A. D. 1191-1300

CHAP. VII but had been accomplished by witchcraft. It was not until 1213 that Philip finally yielded, restored to her rightful place the wife from whom he had held aloof for twenty years, and became the most faithful and useful ally of the Papacy.

A multitude of less important kings and princes recognized their subserviency to Rome. Sicily, Portugal, and Aragon were formal vassals of the Holy See, and their kings received their crowns from the hand of the Pope. In the East and North, Armenia, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and Denmark all invoked his protection or mediation. Firm in the exercise of his authority and fearless in the enforcement of his will, Innocent did not hesitate to treat the most powerful princes with magisterial severity.

It was, however, in 1213 that the Sovereign Pontiff won the most impressive victory of his career, when, after a long and bitter struggle, in which Innocent had exhausted his armory of ecclesiastical weapons and employed every resource of his astute diplomacy, John of Anjou, King of England, surrendered his crown to the papal legate, Cardinal Pandulf, to receive it as a vassal of the Pope, to whom he promised an annual tribute.1

But if the true test of statesmanship is the endurance of its policies, it is impossible to rank Innocent III with statesmen of the highest order. Crafty, vigorous, and resourceful

...

1 In this remarkable concession King John says: "We do offer and freely concede to God and his holy apostles Peter and Paul and to our mother the Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord Pope Innocent and to his Catholic successors, the whole Kingdom of England and the whole Kingdom of Ireland, with all their rights and appurtenances. ; and now, receiving and holding them, as it were a vassal, from God and the Roman Church, . . . we perform and swear fealty for them to our aforesaid Lord Pope Innocent. . . . As a sign. . . of this our perpetual obligation and concession, we will and establish that from the proper and especial revenues of our afore. said kingdoms, . . . the Roman Church shall receive yearly a thousand marks sterling," etc. For the full text, see Henderson, Select Documents, p. 430, and Stubbs' Charters, p. 284.

A. D. 1191-1300

in accomplishing his immediate purposes, he was not en- CHAP. VII dowed with that clear vision of permanent human relations which is the highest attribute of statesmanship. He failed to see that nothing is so perilous as success, especially if won by doubtful means. By raising the Papacy to the height of a universal despotism, he prepared the way for its inevitable decline and fall. Not only the kings and princes whom he so deeply humiliated, but even more profoundly the peoples, who were just beginning to acquire national selfconsciousness, resented the pretensions of the Papacy. The nobility of Aragon repudiated their king's submission to the Pope, denied his right to transfer his kingdom to a foreign suzerain, and refused to pay the promised tribute. The power of Innocent was unavailing when he gave to King John the support of his influence in condemning Magna Charta.1 Rising in their might in opposition to both King and Pope, the English took their first long step toward reasserting their primitive Teutonic liberties in resistance to the Roman conception of imperial rule. The new champions of local sovereignty were soon to repudiate that conception, not only as maintained by the Empire, but as embodied in the theory of the Papacy.

II. THE SUPREME STRUGGLE FOR THE EMPIRE

of Frederick II toward the

On his way from Southern Italy to Germany, in response The attitude to the invitation of the German magnates, Frederick made a brief sojourn at Rome, where he took an oath of vassalage Papacy to the Pope for his Sicilian kingdom. Crossing the Alps in

1 On August 25, 1215, Innocent absolved King John from his oath to the barons, and exhorted them to renounce their demands. In September, he directed the Archbishop of Canterbury to pronounce the sentence of excommunication against the barons for their disobedience. On December 16 the barons were excommunicated by name. The Great Charter was, nevertheless, wrung from the reluctant hands of the King. The text is found in Henderson, Select Documents, pp. 135, 148, and in Stubbs' Charters, p. 296 et seq.

A. D.

1191-1300

CHAP. VII the autumn of 1212, he was chosen king at Frankfort by a part of the nobles, but it was only by an alliance with Philip of France and the support of Innocent III that he succeeded in obtaining general recognition. The “Golden Bull of Eger," issued in July, 1213, in which he solemnly promised obedience to the Holy See and engaged to defend its temporal possessions, won for him the vigorous support of the papal party. The chief anxiety of Innocent III was the possibility of a union of the Sicilian kingdom with the Empire, by which, in the event of a conflict, the Patrimony of St. Peter would be again encompassed by imperial forces. To avoid this eventuality, before receiving the crown of the Empire, Frederick was to alienate the kingdom, which, under the rule of his little son Henry,-crowned "King of Sicily," for this purpose, was to remain a fief of the Papacy.

When, therefore, in 1216, Innocent III was succeeded by Honorius III,— the former tutor of the King,- Frederick appeared to be the most obedient son of the Church, and was even called "the priests' king." "Who could be more devoted to the Holy See than the son warmed in her bosom, nourished by her milk, and grown up in her embrace? Who could manifest more gratitude for so many benefits than he whose heart is full of zeal and filial affection? . . . We desire not only to yield to you, as to your successors, and to the Holy Church, our Mother, the obedience, the respect, and the honors which our ancestors have rendered, but as far as lies in our power to increase them, as the reverence which we feel for your person requires us to do." 2

Such were the professions of devotion with which Frederick addressed the venerable pontiff at Hagenau, in 1220, when he formally renewed all his promises to the Papacy. Sicily was to remain a papal fief, the inheritance of the Countess Matilda was to be restored to the Holy See, and a crusade was soon to be undertaken under his leadership.

1 See for the text of this pledge, dated July 12, 1213, HuillardBréholles, Historia Diplomatica Friderici Secundi, I, p. 272.

2 See Huillard-Bréholles, Historia Diplomatica, I, p. 742.

A. D. 1191-1300

In 1220, Otto IV had died, the princes of Germany had CHAP. VII been conciliated by liberal concessions, and the time had arrived when no obstacle remained to Frederick's coronation as emperor at Rome. Only one cause of disquietude existed, The coronabut this was of a serious character. After the death of Innocent III, Frederick had caused his son Henry to be brought from Sicily to Germany, and the project of having him crowned "King of the Romans was conceived. Hono

rius III had been alarmed at this procedure, for he feared the King's intention to unite the Sicilian kingdom and the Empire in the person of his son. Frederick reassured him with the words: "If, by the advice of the princes we have taken these steps in favor of our son, it is not with the purpose of uniting the kingdom to the Empire, but with the intention that, during our absence in the service of Jesus Christ, the Empire may be better governed, and that, in case of our death, our son may be better able to conserve his patrimony in Germany."1

Honorius was not to be deceived by such an argument, which only served to reveal the secret purpose of Frederick. In response to a demand for the renewal of his promises, the King cheerfully gave new assurances; but with the important restriction that, in case of Henry's death, Frederick hoped to succeed him in the Sicilian kingdom, not by virtue of an imperial right but as the legitimate heir of his son.2 Thus, by gradual approaches, he was preparing the way for that coup de main which was to be the chief act in his political programme.

Suddenly, it was learned at Rome that, on April 23, 1220, Henry had been chosen "King of the Romans" at Frankfort. The blow had fallen. What was the aged pontiff to do? For Frederick, it remained only to reconcile the mind of the Holy Father to his act. "The Church, our

1 This letter of May 10, 1219, is found in Huillard-Bréholles, Historia Diplomatica, I, p. 628.

2 See Huillard-Bréholles, Historia Diplomatica, I, p. 740.

tion of Fred

erick II

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CHAP. VII Mother," he wrote to Honorius, " ought not to entertain either fear or distrust regarding the possible union of the kingdom with the Empire; because, as we ourselves desire the separation, the affair will end according to your wish when we are near you."

The grounds

policy

"1

Having thus allayed the apprehensions of the venerable pontiff, Frederick proceeded to Rome, where he received the imperial crown, on November 22, 1220, from the hand of Honorius.

The conduct of Frederick II finds its explanation partly of Frederick's in the nature of his opportunity and partly in his personal character. As Innocent III had taken advantage of his youth to build up the power of the Papacy, so now he could take advantage of the indulgent old age of Honorius to win back the imperial power which his father, Henry VI, had once possessed.

With this object clearly before his mind as the end to be attained, the method of accomplishing his purpose bore all the marks of his unique personality. In him, the imperial spirit was joined to a new combination of motives and faculties. German and Norman by descent, he was Italian by residence and education. Pupil and protégé of the Papacy, his training had been deeply tinctured with ecclesiasticism, but also profoundly affected by the half-Greek, half-Arabic culture of Sicily. Brilliant intellectual faculties, stimulated by a cosmopolitan atmosphere, imparted to his development a finesse of manipulation and a scepticism of thought which no emperor of the Middle Ages had possessed. Poet, linguist, naturalist, mystic, sportsman, warrior, and diplomatist all at once, he united in his nature a wealth of ideas and impulses which rendered him the most modern of mediaeval rulers. More than any other person of his time, Frederick II marks the transition from the mediaeval to the modern order of ideas. The last of the great emperors, he was the first of modern kings, the prototype of a new race of rulers.

1 Letter of July 13, 1220, Huillard-Bréholles, Historia Diplomatica, I, pp. 803, 804.