History. to a new City, henceforward to bear the name of Cesarea;* in which, although living under the especial From jurisdiction of the Emperor, they were permitted to elect their own Consuls.

A. D.

1106.
to
A. D.

1198.

eace of nstance.

ོལ་

of

D. 34.

The conclusion of Peace was accelerated by the earnest desire of the King of the Romans to be associated with his Father in the Crown of Italy, as well as that of Germany; an object which might have been frustrated had the Truce been permitted to expire without the signature of a definitive Treaty. Preliminaries, accordingly, were settled at Piacenza, and ratifications exchanged at Constance, the City from which this Peace, much cele brated as forming the basis of the public law of Italy, during a long succession of years, has received its name. The Treaty was conceived in a just and equitable spirit; and without abolishing the wholesome control of the Imperial Sovereignty, confirmed the Lombard Cities in that virtual independence which had been the object of their long and arduous struggle. The rights of coinage, of Peace and War, of erecting fortifications, of administering Civil and Criminal justice, and all others comprehended under the term Regalian, were granted to them, not only within their walls, but within the districts attached to them. The League was formally recognised, and permitted to be renewed at pleasure. The Consuls, although invested by an Imperial Commissioner, were to be elected by the Citizens. All Feudal services during the Emperor's residence or progresses in Italy, were retained; but he engaged on the other hand never to abide so long in any City or its territory, as to occasion it prejudice. Each Member of the League was to swear that it would maintain the Imperial rights against such Italian Cities as were not Members; and at the close of every ten years, all were to renew their oath of allegiance to the Emperor. It is manifest that important concessions were obtained by these terms from Barbarossa; and perhaps his humbled pride sought reconciliation to the sacrifice demanded from him, in the empty, although arrogant wording of the Preamble to the Treaty. So great, it is there said, is the gentleness and clemency of the Emperor, that he prefers granting pardon to inflicting punishment; and he is content, out of the abundance of his grace, to receive into favour the offending Lombards and their partisans.f

fage of The reception of Barbarossa wheu, in the year following this Peace, he visited Italy to celebrate the nuptials of the of his son Henry, was distinguished by extraordinary magnificence; and the Cities hitherto accustomed to close their gates against him in hostility, now vied with each other in the splendour of their triumphs and banquetings. The alliance which he had negotiated for his son brought with it great increase of wealth, of honour, and of dominion. In the thirty years which had passed since the death of the Norman Roger, first King of Sicily, the Crown had been worn, as we have before seen, by his son and his grandson. Of these, William ¡I, or the Good,"-a title for which this youth, however amiable in himself, may be partly indebted to the great predominance of evil in his father and predecessor Wil

From

A. D. 1106.

to

A. D.

liam I. the Wicked,"*— was now hopeless of issue; Germany aud the sole existing legitimate descendant of the ancient and Italy. Guiscard blood, was Constance, a posthumous daughter of Roger, and Aunt, therefore, to the reigning King. It was this Princess, of distinguished beauty, and with the succession to the Crown of Sicily as her dowry, who bestowed her hand on the future Emperor in the Gardens of St. Ambrose at Milan. The bitter train of calamity which these nuptials afterwards entailed upon her suffering Country, may have given rise to a belief long entertained that her Father or her Brother had dedicated her to the veil and to celibacy, in consequence of a Prophecy, that if she married she would kindle a devouring flame in Europe, and occasion the ruin of her own Family.†

1198.

Illd Cru

A. D. 1190.

racter.

When the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin armed the Frederick Chivalry of Europe for a third time for the recovery of joins the the Holy Sepulchre, Frederick, although approaching sade. the age of man, was fired by the general enthusiasm, and A. D. took the Cross. His achievements in that expedition, 1189. and the petty accident which occasioned the death of one His death, who had so often escaped far greater perils both of June 10, flood and field," belong to another part of our narrative; in this place it need only be said that the remembrance of his many noble and generous qualities excited deep regret for his loss, even among those who had been most exposed to his former enmity. The two chief and chastains upon his character are the ferocity exhibited during the siege of Tortona, and the treacherous attempt upon Alessandria; and those crying offences we do not seek to extenuate. But they stand alone, and are foreign from the rest of his conduct. In all other respects, both his fidelity and his clemency were unimpeachable; and although his Lombard wars were waged against foes whom he viewed as rebels and traitors, his vengeance in the hour of triumph was directed not against the inhabitants, but the senseless stones of their vanquished Cities. Personal valour and fortitude in adversity belonged to him in preeminence; and somewhat of the respect which History has attached to his memory may perhaps be attributed to the strong contrast which is afforded by the cruelty and the perfidy of his odious Accession successor, upon whose reign we are about to enter. ‡ of Henry VI.

Lion.

The first object of Henry VI. after his accession, was Further deyet further to diminish the power of Henry the Lion, a pression of power still too considerable not to render him danger- Henry the ous as a subject. Before Frederick joined the Crusade, the Diet of the Empire had exacted an oath from the restless and ambitious Duke,-who, notwithstanding his now advanced years, and the frequent proscriptions which he had incurred, appeared to enjoy life only

* If it were possible to suspect so very grave a writer as Muratori of occasional indulgence in dry humour, his account of the death-bed of William the Wicked might be cited to that purpose. Assalito di grave infermità in quest'anno Guglielmo Re di Sicilia, stette languente per due mise; e chiamato a se Romoaldo Arcivescovo di Salerno, che dilettavasi forte della Medecina, arte allora di gran credito in quella Città, ne ascoltò bene i consigli, ma seguitò poi a regolarsi a modo suo. (Annali d'Italia, ad ann. 1166.)

+ Giannone (lib. xiii. vol. ii. p. 289.) has shown, and few will doubt his assertion, that Constance, being a posthumous daughter, could not be dedicated to a Nunnery by her Father; and that the whole story is unnoticed by contemporary authorities. He cites also the following description of her from Godfrey of Viterbo : Fit Regis Siculi Filia sponsa sibı, Sponsa fuit speciosa nimis, Constantia dicta, Posthuma post Patrem Materno ventre relicta, Jumque tricennalis tempore virgo fuit, Sismondi, Rep. Ital, ch. xii. vol. ii. p. 257.

Death of

of Sicily.

Tancred,

King of Sicily.

The announcement of the demise of William II. of Sicily had preceded that of Barbarossa by a few months, William II. and Henry was already prepared to claim the dowry of his Consort, when he found himself called to the throne of Germany. But the strong prejudices of the Sicilians against a foreign, and especially a German dynasty, raised obstacles to that arrangement by which the deceased King, in projecting the marriage of Constance, had endeavoured to avoid the miseries of Civil dissension. One Prince of Norman descent, although of ambiguous birth, still remained, in the person of Tancred, Count of Lecce; a title which he derived from his mother. Of the three sons of the first King of Sicily, Roger, the eldest, died in the flower of his age; and without having obtained the consent of his Father to a union with the Countess of Lecce, of whom he was passionately enamoured, and to whose bed he proved undividedly faithful. To Tancred, the issue of that unblamed, although not strictly recognised attachment, the Sicilian Nobles proffered their Crown; and being immediately on the spot, and supported also by very powerful interests, he established himself in full Sovereignty almost before Henry was acquainted with the decease of the late King. No time, however, was lost by Henry in asserting and actively enforcing his pretensions. Accompanied by Constance, he hastened into Italy, conciliated the Lombard Cities as he traversed them, by a renewal of all their former privileges; concluded an alliance with the Pisans, who engaged to provide him with a Fleet; and for similar objects, accorded grants to Genoa so extravagant, that those by whom they were received must have felt some misgiving as to their future realization. Exemption from tolls and customs in all the Ports of Sicily was the least portion of the Charter which he delivered; it contained a promised cession of Syracuse, with all its dependencies, and of two hundred and fifty Knights-fiefs in the rich Val di Noto. As he proceeded to Coronation Rome, the opportune death of Clement III. enabled him of Henry VI. for a short time to secure the countenance of his successor; probably by influencing his election, certainly by annexing to the Holy See the long coveted domain of Tivoli. If we believe our English Chroniclers, and even Baronius himself, Celestin III. fully perceived the advantageous position in which he was placed by the circumstances of the moment; and exhibited an arrogant and unseemly display of power when he performed the Einperor's Coronation. Scarcely had he circled Henry's brows with the diadem, before touching it with his foot, he threw it again on the pavement of St. Peter's, thus signifying that it was at his will whether the Imperial dignity should be given or taken away.*

at Rorge.

A. D.

1191.

* Roger Hoveden, ad ann. 1191. Henry Knyghton, ii. 13. Baronius, ad ann. 1190. Struvius concludes. somewhat unreasonably, that the story is a pure invention of the English writers in order to degrade Henry, whom they hated on account of his treatment of Richard I. But a haughty demeanour on the side of a Pope in his intercourse with an Emperor is not a solecism in History. Celestin knew how important his friendship was to Henry at that mo ment, and there is nothing in his subsequent conduct which should

From
A. D.

1106.

to

In spite, however, of the reclamations, and even of Germany the armed opposition of this haughty Pope, who now and Ita refused to annul the investiture granted by his predecessor to Tancred, Henry obtained some advantages in the South. But the heats of an Italian Summer, always fatal to invaders, spread disease through his army while investing Naples; and the treachery of the Citizens of Salerno betrayed the Empress Constance, who had A. D. been left with them for protection, into the hands of Capture of Tancred. The King of Sicily made a generous use of the Empre his unexpected prize; received his kinswoman at Pa- Constance lermo with testimonies of distinguished honour; and restored her to liberty, without ransom, and without conditions.

1198

A. D.

These disasters induced Henry to withdraw to Germany; and it was on his return from his fruitless expedition that the disgraceful traffic for the possession of Imprison the captive Richard I. of England took place with ment of Leopold, Duke of Austria. The Emperor having Richard I. bought the illustrious prisoner for sixty thousand marks, of England nearly trebled the price, and sold him again, after a 1192. year's detention, for one hundred and forty thousand marks payable to himself, thirty thousand to Leopold his first gaoler.* Avarice, no doubt, was the passion which Henry chiefly gratified, but revenge also might claim some participation in this base transaction. Among the idle charges advanced against Richard at the Diet of Haguenau, before which he was compelled to appear personally, the first was that he had leagued with Tan cred, in order to put him in possession of the throne of Sicily. The King of England, after disclaiming all responsibility for his actions to the Tribunal which ac cused him, replied, that his alliance with Tancred had been formed at a season at which that Prince was not aspiring to, but already wearing his Crown. The Duke of Austria's bitter spirit of resentment had been awakened by a yet more trifling cause. During a squabble between some of their respective followers in a caravanserai at Acre, relative to the priority of its occupation, Richard, when appealed to, naturally espoused the side of his own retainers; and unwilling to be dislodged, somewhat too hastily ordered the Duke's banner to be removed, and permitted it to be thrown contemptuously into a drain. The feud occasioned by this petty dis agreement was remembered by the King of England when he crossed the Austrian territory; and in order to secure himself against surprise, he adopted the habit of a serving man, and travelled almost unattended. While cooking his own meal in a house of entertainment in Vienna, the brilliancy of a valuable ring which he inad vertently continued to wear on his finger, betrayed that he was of more elevated rank than his outward appear. ance implied. The bystander who first made this observation, happened to be a retainer of the Duke of Austria, who had accompanied his master to the Holy Land; and who on more close inspection of the Royal stranger's features, recognised and immediately denounced him. On his seizure, pains were taken to expose him to the

create a doubt but that he would take advantage of his ascendency to the very utmost. Voltaire, who says that "Roger Howed" is the only authority for the anecdote, is satisfied by dismissing it with an antithesis-Ou le Pape était en enfance, ou l'aventure n'est pas vraie. But we do not see the necessity for submitting to this dilemma.

*Struvius, i. 432, and the authorities there cited.
+ Matt. Paris, 145.
Ibid. 140..

General remarks.

state and means of Learning.

GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH.

History. THE period of Ecclesiastical History at which we have now arrived, may be considered as forming one of those cardinal Eras, from which we date the commencement of a new aspect or phasis in the revolutions of Human affairs. The darkness which, since the irruption of the Barbarians into the Western Empire, had, during four or five Centuries, been continually thickening over the nations of Europe, seems at length to have passed its meridian; and henceforth we may easily observe the gradual and unintermitted progress of returning day. The first dawn indeed of this revival was perceptible in the Century immediately preceding. Letters were as yet cultivated by few without the Improved pale of the Church; but a visible improvement had already taken place in the Schools of France and Italy. These were no longer confined to the walls of Monasteries; seminaries of general Learning were opened in many of the principal Cities of those Countries; and Science, such as it was, was now taught in a better method and on more enlarged principles, by Professors both Lay and Ecclesiastical; several of whom had accomplished their course of study in Spain, under the Arabian masters, at that time the chief depositories of profane or Philosophical Learning. Latin translations had been early made of the principal Treatises of the Saracenic Doctors. It was, in fact, by this circuitous route that the Western world again obtained access to the Mathematical, Medical, and Astronomical writings of the ancient Greeks, and to those of Aristotle himself; the second publication, so to call it, of whose Works may be said in a short time to have produced an entire revolution in the studies of the Age; and during several successive Centuries continued to exercise a most remarkable influence upon all the researches and operations of the

New system

Schools.

Human Intellect.

In no department of general study was the effect of adopted in this change more immediately, or more powerfully felt, the Divinity than in the Schools of Divinity. At the beginning of the last Century the public lecturers upon that Science had, for the most part, contented themselves with retailing to their hearers the explanations and illustrations of the Holy text which were to be found in the writings of the Fathers; without attempting to give either order or consistency to their glosses upon Scripture; much less to work them up into any thing like a regular Body of

This was the case with the Professors whose precepts gave such celebrity to the Medical School of Salerno. See Muratori, Antiq. Ital, tom. iii. p. 395.

Divinity. But before the end of the same Century this Of the method had given place to one of a much more ambi Christian tious character;* the mysteries of Religion were now Church. not stated merely as Articles of Faith, but it was endeavoured to examine and explain them upon the prin ciples of the Dialectic Science which had become so fashionable; the doctrines of Religion were expounded with all the formalities of Scientific distribution; and the foundation was thus laid for that scheme of Scholastic Divinity, which, in its various ramifications, occupies so large a portion of the Literary and Theological History of the succeeding Centuries.

were now established for the dissemination of know

by the

Church

Universities

A fresh impulse was in this way given to the Human Learning Mind, which began to devote itself to the acquisition encourage of knowledge with a zeal and avidity proportioned to its long privation of that its natural aliment. The Church, and more particularly the Papal Court, was foremost in encouraging and rewarding this new ardour of study; and as yet no apprehensions were enter tained that either the doctrines of the one, or the pretensions of the other were likely eventually to suffer from that vivacity of research which they were thus promoting. Of the Colleges or learned Societies which ledge in the principal Cities of Europe, that of Paris was become particularly conspicuous, as well by the of Paris number and ability of its various Professors, as by the Bologne great concourse of students who crowded thither from all parts to imbibe Science under their tuition.† Of the other Schools of France, Angers became famous for the study of Law, and Montpellier for that of Medicine In Italy, the celebrated Academy of Salerno was wholly Staf devoted to this last Profession, while Bologna took the C profession of Jurisprudence ; a study the revival of lead almost of every other European seminary in the Can which is generally ascribed to the discovery of the Pandects of Justinian, when Amalfi was captured by the Pisans in 1135 || Bologna also became equally distinguished for its teachers of Canon Law. To that branch of Academical Learning, likewise, something of method and system had been given by the famous Epitome, or Decretals, which Gratian, a Monk of Bologna, had drawn up about the year 1130,¶ from the Pontifical archives; and which continued, down to a very

* See De Boulay, Historia Academ. Paris, tom. i.
+ Histoire Littéraire de la France, tom. ix. p. 65.
De Boulay, tom. ii. p. 215.

Muratori, Antiq. Ital. tom. iii. p. 890.
See p. 631 of this volume.

Under the title of Concordia Discordantium Canonum, a naine

History. recent period, to be the standard text-book of the study, in most of the Universities of Catholic Europe. The Work, indeed, became early a great favourite with the Roman Pontiffs, whose pretensions it supported throughout, and to their utmost extent; and often, as might be expected, by a considerable falsification of documentary evidence.

We have seen in what manner the spirit of Papal ambition, after the more gradual encroachments of preceding Pontiffs, had almost attained the fullest accomplishment of its purposes, from the bold, active, and undaunted genius of Gregory VII.; insomuch that, at the commencement of the present Century, almost every Ecclesiastical affair, down to the most minute, was brought more or less immediately within the jurisdiction of the Papal Court. Hence it is that the Civil and External History of the Church at this period is almost Account of entirely included in that of the See of Rome. On this Papal account, therefore, and also as affording the best and most obvious principle of perspicuity and order in our summaries, we shall make the succession of Pontiffs the groundwork of that general view of Ecclesiastical events which it is our business to exhibit.

» cession.

Paschal II.

A. D. Iv99.

1

Urban II. died in July 1099. He was succeeded by the Cardinal Rainer, by birth a Tuscan, a man of virtue and ability, whose talents and character had early attracted the favour of Pope Gregory VII. He had scarcely assumed the tiara, under the name of Paschal II., when Rome and all Christendom were gladdened by the tidings of the reduction of Jerusalem, which was taken by assault, on the 15th of July, by the Crusading armies under Godfrey of Bouillon. Shortly after the commencement of his Pontificate, the Antipope Guibert, who had been chosen by the Imperial party, and supported by their intrigues and power, since the time of Gregory VII., died in Calabria; and, although three successive candidates were within a twelvemonth brought forward by the Imperialists to supply his place, their pretensions were almost immediately suppressed by the vigorous measures adopted by Paschal, and they themselves were driven into obscurity.

Account of As the dispute concerning the right of Investiture was the nature that which chiefly contributed to disturb the peace of an origin the Church, and indeed of Christendom, during the preof the dissent Century, it may be right before we proceed further pute repecting Ir. to give a somewhat fuller account of the nature and vestitures. origin of it* than we have before had an opportunity of doing. The controversy itself naturally resulted from the political circumstances in which at this period the Clergy found themselves placed. From the earliest period of her establishment, the Church had jealously excluded the Civil power from any right of direct interference in the nomination to Ecclesiastical dignities; and so long as these involved only a spiritual jurisdiction, the State was not indisposed to acquiesce, in appearance at least, in the exclusion. But when, by the successive and constantly accumulating endowments of Princes and Nobles, the higher Orders of the Clergy became possessed of fiefs and territories involving large wealth and considerable secular influence, the Feudal Superior began to claim an interest in the disposal of these

which sufficiently indicates the nature and object of the book. Gratian is said to have employed no less than twenty-four years in its composition.

Much valuable information on this subject, although, as might be expected, tinged with a decided Papal bias, is to be derived from Cardinal Noris's History of Investitures.

of Inves

titure.

The term Investiture* itself, implies the grant, or more Ceremony strictly, perhaps, the mode of granting, of any estate, fief, dignity, or privilege by the King to his subjects, or a Chief to his vassal, on the necessary conditions of fealty, homage, and feudal service; a ceremony which was usually performed by bestowing upon the person so favoured some material mark, as the token of his Investiture. This, in the case of a territory or estate, was often a piece of turf, or bough of a tree; while in the instance of a place of trust or dignity, some characteristic part of the dress, or ensign of the office, was chosen as the distinguishing symbol. When the Bishops and Abbots of the Church became possessors of territorial revenues and jurisdictions, they were of course, as such, subjected to the same rules which applied to all Jay holders of rights or property; and were not considered as legally possessing those properties, until they had formally done homage for the same before their Superior, and received from his hand, in return for their oath of allegiance, the appropriate symbol of the legal transfer of them. What was the ceremony at first used in the Investiture of Ecclesiastical dignitaries seems not altogether ascertained. Probably it varied in different places, or according to the fashion of the time, or the fancy of individuals. We read that the Emperor Henry II. bestowed the Bishopric of Paderborn upon Meinvercus, by the token of presenting him with a glove; and there is reason to believe that in the first instance, neither the ring, nor the crosier, nor any other emblem peculiarly characteristic of the spiritual privileges of the Bishop, was employed, to signify the execution of a transfer, which professedly referred only to the conveyance of secular jurisdiction.

of

laymen.

The right of interference thus exercised by laymen in Abuse of the promotion to Ecclesiastical dignities was, therefore, the power of Invesone only of sanction, and not of direct nomination; yet, titure by as might have been foreseen, it soon tended practically to resolve itself into the same thing, and as such, became early, and naturally, a subject of jealousy and opposition on the part of the Church. These feelings waxed stronger when the laity, in the exercise of their privilege prostituted it, as they soon did, to purposes of the most flagrant and shameless Simony. With the view of eluding this abuse,t the Clergy in many instances upon the death of a Bishop or Abbot, after electing a successor, proceeded immediately to his consecration; which ceremony the delivery of the ring and crosier, as by ring and the ensigns of Episcopal function, was an essential part, croster. By this proceeding, the interference of the Feudal Superior was at once excluded, since, after consecration, the election became irrevocable. The secular power, however, soon took an effectual method to obviate this stratagem; by ordaining, that immediately upon the death of a Bishop, those ensigns of his function should be taken possession of by the authorities of the Episcopal City, and forthwith transmitted to the keeping of the Prince; who thus retained in his hands an effective control * See INVESTITURE in our Miscellaneous Division.

A very clear and satisfactory statement of the facts of this part of the subject is to be found in Mosheim, (Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 290. Maclaine's translation,) together with ample references to original authorities.

Investiture