A history of the church

Chapter The Third

HISTORY 01 TIIK I OI ES FROM IIONOIII f S II TO T1IK DEATH OF HONOURS III.

T. Honorius II Innocent II Schism Lucius II. Eugene III

Adrian IV . . . . . . 1

II. Alexander III Schism Triumph of the Pope Lucius III.

Urban III Clement III Celestlne III . 12

III. Innocent III Honorins III . . . . . 20

Chapter The Fourth

IHO.M GREGORY IX TO THE DEATH OF BONIFACE VIII. FROM 1227 TO 1303.

I. Gregory IX Implacable animosity of the Emperor Frederic II

against the Church ...... 3o

II. Innocent IV Council of Lyons Deposition of Frederic II . 54 III. Alexander IV Urban IV Clement IV Gregory X Nicholas

III Martin IV Honorius IV Nicholas IV Celestine V (>8

IV. Boniface VIII Contest with Philip, King of France . 80

Chapter The Fifth. From The Death Of Boniface VIII To The Election Of Urban VI

I. Clement V Transfer of the Papal See to Avignon . 97

II. John XXII Benedict XII Clement VI Contest with Lewis

III. Innocent VI Urban V Gregory XI Urban VI Outbreak

of the Schism 123

VI ( OXTENTS.

Chapter The Sixth

. FKOM THE OUTBREAK OF Tlfl! SCHISM, TO LEO X. FROM 1378 TO 1513.

I. Continuation and Confirmation of the Schism Boniface IX

Innocent VIII -Gregory XII . . . . K5G

II. Council of Pisa Alexander V John XXIII Preparations

for the Council of Constance .... 148

III. The Council of Constance . . . . .155

i

IV. Continuation Election of Martin V Termination of the

V. Synod of Siena Eugene IV Synod of Basil Dispute of the

Synod with the Pope Peace . . . .176

VI. Continuation New Rupture with the Pope Felix V, Antipope 189 VII. Germany is reconciled with Eugene IV Nicholas V Calixtus

III Pius II ..... 208

VIII. Paul II Sixtus IV--Iimocent VIII Alexander VI . . 218

IX. Pius III Julius II Council of Pisa Council of Lateran

Leo X 229

Introduction

THE present volume will conduct us to the commence ment of that eventful period- -the Reformation. To the learned reader, many things may appear wanting in this volume. He will perhaps express his surprise at finding no mention made of the institution of those Religious Orders which have given to the world so many great men seraphic saints, eloquent preachers of the word of God, profound theologians, learned phi losophers men great in every w ; ay of which our nature may be proud. He will wonder, too, that he reads nothing of those heresies which, during the period com prised in this volume, troubled the peace of the Church, and prepared the way for that mighty revolution which has laid so many, before beautiful, regions spiritually waste. But it must be remembered that only the External History of the Church is here given. The succeeding volume, which is not yet published in the original German, will, it is confidently trusted, more than satisfy those who favour this work with their perusal, on the subjects w^hich may at first appear to have been omitted. The next volume will contain the Internal History of the Church during the Middle Ages, and, from the sources that have been opened by the labori ous industry of the learned author, much light will be thrown on this most interesting portion of Ecclesias tical History.

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Feast of St. Norlert, Bishop. 1842.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

PERIOD THE FOURTH.

Chapter The Third. From Honorius II To The Death Of Honorius III

SECT. I. --HONORIUS n. INNOCENT II.--SCHISM.-

LUCIUS II. EUGENE III.-- ADRIAN IV. *

AFTER the death of Calixtus II, in 1124, the choice of the electors fell first upon the cardinal Teobaldo Bocca di Pecora ; but the powerful Robert Frangipani immediately proclaimed Lambert, bishop of Ostia. Many favoured his interests, and as Teobaldo retired, Lambert was universally recognized. After a few days, however, he submitted to a second election, the first having been irregular, and he then took the name of Honorius II. His legate, the cardinal Gerhard, after the death of the childless Henry V, in 1125, took an active part in the election of Lothaire the Saxon, at Mentz. Gerhard went with the bishops of Cambray and Verdun, as ambassadors of the king, to obtain from

* Arnulphi Sagiensis Archidiaconi Tract de Schismate Petri Leonis, in Muratori, torn. iii. 1 ; Falconis Beneventani Chronicon, in Mura tori, torn. ii. ; Job. de Ceccano, Chronicon Fossae Novae, in Muratori, torn. vii. ; Anacleti Epistolas, in the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, torn. xv. 366 ; Epistola Reimbaldi Leod. Canonici, De Schismate, ibid. 366 ; Epistolas Innocentii II ad Germanos, in the Codex Udalrici in Eccard. Corp. Histor., torn. ii. ; Sti. Bernardi, Abbatis Clarae- Vall. Epistolae ed. Mabillon, Opp., torn. i. ; Sti. Bernardi Libri V, De Consideratione ad Eugenium Papam, ibid.

VOL. IV. B the pope a confirmation of the election. Lothaire, on the day of his election, made a grant, by which the freedom of election, which had been secured to the Church in the treaty of Worms, was increased and strengthened. The election of bishops was no more to take place in the presence of the king : the king should not confine this liberty either by intimidation or by signifying to the electors his inclinations in favour of any individual. Lothaire required from the prelates only the oath of fidelity, and dispensed with the homage. When some time after, Conrad, of the family of Hohenstaufen, the nephew of Henry V, made pretensions to the kingdom, Honorius, following the example of the German prelates, excommunicated him in 1128. He deposed, by his legate the cardinal John of Crema, Anselm archbishop of Milan, who had crowned Conrad at Monza, king of Italy.

When in 1130, a successor to Honorius II was to be elected, a schism burst forth, which was most prejudicial to the Church. Amongst the cardinals was Pier Leone,, of a family, which, next to that of the Frangipani, was the richest and the most powerful in Rome. But his overbearing ambition, his ostentatious, and, according to some witnesses, his criminal life, found not favour w T ith those who cherished the interests of the Church. They therefore elected in haste the cardinal Gregory Papareschi, who took the name of Innocent II. Pier Leone, confiding in the influence of his family and the devotedness of his numerous adherents, caused himself to be elected, with the title of Anaclete. Innocent was favoured by the Frangipani, and three cardinals, who had taken part in the election of the antipope, passed over to him. But by rich bribes, Pier Leone gained to himself nearly the w r hole of Rome : Innocent was com pelled to leave the city, and proceeded with his cardinals into France. In a great synod at Etamps he was de clared by the oracle of the French Church, the holy Bernard, in whose hands the bishops had placed the decision, to be the lawful pontiif. He was soon after wards recognized by England and Spain, and, with the

PERIOD THE FOURTH.

exception of Milan, by the principal Churches of Italy. The antipope had in his interests Rome and the Nor mans, whom he gained by raising Roger,, duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily, to the rank of king, reserving, how ever, the fealty, which was due to the Roman see. By the untiring exertions of Saint Bernard, Innocent was almost universally acknowledged : the religious orders, and Cluny in particular, were in his favour. When in 1 1 3 1 , he went to Liege,, at the invitation of the Germans, he was received in the most solemn manner bv Lothaire

V

and by many bishops and princes. The king held the bridle of his horse, When Innocent afterwards assem bled a great council of two hundred and seventy-six bishops at Rheims, Lothaire sent Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburg, to inform the pontiff that he would reinstate him again at Rome. The journey of the pope and of the king to Rome was accomplished in the fol lowing year, and on the 4th of June, Lothaire received from the pope the crown of the empire. Pier Leone in the mean time retained possession of the Vatican and of the castle of St. Angelo. Innocent now arranged with the emperor concerning the allodial possessions, which the margravine Matilda had presented to the papal see. He granted first to the emperor, and after wards, at the request of Lothaire, to his son-in-law, Henry, duke of Bavaria, the investiture of these lands, which comprised a part of the dukedom of Mantua, Parma, Reggio, Modena and Garfagana, but retained for himself the feudal dominion over them with a yearly tribute, and the reversion of them to the Roman see after the death of the duke. Soon after this time, the pope invested the margrave Engelbert with the dominion of Tuscany.

Innocent, who after the departure of Lothaire, was not secure at Rome, assembled in 1 1 34, a synod at Pisa, of which council Saint Bernard was the animating soul. The Milanese now submitted to the pope : other Italian bishops, who supported the antipope, were deposed. In 1 136, at the earnest invitation of the pope, who was oppressed by the power of Roger, Lothaire went again

B 2 into Italy. Together with him, Innocent invested the count Rainulf, as duke of Apulia and Calabria, and re turned in 1127 again to Rome, where the antipope had fallen into a state of melancholy insignificance. Lothaire, the powerful defender of the pope, died soon after his return into Germany : but the eloquence of St. Bernard had already induced king Roger, the chief promoter of the schism, to declare himself neutral, when in 1183 the death of the antipope facilitated the full restoration of peace ; for the successor to Anaclete, whom a small party elected with the name of Victor IV, persuaded by St. Bernard, submitted to the pope, and drew with him all his adherents. At the intercession of the holy abbot he easily obtained forgiveness. In 1139 Innocent held at Rome the tenth general council, at w r hich w r ere present nearly one thousand bishops. In this council he deposed those who had been raised to ecclesiastical dignities by Pier Leone and his adherent Gerhard, bishop of Angouleme : he also pronounced excommunication against Roger. But a short time after, he fell into the power of this prince, who after the death of Rainulf had again possessed himself of Apulia. Peace was now con cluded between them. Roger took the oath of fealty to the pope and pledged himself to pay a yearly tribute. Innocent absolved him from his censures, granted him the title of king, and invested him with the dukedom of Apulia, and the principality of Capua.

That spirit of independence, which had shown itself in most of the Italian cities and which had been nou rished by the preaching of Arnold of Brescia, had now seized the Romans. In 1143 they threw T off their civil obedience to the pope and elected a new senate. Inno cent died at this moment. His successor, Celestine II, survived his election only a few months. The cardinal Gerhard, chancellor of the Roman Church, was elected in 1 144 with the title of Lucius. But the Romans, en raged that the pope should have entered into an union with the Normans, and should have recognized their prince Roger as king, changed their dreams of a re public into the design of an empire, the capital of which was to be their own city, as ancient Rome had been of the ancient empire. They elected a brother of the late antipope, Pier Leone, as patrician, and required the pontiif to resign to him all the regalia of the state. Lucius endeavoured to seize by force the capitol, in which the new senate held its sittings, but he was wounded by a stone and died in the eleventh month of his pontificate. He was succeeded by Bernard of Pisa, a disciple of St. Bernard, formerly a monk of Clairvaux and now abbot of the cloister of St. Anastasius at Rome. The new pontiff took the name of Eugene III. Arnold now appeared again at Rome. This man, a lector of the church of Brescia, and who had been a disciple of Abailard in France, had for seven years preached in the Lombard cities the doctrine, welcome to many, that no ecclesiastic who possessed property could be saved.

The bishops, he asserted, could not lawfully hold re galia, nor could cloisters receive worldly possessions: these things belonged to temporal princes who could use them for their own benefit and grant them only to laics. Appearing in the habit of a monk, and direct ing his well-pointed speeches against the manners of the clergy and regulars, he flattered the people and earned for himself a cheap popularity : for the doctrine that every one, who coveted the property of another, and who possessed the power to plunder churches and eccle siastics, with the persuasion that he was performing a good work to those whom he despoiled, must have found general acceptance. Innocent II had imposed silence upon Arnold in the Lateran council in 1139; but he passed over the Alps to Zurich and had spread his doctrines there with a rapid success. Under his influence the greatest excesses of violence and plunder were now committed in Rome by a wild and unbridled populace. An invitation from " the senate and people of Rome" was sent to the German king Conrad, solicit ing him to place his imperial throne amongst them, and, as every impediment on the side of the clergy was re moved (by the absence of the pope), to rule from Rome over Italy arid Germany. Conrad yielded not to this proposition, as he easily saw through its self-interested view : he rather made advances to the pope, whose em bassy he received with honour and to which he replied by another sent to the pontiff.

After a short time, as a reconciliation, which had been effected, was annulled by the haughtiness of the Romans, Eugene left the city in 1146 and proceeded to France. In 1148, he returned into Italy, but there still reigned in Rome, with a few intervals caused by the dread in the Romans of the Norman arms, a spirit of haughty and republican independence. Conrad died in the mean time in Germany, amidst his preparations for an expedition into Italy. The ambassadors of the new king, Frederic I, presented letters from him to the pope, containing assurances that he would accomplish all that his uncle Conrad had intended and had com menced for the freedom and exaltation of the Apostolic see, and that he would consider as his own the enemies of the Church of Rome. In a short time the pontiff re turned to Rome and was received by the Romans, who had been satiated with their anarchical confusion, with every demonstration of honour and respect. In 1 1 53, the plenipotentiaries of the pope and of the king con cluded a treaty at Constance, by which Frederic bound himself to restore the former power of the pope in Rome, to protect the regalia of St. Peter, and to enter upon no peace with Roger, king of Sicily, without the consent of the pope. Eugene engaged, on his part, to honour the king as the dearest son of St. Peter, to be stow upon him the imperial crown as soon as he should arrive in Rome, and to employ against every enemy of the empire, at the request of the emperor, ecclesiastical punishments and even excommunication.

Between the years 1148 and 1152, at the prayer of the pope, St. Bernard wrote his celebrated work in five books, " On Consideration," an instruction for the pious performance of his pontifical duties. The holy writer exhorts the pontiff not to lose his precious time in hear ing the numberless cases which ambitious and avari cious men would lay before him, concerning benefices and other similar things. In words of severity he re prehends the insatiable avarice of the Italians, and in particular of the Romans, and confirms the accusations so frequently made by other cotemporaries, that the Roman clergy were accessible to presents and bribes and were much given to external splendour, to ecclesi astical pomp and magnificence. He next exhorts the pontiff to correct the use of appeals, which were often made only to confine the bishops in the salutary exer cise of their jurisdiction, and to annul the too numerous exemptions of bishops from the authority of their metropolitans, and of abbots from the jurisdiction of bishops. He paints in strong colours the haughtiness and the restless spirit of insurrection which inflamed the Roman \ people, who would yield to authority only when their means of opposition were exhausted. The pope should take his cardinals from all parts of the Church, and select his legates with the greatest caution, as many of them had by their avarice and by plundering the churches and cloisters degraded their high office. Unhappily, both the author and he for whom the book had been written died soon after its completion, in the summer of 1153.

The successor of Eugene, Conrad the cardinal bishop of Sabina, who had reached the ninetieth year of his age, was named Anastasius IV, died sixteen months after his exaltation. He was followed by the English man, Nicholas Breakespeare. Nicholas had formerly been a monk and a prior in a cloister of Provence and had been promoted by Eugene III to the bishopric of Albano. He named himself Adrian IV. He found the see in which he had been placed surrounded by inextri cable difficulties. The pontificate of Adrian was one unbroken series of severe conflicts : almost in the beginning of his reign, he placed Rome, where Arnold of Brescia was again preaching rebellion, where a car dinal had been attacked and mortally wounded, under an interdict. By this measure he procured at least the expulsion of Arnold and of his most furious adherents. The demagogue fell into the power of king Frederic, who was proceeding to Rome to be crowned. The king delivered him to the cardinals., and the prefect of Rome sentenced him to be hanged and his body to be burnt. Frederic, after he had sworn to the pope and to the cardinals to ensure their personal safety, to defend and to preserve all their rights and goods, met the pope at Sutri, where his refusal to perform the usual act of honour to the pope of holding the bridle of his horse, caused some differences, which were finally terminated by the acquiescence of the king. Both then proceeded to Rome, and Frederic received the crown of the empire. The Romans, indignant that Frederic had declined their offer, by which they presented the em pire to him, or rather offered to sell it to him for a large sum of gold, attacked the Germans, but were re pulsed w 7 ith loss.

Adrian had written an epistle to William king of Sicily, who had entered without permission and without being crowned upon the government of that kingdom, and had thus violated the supreme feudal rights of the pontiff. In this letter, the pope addressed William with the title only of " Lord." In his indignation William invaded the papal states, and drew upon him self sentence of excommunication. The pope was in the meantime straitened in Beneventum, and was com pelled in 1156 to conclude with the king a peace, by which the freedom of canonical election, with the right of the royal approbation, the right in the pope of visiting the churches of the kingdom, the sending of legates and the receiving of appeals (which two last points were not extended to Sicily), were secured ; William then received the investiture of Sicily, Apulia, and Calabria, and as a liege vassal swore the oath of fealty to the see of Rome. But soon after the conclusion of this contest, the pope saw himself unexpectedly involved in one with the emperor. Frederic was indignant that Adrian had concluded a peace with William, whom he had undertaken to subdue, and his discontent was nourished by several of the cardinals, who formed a party devoted to the emperor, to \vhom they represented their colleagues as the bought partisans of the Sicilian. Adrian sent the cardinals Orlando and Ber nard to regain the goodwill of the emperor, and gave them a letter, in which he complained that Frederic had not only suffered to pass unpunished the imprison ment and plundering of Eskyl, archbishop of Lund in Denmark, but had moreover done nothing to procure the liberation of this prelate, who had been thus treated in Burgundy.

In this letter there occurred the ex pression that the pope would have been rejoiced had he been able to confer upon Frederic greater benefits (beneficia) than his coronation as emperor. As this word had at that time the signification of investiture, the emperor and the German princes gladly received it in this acceptation, evident as it was that the pope could not have so intended it, and could not have spoken of investitures, which were not greater than the imperial dignity and they accused Adrian of the in tolerable presumption of speaking of the imperial dig nity as a grant of the Roman see. In the conference which arose from this circumstance, the cardinal Or lando used these words : " From whom does the em peror receive his dignity, if not from the pope ?" words, which well nigh cost him his life. The legates were under frivolous pretexts sent back in disgrace and as captives ; it was forbidden to the ecclesiastics of the empire to travel to Rome, and a bitter address of the emperor to the German bishops, informed them that it was he who endeavoured to preserve their honour and their freedom, and to liberate them from the yoke of slavery which the see of Rome had fastened on them. The German bishops were now taught what Frederic, who had long broken through the conditions of the concordat of Worms, and who disposed of bishops with all the despotism of another Henry V, understood by ecclesiastical liberty ; but they feared their powerful, implacable master, whose only idea of right was his own convenience, and they well knew that he had a party devoted to him amongst the cardinals. They, therefore, went over to the emperor, and answered in his sentiments, and probably in his words, to the com plaints of the pope. But the pontiff opposed calm dignity to this haughty arrogance ; he sent two other cardinals, the bearers of an epistle, in which he ex plained in clear terms, and even to the satisfaction of Frederic, all that he had before said of the grant of the imperial crown and of the beneficium. As his legates answered in mild terms to all the questions of the emperor, and repeatedly, assured him that the pope wished not to intrude upon his dignity, Frederic was pacified.

But only a pope who was prepared to surrender his own and others rights a prey to tyranny, could expect to continue long in favour with an emperor like Fre deric. In his second expedition into Italy in 1158, Frederic undertook violently to change the legal and political condition of northern and central Italy, and to force it back again into its former state. The cities had by degrees destroyed the feudal system in its more ancient forms ; the dukes, margraves, and counts, had disappeared, or, like the minor nobility, had become citizens ; the bishops had lost many of their preroga tives, which had fallen into the possession of the cities. Frederic, after he had humbled the proud Milan, de clared in the diet, which he had assembled on the plain of Rcncaglia, all his rights according to his idea of the unbounded power of a Roman emperor. The coinage of money, tolls, and imposts, and in general so many things were declared regalia, which were to be restored to the emperor, that scarcely anything remained, which was not comprised in this enumeration. By this act, not only the cities, but the bishops also, and the cloisters and churches, saw themselves deprived, at one stroke, of many rights and revenues, which they had long possessed and lawfully merited. A pope could not behold this and remain silent ; but the same man, who had before solemnly pledged himself to preserve or to restore all the rights and possessions of the Roman see, now acted towards this same see with the like ruthless despotism. To the duke Guelf he granted

Tuscany, Spoleto, Sardinia, and the entire posses sions of Matilda, although the emperor Lothaire had, in the most unequivocal terms, acknowledged the right of the pope to this inheritance ; he even disposed of the goods of the Roman Church, and wished to assume the sovereign authority in Rome, without which, he said, the title of Roman emperor was no more than a fiction. In full violation of the concordat of Worms, he named whilst in Italy his chancellor Rainald, who was with him in that country, to the archdiocese of Cologne ; and Guido, the son of the count of Blandrate, he nomi nated archbishop of Ravenna. Guido was a sub-deacon of the Roman Church, and could not therefore pass to another Church without the consent of the pope, which Adrian refused, as he had need of him in Rome. Frederic, knowing that the pope had well-founded complaints against him, seized with pleasure everything that might be turned as an objection to the pontiff. It was, therefore, made a subject of grievance, that Adrian had placed his own name before that of the emperor, in one of his epistles ; that he had addressed him in the singular number ; that he had sent his epistle by an unknown messenger, who retired immediately after delivering it. Wearied with these petty annoyances, the pope at length sent five cardinals, as the bearers of the following requisitions. That the imperial ambas sadors should never be sent to Rome for the exercise of the rights of sovereignty without the knowledge of the pope ; that levies upon the goods of the Roman Church should be made by the emperor only at the time of his coronation ; that the Italian bishops should not take the oath of homage, but only of fidelity ; that the pos sessions of the Roman Church, and the revenues of Ferrara, Masso, Figheruolo, of the Matildan inheritance, of the countries between Acquapendente and Rome, of the dukedom of Spoleto, of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, should be restored. The emperor, on his side, brought as a complaint against the pope, that he had without his consent made peace with Sicily ; that the papal legates travelled through his dominions without his permission ; that they took up their residence in the episcopal palaces, and oppressed the churches ; and, lastly, that unjust appeals were taken to Rome. A friendly reconciliation was therefore not to be ex pected from the present disposition of Frederic. The pope died in 1 1 59, when, according to report, he was preparing to pronounce sentence of excommunication against the emperor, who had cast two cardinals into prison.

Section II

ALEXANDER III.- -SCHISM. TRIUMPH OF THE POPE.

-LUCIUS III.- -URBAN III.- -CLEMENT III, AND CELESTINE III.*

AFTER the death of Adrian, the schism, for which the cardinals, who were devoted to the emperor, had pre pared the way, and probably with his connivance, openly manifested itself. On the fourth of September, Orlando Baridinelli of Siena was chosen by a majority of voices. The new pontiff had formerly been professor of Theology at Bologna, and was one of the most learned men of his age ; his distinguished talents had obtained for him, from Eugene III, the rank of cardinal, and, after a short time, that of chancellor of the Roman Church. He at first objected to take upon himself the burden of the pontificate ; but now a rival appeared, the cardinal Octavian, who had before seceded from Adrian, and had given himself to the emperor, and could now depend upon the support of Frederic, whom he had first known when he was delegate at Bologna. Only two cardinals gave their votes to Octavian, who, with shameless haste, assumed the papal robes : he

* Johannis Sarisberiensis, et Arnulfi Lexoviensis episc. Epistolse, in the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, torn. xvi. ; Acts of the Synods, held on account of the schism, in Harduin, torn. vi. part ii. 1565-1615. Romualdi Archiep. Salernit. Chronicon, in Muratori, torn. vii. ; Alexaridri III, Epistola3 419, in the Recueil des Historiens, torn. xv.

caused Orlando and the cardinals to be held imprisoned by a band of adherents, whom he had purchased with gold, but they were soon liberated by the Frangipani. Orlando was consecrated in a castle near Rome, and took the name of Alexander III. After an interval of eight days, he passed sentence of excommunication against Octavian. This antipope, who was powerfully assisted in Rome by the imperial representative, the count-palatine Otho, employed the name of the em peror and abundant bribes to gain to his party bishops, from whom he might receive consecration. At length, the bishops of Frascati, Ferentino and Amalfi,--the last had been deprived by Adrian on account of his crimes, passed over to him and consecrated him with the title of Victor IV, in the Abbey of Farfa. He and his party, which now counted five cardinals, endeavoured to spread the report that Orlando had been elected only by a faction, which w r as in the interest of William, king of Sicily, and which had before conspired against the emperor.

Frederic, although he put on a semblance of impar tiality, took at once a decided part against Alexander, with whose firmness and true ecclesiastical character he was well acquainted. He convened a council of his court at Pavia, in which he pretended his desire to be to decide according to the advice of the prelates, on the pretensions of the two competitors. But of the letters which invited both to the assembly, that sent to Alexander was directed to the " cardinal Orlando "; the other, written to his rival, was addressed to " Vic tor, bishop of Rome." Frederic, therefore, had already decided. Alexander and his friends understood the symptoms of the coming contest ; they resolved to brave every danger to secure the liberty and independance of the Church, and not to surrender their good cause to the shackled judgment of an assembly which was governed by the emperor, and which trembled before him. They replied to the two bishops, who had teen sent to them by Frederic, that the emperor ad dressed his mother as a handmaid ; that the Church, which had been purchased by the blood of Christ, should never again be a slave, and that the civil power should never more decree on things the most sacred. The two episcopal ambassadors then returned to Segni, to the antipope Octavian, before whom they prostrated themselves, honouring him as sovereign pontiff. In February 1160, the assembly of Pavia was opened; but from the whole of Italy only six bishops were pre sent ; the others were German prelates, boon com panions of the emperor. Even of these the greater number wished to refer the decision of the cause to a more numerous synod. But to this Octavian and his imperial protector would not consent. A decree was therefore formed, which could strike only Alexander. It was objected to him, that when invited to the synod, he had refused to appear, and that he had conspired with the Sicilians and Milanese against the emperor : sentence of excommunication was therefore again pro nounced upon him. Octavian was declared to be the lawful pontiff, the more willingly, it was said, as that was the only means of restoring peace and harmony between the empire and the priesthood. Frederic then paid to this his creature the ordinary signs of honour, of holding his staff, and of kissing his feet.