BOOK VI.
FROM THE DEPOSITION OF POPE GREGORY VI. TO THE DEATH
OF POPE CELESTINE III, A.D. 1046-1198.
CHAPTER IX.
ALEXANDER III.
A.D. 1159-1181.
THE higher clergy of Rome had during the late
pontificate been divided into two parties, of which one adhered to the
imperial, and the other to the Sicilian interest; and at the death of Adrian a
collision took between these parties. The cardinals of the Sicilian faction
elected Roland Bandinelli or Paparo, cardinal of St. Mark and chancellor of the
Roman see, the same who had defied Frederick at Besançon; while the
imperialists set up cardinal Octavian, of St. Cecilia, who is said to have been
at one time excommunicated by the late pope, but had since rendered important
services to the emperor. That Roland, although unsupported by the lower clergy,
by the nobles, or by the people, had the majority of the cardinals with him, is
allowed by the opposite party; but while these represent their own strength to
have been nine against fourteen, the adherents of Roland claim for him all but
three. The partisans of Octavian (who styled himself Victor IV) assert that,
after the death of Adrian, the cardinals agreed at Anagni that no one should be
declared pope except with the unanimous consent of the whole college; but that,
on removing to Rome for the late pope’s funeral, the Sicilian party, trusting
in their superior numbers, resolved to set this compact aside, and to elect
from among themselves a pope hostile to the emperor; that they themselves
proposed Octavian, as a man of religious character, who would study to promote
the good of the church, and its agreement with the empire; that the Sicilian
faction cried out for Roland, and were about to invest him with the papal
mantle, but that, while he strove to avoid it, the act was prevented, and
Octavian was solemnly invested and enthroned in St. Peter’s chair; whereupon
Roland and his partisans withdrew without making any protest, and shut
themselves up in the fortress of St. Peter. According to the other party,
Roland (who assumed the name of Alexander III) had been duly invested with the
mantle, when Octavian plucked it from his shoulders, and, after a struggle, huddled
it on himself with the assistance of two clerks, but so awkwardly that the back
part appeared in front; and that thereupon his partisans, rushing in with
swords in their hands, drove out Alexander and his supporters. It is remarkable
how much the formality as to the mantle is insisted on by the same party which,
in the earlier schism between Innocent and Anacletus, had been careful to avoid
all questions of form, and to rest its candidate's claims on his character
alone; and in the present case the representations which are given by friends
and by enemies as to the character of the rivals are utterly irreconcilable.
After having been kept as a prisoner beyond the Tiber
for eleven days by some senators in Victor's interest, Alexander and his
cardinals were delivered by the Frangipani faction, and passed through the
city—in triumphant procession, as they assert, while they tell us that the
antipope, on appearing in the streets of Rome, was jeered and hooted by women
and boys.
On the 18th of September Alexander was invested with
the mantle at Cisterna—a name from which his opponents took occasion for sneers
as to “cisterns that could hold no water”; and on the following Sunday he was
consecrated by the cardinal of Ostia, at Ninfa. The rival pope had also been
compelled to leave Rome, and his consecration was performed at Farfa on the 4th
of October by the cardinal of Tusculum, with two other bishops, whom
Alexander's friends describe as banished from their sees. Victor was supported
in his pretensions by the imperial commissioners Otho of Wittelsbach and Guy of
Blandrata, and, while Alexander's partisans complained of this, his rival
appealed to the emperor for a decision.
Frederick, on attempting to carry out the decrees of
the Roncaglian assembly, had met with an obstinate resistance. In many cities
the podestàs appointed by him had been turned out by the people; at Milan
admittance was denied to them, although the Milanese had advised at Roncaglia
that such magistrates should be appointed for the Italian cities; and the
imperial chancellor, Reginald, archbishop elect of Cologne, was grossly
insulted and driven from the city. Sieges and other military operations were carried
on with fierce exasperation on both sides, and the imperialists reduced the
country around Milan to a desert. It was while engaged in the siege of Crema
that Frederick received the letter by which Alexander announced his election;
and such was his indignation at the contents that he tossed it from him,
refused to make any answer, and was with difficulty restrained from hanging the
bearers of it. After advising with his bishops and his lawyers, he
resolved to submit the question of the papacy to a council; and the rival
claimants were summoned to appear before it. By writers of Alexander’s party it
is asserted that, while Frederick continued to address him as chancellor
Roland, Octavian was already acknowledged in the imperial letters as pope; but
this seems very questionable.
The council, which had been originally summoned to
meet in October, but had been delayed until after the fall of Crema, assembled
at Pavia in February 1160. The emperor had invited the kings of France,
England, Hungary, Spain, and other countries to send bishops as representatives
of their churches; but the prelates who appeared, about fifty in number, were
almost all from his own German and Lombard dominions. Alexander, although a
homeless fugitive from his city, had refused in the loftiest style of papal dignity
to attend, asserting that, as lawful pope, he could be judged by no man; that
Frederick, by calling a council without his sanction, and by citing him to it
as a subject, had violated the rights of the holy see. A second and a third
summons were addressed to him, but met with the same disregard as the first.
At the opening of the council the emperor appeared,
and, after a speech in which he asserted his right to convoke such assemblies,
agreeably to the examples of Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian, and
Charlemagne, declared that he left the decision of the disputed election to the
bishops, as being the persons to whom God had given authority in such matters.
An objection was raised by the Lombard prelates against proceeding in the
absence of Alexander; but this was overruled by their German brethren, who pleaded
the length and the cost of their own journeys to attend the council, and said
that, as Roland's absence was willful, he must bear the consequences of it. The
question was therefore debated, and at the end of seven days the council
pronounced in favour of Victor, who thereupon received the homage of all who
were present, the emperor holding his stirrup, leading his horse by the rein,
and showing him all other usual marks of reverence. Victor renewed an
excommunication which he had pronounced against Alexander, to which Alexander
replied by a counter excommunication; and while the emperor declared that the
meeting at Pavia had been a full and legitimate council of the church,
Alexander and his party spoke of it as a mere secular court. They dwelt on the
small number of the bishops who had attended; on the intimidation which was
said to have been practised, but which had been unable to prevent some show of
dissent from the decrees; on the refusal of the English and French envoys to
commit themselves to the decision; and they asserted that the antipope had
abased himself by the unexampled humiliation of stripping off his insignia in
the emperor's presence, and receiving investiture by the ring.
Although the partisans of Victor professed at the
council of Pavia to have the support of England, Spain, Hungary, Denmark,
Bohemia, and other countries, Alexander was soon acknowledged almost everywhere
except in the empire. The kings of France and of England, with their bishops,
after a separate recognition of his title in each country, combined to
acknowledge him at a council at Toulouse, to which Alexander, being assured of
his ground, had condescended to send representatives to confront those of his
rival. The Lombard cities, engaged in a deadly struggle with the emperor, were
Alexander’s natural allies. The strength of the great monastic orders was with
him, although for a time the Cluniacs held with his opponents. By means of
envoys he was able to win the favour of the Byzantine court; the Latins of the
East, in a council at Nazareth, agreed to acknowledge him, and to anathematize
the antipope; and Spain, Denmark, and others of the less important kingdoms
gradually adhered to the prevailing side. Each party employed against the other
all the weapons which it could command; the rival popes issued mutual
anathemas; Alexander released the emperor’s subjects from their allegiance,
while Frederick ejected bishops of Alexander's party, and banished the Cistercians
from the empire for their adhesion to him. In Alexander the hierarchical party
had found a chief thoroughly fitted to advance its interests. While holding the
highest views of the Hildebrandine school, the means which he employed in their
service were very different from those of Hildebrand. He was especially
skillful in dealing with men, and in shaping his course according to
circumstances; and above all things he was remarkable for the calm and steady
patience with which he was content to await the development of affairs, and for
the address with which he contrived to turn every occurrence to the interest of
his caused
In consequence of its renewed offences, Milan had been
laid under the ban of the empire, and Frederick had sworn never to wear his
crown until the rebellious city should be reduced. The siege had lasted three
years, when, in the end of February 1162, the Milanese found themselves brought
to extremity by the exhaustion of their provisions, while the emperor’s
strength had been lately increased by powerful reinforcements from Germany. The
besieged attempted to make conditions, but Frederick would admit nothing less
than an absolute surrender; and in his camp at Lodi he gratified himself by
beholding the abject humiliation of their representatives, who appeared before
him in miserable guise, barefooted, with ropes around their necks, and holding
naked swords to their throats, in acknowledgment that their lives were forfeit.
Four days later a more numerous deputation appeared, having with them the carroccio, or
waggon on which the standard of Milanese independence had been displayed in
battle. The great brazen war-trumpets were laid at the emperor’s feet; and at
his command the mast, to which the flag was attached, was lowered, and the carroccio was
broken up in his presence. Frederick told the deputies that their lives should
be spared, but declared himself resolved to root out their city from the earth.
The inhabitants were marched out at the gates, and, after having endured much
misery from the want of shelter, were distributed into four open villages,
which they were compelled to build, each two leagues apart from the rest; and
in these villages they lived under the inspection of imperial officers. The
houses of the city were doomed to destruction, which was zealously and
effectually executed by the men of Lodi and other hostile towns, to whom the
work was entrusted. Churches and monasteries alone remained standing, amid
masses of rubbish surrounded by shattered fragments of the walls which had so
long defied the imperial power. Immense plunder was carried off; and among the
losses which were most deplored by the Milanese was that of some relics of
especial sanctity—the bodies of St. Felix and St. Nabor (famous in the history
of the great archbishop Ambrose), and above all those of the Three Kings of the
East, which were believed to have been presented by St. Helena to archbishop
Eustorgius, and were now transferred by the imperial chancellor, Reginald of
Cologne, to be the chief treasure of his own cathedral.
All Lombardy was subdued; the fortifications of some
cities were destroyed, and all were put under the administration of podestàs,
who, except in cases of special favour, as at Lodi, were always chosen from
families unconnected with the places which they were to govern. Alexander in
the meantime, after a residence of sixteen months at Anagni, had returned to
Rome in April 1161; but, finding his residence there unsafe, he soon withdrew
to Terracina; and at length he resolved, like so many of his predecessors, to
seek a refuge in France. In April 1162 he landed at Montpellier, where he was
received with great enthusiasm; and there he held a council, at which he
renewed his excommunication of the antipope and the emperor, with their
adherents. The conquest of Milan now enabled Frederick to return to Italy, and
he invited the French king—whose adhesion to Alexander was still believed to be
wavering—to a conference at St. Jean de Losne, in Burgundy, with a view to the
settlement of the question as to the papacy. It was proposed that each
sovereign should be accompanied to the place of meeting by the pope whose cause
he espoused, and that the decision should be committed to an equal number of
laymen and ecclesiastics. Alexander, however, as before, refused to submit to
any judgment, and he endeavoured to prevent the meeting. In this, indeed, he
was unsuccessful; but through his influence Lewis went into the negotiations
with a disposition to catch at any occasion for withdrawing. On one occasion,
after having waited for some hours on the bridge of St. Jean de Losne, while
Frederick was accidentally delayed, the king washed his hands in the Saone, and
rode off, declaring that his engagement was at an end; and, although he was
persuaded by the emperor's representations to resume the negotiations, they
ended in mutual dissatisfaction.
The pope was visited at the monastery of Dole in
Aquitaine by Henry of England, who kissed his feet, refused to be seated in his
presence, except on the ground, and presented him with rich gifts; and soon
after he had an interview with Lewis and Henry at Toucy, on the Loire, where
both kings received him with the greatest reverence, and each held a rein of
his horse as they led him to his tent. It was agreed that a council should be
held at Tours in the following year; and at Whitsuntide this assembly met. Seventeen
cardinals, a hundred and twenty-four bishops, and upwards of four hundred
abbots were present; among the most conspicuous of whom was Thomas Becket,
lately promoted by Henry to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Alexander was
solemnly acknowledged by this great assembly, and among its canons was one
which annulled the ordinations of Octavian. Both by Henry and Lewis the pope
was requested to choose for himself a residence within their dominions; and
having fixed on the city of Sens, he settled there in October 1163.
The antipope Octavian or Victor died at Lucca, in
1164. It is supposed that Frederick was inclined to take advantage of this
event in order to a reconciliation with Alexander, but that a fresh election
was urged on by the chancellor, Reginald of Cologne, whom Alexander
describes as “the author and head of the church’s troubles”. Two only of the
cardinals who had sided with Octavian survived; and one of them, Guy of Crema,
was chosen by the single vote of the other, and was consecrated by Henry, bishop
of Liege. It was noted by the opposite party, as a token of Divine judgment,
that the bishop who had ventured to perform this unexampled consecration,
although he himself, as well as Hillin, archbishop of Treves, had refused to be
set up as antipope, died within the year. Whatever the emperor’s earlier
feelings may have been, he now resolved to give a strenuous support to the
antipope, who styled himself Paschal III. It seemed likely that Henry of
England, the most powerful sovereign in Europe, whose territories in France
exceeded those of Lewis, might be won to the imperialist side; for archbishop
Becket, in consequence of having set up in behalf of the clergy pretensions to
immunity from all secular jurisdiction, had found himself obliged to flee from
England, and had been received with open arms by Lewis and Alexander. In the
hope, therefore, of profiting by the English king's resentment at the favour
displayed towards one whom he regarded as the enemy of his royal rights,
Frederick despatched Reginald of Cologne into England, with proposals for a
matrimonial alliance between the families of the two sovereigns, and also with
a charge to negotiate in order to detach Henry from Alexander’s party. But
although Henry was willing to consider such proposals, the envoys found the
English in general zealous for the cause of Becket and of the pope to such a
degree that, in token of abhorrence of the schism, the altars on which the
imperialist clergy had celebrated mass were thrown down, or were solemnly
purified from the contamination of their rites. The king, however, agreed to
send representatives to a great diet which was to meet at Wurzburg, under the
emperor's presidency, at Whitsuntide 1165. At the second session of this diet
Reginald appeared, with the English envoys, and his counsels swayed the
judgment of the assembly. An oath of adhesion to Paschal was exacted; and not
only were those present required to swear that they would never acknowledge
Alexander or any of his line, and would never accept any absolution from their
oaths, but it was provided that, at the emperor’s death, his successor should
be obliged to swear in like terms before receiving the crown. This oath,
however, was not taken so completely as Frederick had designed. A few only of
the laity swore; of the prelates, some were absent, some refused it, some took
it with qualifications which destroyed its force. And although the English
envoys bound themselves by it, their act was afterwards disavowed by their
master, as having been done in excess of his instructions.
Reginald of Cologne, who had hitherto remained in the
order of deacon—apparently lest, by accepting consecration from schismatics, he
should put a hindrance in the way of reconciliation with Alexander—was now
compelled to pledge himself to the schism by receiving ordination to the
priesthood at Wurzburg, and to the episcopate a few months later, in his own
city; and other elect dignitaries were required to commit themselves in like
manner. But Conrad, archbishop elect of Mainz, while passing through France on
a pilgrimage to Compostella, was reconciled to Alexander and from that time
steadily adhered to him. Eberhard, archbishop of Salzburg, had throughout been
the chief supporter of Alexander's interest in Germany, and had received from
him at once a reward for his fidelity and an increase of influence, in being
invested with the office of legate. His successor, the emperor's uncle Conrad,
after having for some time appeared doubtful, now declared openly in favour of
Alexander, and was in consequence denounced as an enemy of the empire; his
territory was laid waste, his city reduced to ashes, and the property of the
see was distributed among Frederick’s followers.
The bishop of Palestrina, whom Alexander had left as
his vicar in Rome, was dead, and his successor, cardinal John, by
a skillfull application of money, which had been raised by long and urgent
begging in France, England, and Sicily, had succeeded in persuading the Romans
to invite his master back. Alexander sailed from Maguelone in September 1165,
and, after having visited the Sicilian king at Messina, landed at Ostia. His
reception at Rome was a scene of extraordinary enthusiasm. The senate, the
nobles, the clergy, and a vast multitude of people bearing olive-branches in
their hands, pressed forth to meet him, and conducted him to the city with the
liveliest demonstrations of joy; and at the Lateran Gate he was met by almost
the whole of the remaining population, among whom the Jews, carrying the book
of their law “according to custom” are especially mentioned as conspicuous. The
antipope, Paschal, in the meantime resided at Viterbo, where he is described as
making use of the emperor's soldiers to levy exactions from passing merchants
and pilgrims.
The measures which the emperor had taken on his last
visit to Italy had produced great dissatisfaction. The severities exercised
against the Milanese excited general pity, so that even cities which had before
been hostile to them received and harboured their fugitives. The podestàs
harassed the people by a system of vexations alike cruel and petty, and are
said, even by an imperialist writer, to have exacted seven times as much as
they were entitled to. Some of these hated officials were murdered. Cities which
had adhered to the emperor in his difficulties now found themselves subjected
to the same oppression as others; and cries of discontent from all quarters
were carried to the imperial court. Frederick resolved on a fresh expedition
across the Alps, but was unprovided with a sufficient army, and found himself
obliged to pay court to the princes of Germany, who were more and more
disinclined to assist him. But at length, in the autumn of 1166, the emperor
was able to lead a powerful army into Italy. After having crossed the Alps, he
found himself beset with petitions from the Lombards, who had looked to his
arrival as an opportunity for obtaining redress of their grievances; but he put
these applications aside, and advanced towards Rome. The Byzantine emperor,
Manuel, who feared that, if the western kingdoms were at peace, some crusading
leader might be able to employ an irresistible force against his crown and the
Greek church, had taken advantage of the discords between the papacy and the
empire. He had proposed to Alexander that the imperial sovereignty of Rome
should be united with that of Constantinople, and had held out a prospect of
reunion between the Greek and the Latin churches, to which the pope had
appeared favourable. The gold of Manuel had established a strong interest in
Italy, and his troops held possession of Ancona. For three weeks Frederick
besieged that town; but, while he was detained by its vigorous resistance, a
great success was achieved by a part of his force which had been sent on before
him, under the command of Reginald of Cologne, and of Christian, who had been
substituted for Conrad in the see of Mainz. These war-like prelates encountered
at Monte Porzio an army which the Romans had sent forth against their feudal
enemies, the imperialist and antipapal citizens of Tusculum; and they defeated
it with an amount of loss which, although very variously reported, is spoken of
as the greatest calamity that had befallen Rome since the battle of Cannae. On
hearing of this victory, Frederick concluded an accommodation with the
defenders of Ancona, and advanced to Rome, where he gained possession of the
Leonine city, while Pisan galleys made their way up to the bridge of St. Angelo
for his assistance. The Romans had in great numbers fled for refuge to St.
Peter's, which in those unquiet times had been converted into a fortification.
For several days the emperor besieged it in vain, until at length a
neighbouring church was set on fire. The flames speedily caught the porch of
the great basilica; the defenders were driven from their posts by smoke and
heat; the gates were broken in with axes, and within the holy building a
slaughter ensued which reached even to the high altar. The antipope, Paschal,
was brought from Viterbo, and was enthroned in St. Peter's, where, on the feast
of St. Peter ad Vincula, the emperor and the empress were crowned by his hands.
An oath of fealty was exacted of the Romans, while Frederick engaged to
acknowledge the privileges of their senatorial government.
Alexander had taken refuge, under the protection of
the Frangipanis, in a fortress constructed within the ruins of the Colosseum.
It was proposed by the emperor that both popes should resign, on condition that
the orders conferred by each should be acknowledged, and that a new successor
of St. Peter should be chosen. The scheme was urged on Alexander by the Romans,
whom both parties had been trying to conciliate by bribes; but he again
declared that the Roman pontiff was subject to no earthly judgment, and refused
to cede the office which God had conferred on him. At this crisis two Sicilian
vessels arrived, bearing a large sum of money for his relief, and offering him
the means of escape; but, although he gladly received the money, and
distributed it among his adherents, he declined to embark, and, escaping from
Rome in the disguise of a pilgrim, made his way to his own city of Benevento.
There the scheme for reuniting the empires and the churches of East and West
was again proposed to him by ambassadors from Manuel; but he declined to engage
in it on account of its formidable difficulties.
Scarcely had Frederick established himself in
possession of Rome, when a pestilence of unexampled violence broke out among
the Germans. In one week the greater part of his army perished. Men were struck
down while mounting their horses; some, who were engaged in burying their
comrades, fell dead into the open graves. Unburied corpses tainted the air, and
among the Romans themselves the ravages of the disease were terrible. The
emperor’s loss is said to have amounted to 25,000; and the papal party saw a divine
ratification of Alexander’s curses in a visitation which destroyed the power of
the “new Sennacherib”, and carried off the chiefs of his sacrilegious
host—among them, the indefatigable Reginald of Cologne, Frederick of
Rothenburg, son of Conrad III, the younger Welf of Bavaria, and a multitude of
other prelates and nobles. Stripped of his strength by this calamity, Frederick
withdrew to the north of Italy, almost as a fugitive, and death further thinned
his ranks as he went along. All Lombardy was now combined against him; for his
neglect of the petitions which had been presented on his arrival in Italy had
led the people to charge on the emperor himself the oppressions which they
endured at the hands of his officers; and the exactions of these officers were
even aggravated beyond their old measure. While Frederick was engaged in the
siege of Ancona, the chief cities of Lombardy had entered into a league for
twenty years, with the declared object of restoring the state of things which
had prevailed under the emperor Henry. Even the imperialist Lodi was coerced by
its neighbours into joining this league, and Pavia alone stood aloof. The
confederates had contrived to rebuild the walls of Milan and to restore its
inhabitants; and in this they were aided with money not only by the Greek
emperor, but (which we read with some surprise) by Henry of England. The spirit
of revolt was fanned by the tidings of the emperor’s great disaster. He
summoned an assembly to meet at Pavia, but few attended; and in token of defiance
to the Lombards, and of the vengeance which he was resolved to execute on them,
he threw down his gauntlet as he denounced them with the ban of the empire. As
he moved towards the Alps the people rose on him, and harassed him with
straggling attacks which his reduced force was hardly sufficient to repel. At
Susa his life was in danger, and he was driven to make his escape across the
mountains in disguise. After this withdrawal, the confederate cities, with a
view of keeping in check his only remaining allies—the citizens of Pavia and
the marquis of Montferrat—built in a strong position, at the confluence of the
Tanaro and the Bormida, a town to which, in honour of the pope, they gave the
name of Alexandria. The population was brought together from all parts of the
neighbouring country, and a free republican government was organized.
Alexandria, although at first derided as a “city of straw”, made very rapid
progress. At the end of its first year it could boast of fifteen thousand
fighting men; and in its second year, Alexander, at the request of its consuls,
erected it into an episcopal see. The first bishop was nominated by the pope,
but he apologized for this on the ground of necessity, and assured the clergy
that it should not prejudice their right of election in future. Eager as
Frederick was to take vengeance on the Lombards for his late humiliation, seven
years elapsed before he could again venture into Italy. In the meantime the
pope was strengthening himself greatly. His alliance with the growing power of
the Lombard cities was drawn closer, and he was careful to promote internal
unity among them. The antipope Paschal died at Rome in September 1168, and,
although an abbot named John of Struma was set up as his successor, under the
name of Calixtus III, there was little reason to fear this new competitor. The
contest between Henry II and Becket had ended in the archbishop’s return to
England, after an exile of seven years, and his murder, in his own cathedral,
by four knights of the royal household. The horror excited by this crime
redounded principally to the advantage of Alexander. Popular enthusiasm was
arrayed on the side of the hierarchy, and Henry’s enemies, lay as well as
ecclesiastical, beset the pope with entreaties for vengeance on him. The king
was fain to purchase reconciliation with the church by humble messages, and by
submitting to terms dictated by two legates at Avranches in May 1172. His sons
were stirred up by Queen Eleanor to rebellion, which was sanctified by a
reference to the wrongs of St. Thomas the Martyr (for Becket had been canonized
by Alexander in Lent 1173); and in the extremity of his danger the king
repaired to Canterbury as a penitent, walked barefooted from the outskirts of
the city to the cathedral, spent a night in prayer at the tomb of his late
antagonist, and, after protesting his deep remorse for the hasty words from
which the murderers had taken occasion for their crime, submitted to be
scourged by every one of the monks.
Frederick, although he had required a profession of
obedience to the antipope Calixtus, soon after made overtures to Alexander; but
the pope steadily refused to enter into any treaty which should not include his
Lombard and Sicilian allies. In Germany the emperor proceeded with vigour, and
succeeded in enforcing general submission to his will, and in 1174 he was able
to cross the Mont Cenis at the head of an army, which was in great measure
composed of mercenaries or (as they were then styled) Brabançons. Susa, the
first Italian city which he reached, was given up to the flames in revenge for
the insults which it had formerly offered to him; and for four months he
closely besieged Alexandria, from which, after having had his camp burnt by a
sallying party of the defenders, he was at length driven off by the approach of
a Lombard army. Archbishop Christian of Mainz, who had been sent on in advance,
was equally unfortunate in a renewed siege of Ancona; for the inhabitants,
after having been reduced to the extremity of distress, were delivered at the
end of six months by allies whom the money of the Greek emperor had raised up
to their assistance. Negotiations were renewed between the emperor and the
pope; but each wished to insist on terms which the other party refused to
accept. Frederick received reinforcements from Germany; but, through the
refusal of his cousin, Henry the Lion, of Saxony, to yield him active
support—although it is said that the emperor condescended to entreat it on his
knees—he found himself unequally matched with his enemies; and on the memorable
field of Legnano the leagued Italian cities, which a few years before he had
despised and trampled on, were victorious. Frederick himself was unhorsed in
the battle, and was missing until after some days he appeared again at Pavia.
By this humiliation, and by the exhaustion of his forces, the emperor was
reduced to treat for peace, which all his adherents combined to urge on him.
After much negotiation certain preliminaries were agreed on, and it was arranged
that the pope should meet him at Venice—the Venetians and their doge being
required to swear that they would not admit the emperor into their city except
with the pope’s consent. Alexander embarked at Viesti on the 9th of March 1177,
and, after having been carried by stress of weather to the Dalmatian coast,
where he was received with enthusiastic reverence, he arrived at Venice on the
24th of the same month. From Venice he proceeded to Ferrara, but on the 11th of
May he returned, and in July Frederick arrived at Chioggia, where he remained
until the terms of peace were agreed on. By these it was provided that the
emperor should abjure the antipope, and that the imperialist bishops, on making
a like abjuration, should be allowed to retain their sees. The Lombards were to
yield the emperor the same obedience which they had paid to his predecessors
from Henry V downwards, and admitted some of his claims as to allowances due to
him when visiting Italy; while the emperor acknowledged their power to appoint
their own consuls, to fortify their cities, and to combine for the defence of
their liberties. Between the emperor and the papacy there was to be a perpetual
peace; with the Lombards a truce of six years, and one of fifteen years with
the king of Sicily.
The emperor was then allowed to approach Venice, and
on the day after his arrival there, he performed his abjuration in the presence
of two cardinals. On the same day his first meeting with the pope took
place in the great square of St. Mark’s, where Alexander and his cardinals
were seated in front of the gates of the church. The emperor, laying aside his
outer robe, prostrated himself and kissed the pope’s feet; after which he led
Alexander into the church, and conducted him up to the choir, where he bowed
his head and received the pontifical blessing. On St. James’s day the kissing
of the pope’s feet was repeated, and Frederick presented him with valuable
gifts; and after mass, at which he himself officiated, Alexander was conducted
to the door of the church by the emperor, who held his stirrup as he remounted
his white palfrey, and, taking the bridle in his hand, would have led the
horse, had not the pope courteously excused the performance of that ceremony.
It is said that through the pressure of the crowd the pope was thrown off his
horse, and that the emperor assisted him to remount. These meetings were
followed by interviews of a less formal kind, at which the two unbent in
familiar, and even playful, conversation; and the peace between the empire and
the church was solemnly ratified at a council held in St. Mark’s on the 14th of
August. At his parting interview with Alexander, the emperor agreed to give up
all the property of St. Peter which had come into his hands, except the
territories of the countess Matilda, and a similar but less important legacy
which the count of Bertinoro had lately bequeathed to the papal see. Frederick
had acquired a new interest in the inheritance of the great countess through
the gift of his uncle Welf, marquis of Tuscany, who, after having lost his only
son by the Roman pestilence of 1167, had made over to the emperor the claims of
the Bavarian house. It had been agreed in the treaty that he should retain
these territories for fifteen years longer; with regard to Bertinoro, he
maintained that a vassal was not entitled to dispose of his fief except with
the consent of his liege lord; and Alexander, at their last meeting, acquiesced
in his proposal that this and other questions should be referred to three
cardinals chosen by the emperor, and three German princes chosen by the pope.
The bishops who had been promoted in the schism were
in general allowed to retain their positions, on condition of submitting to
Alexander. Christian of Mainz burnt the pall which he had received from the
antipope Taschal; and his predecessor, Conrad, who had been deprived by
Frederick for desertion to Alexander, was provided for by an appointment to
Salzburg, in place of archbishop Adalbert, to whose exclusion by the emperor
Alexander was willing to consent. Calixtus was now generally abandoned, and in
August 1178 submitted to Alexander, by whom he was received with kindness and
presented to a rich abbacy at Benevento. A fourth antipope, Lando, or Innocent
III, of the Frangipani family, was set up, but after having borne his
unregarded title somewhat more than a year, he was brought to Alexander as a
prisoner, and was confined for life in the monastery of La Cava. The increased
power of Alexander, and the triumph which had crowned his long struggle against
the emperor, were not without their effect on the Romans, who despatched a
mission to him, praying him, in the name of all ranks, to return to the city.
Alexander received the deputies at Anagni with visible satisfaction, but,
reminding them of his former experience, required that the citizens should give
him securities for their future conduct. It was therefore agreed that the
senate should do homage and swear fealty to the pope, that they should
surrender the royalties to him, and should bind themselves for his safety and
for that of all who should resort to him; and in March 1178 he reentered Rome
amidst an unbounded display of enthusiasm on the part of his fickle subjects.
The crowds of people who eagerly struggled to kiss his feet rendered it almost
impossible for his horse to advance along the streets, and his right hand was
weary of bestowing benedictions.
In March 1179 a general council, attended by nearly
three hundred bishops and by about seven hundred abbots and others, was held by
Alexander in the Lateran church. Among the most important of its canons was a
new order as to the election of popes. The share which had been reserved to the
emperor by Nicolas II had already been long obsolete, and it was now provided
that the election should rest exclusively with the college of cardinals, while,
by adding to the college certain official members of the Roman clergy,
Alexander deprived the remaining clergy of any chiefs under whom they might
have effectually complained of their exclusion from their ancient rights as to
the election. It was enacted that no one should be declared pope unless he were
supported by two-thirds of the electors; and that, if a minority should set up
an antipope against one so chosen, every one of their party should be
anathematized, without hope of forgiveness until his last sickness. At this
council also a crusade against heretics was for the first time sanctioned.
During the last years of Alexander the affairs of the
churches beyond the Alps were generally tranquil. The emperor was fully
occupied in political business. Henry of England was disposed to maintain a
good understanding with the pope, although he retained a virtual power of
appointing to bishoprics, and used it in favour of persons who had been his
strenuous supporters in the contest with Becket. He pathetically entreated the
aid of Alexander against his rebellious sons; and we find the pope frequently
mediating, by letters and by the agency of legates, between him and Lewis of
France. Lewis became continually more and more absorbed in devotion. In 1179 he
made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas the Martyr at Canterbury, in
obedience to visions in which he had been warned by the saint himself to seek
by such means the recovery of his son Philip from an illness brought on by
exposure for a night in a forest where he had been huntings. Soon after his
return the king was seized with paralysis, and on the 18th of September 1180 he
died.
After a pontificate of twenty-two years—a time rarely
equalled by any either of his predecessors or of his successors—Alexander, who
had once more been obliged to leave Rome, died at Civita Castellana on the 30th
of August 1181, leaving a name which is only not in the first rank among the
popes who have most signally advanced the power of their see.
