fu madre, DANTE, Inferno, xix. REDERICK'S life hitherto had been of a most varied character; but it now takes a far more curious complexion. No circumstance from one end of his reign to the other was so remarkable in its consequences as the great event of the spring of 1239. It influenced the remainder of his life, and had probably no small share in bringing him to an early grave. In order to understand it thoroughly, we must go back a few years. The Emperor had had causes of complaint, greater or less, against Innocent, Honorius, and Gregory in succession. It was unreasonable to expect that the See of Rome would behold with calmess the amazing height to which Frederick had climbed. It was mortifying to think that she had helped in his exaltation; but instead of being her tool, he was on the road to become her master. He was able to threaten her both from the North and the South; and there was not one Monarch in Christendom, whom Rome could set up as a counterpoise against him. In more modern times, she was able to lean on France as her ally against Germany. But in the Thirteenth Century, what we now call France owned many masters. The Emperor of the Romans, the King of England, and the King CHAP. XII. 1237-1239. CHAP. XII. 1237-1239. of Arragon were lords of many of the finest French provinces. The South of France was always, and with good reason, ready to rise against the yoke of the Sovereign who dwelt on the banks of the Seine. Many men then living could remember the time, when the King of France had scarcely any real authority, except in the district between Paris and Orleans. Hence the Emperor was supreme in the councils of Europe. Rome never willingly trusted Frederick. She seized the first opportunity of breaking with him, and strove hard to achieve his ruin in 1227 and the two following years. This effort, which was but a preparatory skirmish, turned out a complete failure. The real battle was delayed for many years. Even after Pope Gregory's reconciliation with Frederick, the correspondence between the reunited powers was anything but friendly. This was especially the case in the year 1236, when the contention between them, as may be seen in the letters already quoted, began to wax very sharp. But the sack of Vicenza must have suggested prudent counsels to the Pope; he must have seen with dismay that his friends in Northern Italy could not be relied on as a check upon the Emperor. For the next two years, the Papal letters lose their tartness, and only by indirect means aim at the diminution of the Imperial power in Italy. The disaster at Vicenza was speedily followed by the overthrow of the Duke of Austria, the only rebel in Germany. It seemed that Frederick the Second made shorter work of his enemies, than either his grandfather or his father, with far greater advantages, had been able to do. The first fruit of the |