uniform ill-luck. If, after the fight of life is over, no single
valiant blow can be remembered, the record is a sorry one indeed.
Baldwin's difficulties were, it must be owned, very great: they were
so great that for a considerable portion of the four-and-twenty years
during which he wore the Roman purple his crown was left him by
sufferance, and his manner of reigning was to travel about Europe
begging for money. The Pope proclaimed a crusade for him, but it was
extremely difficult to awaken general enthusiasm for a Courtenay in
danger of being overthrown by a Lascaris; and the other point, the
submission of Constantinople to Rome in things ecclesiastical, could
not be said to touch the popular sentiment at all. The Pope, however,
supplemented his exhortation by bestowing upon the indigent Emperor a
treasure of indulgences, which he no doubt sold at their marketable
value, whatever that was. One fears that it was not much. From England
he obtained, after an open insult at Dover, a small contribution
toward the maintenance of his empire. Louis IX of France would have
rendered him substantial assistance, but for the more pressing claims
of the Holy Land and his project for delivering the holy places by a
new method. His brother-in-law, Frederick II, excommunicated by the
Church, was not likely to manifest any enthusiasm for an
ecclesiastical cause; and those allies from whom he might have
expected substantial aid, the Venetians, were at war with the Genoese;
the Prince of Achaia was in captivity, and the feeble son of Boniface,
King of Thessalonica--the sons of all these sturdy crusaders were
feeble, like the Syrian _pullani_, sons of Godfrey's heroes--had been
deposed. Yet money and men must be raised, or the city must be
abandoned. A wise man would have handed over the empire to any who
dared defend it. Baldwin was not a wise man. He proceeded to sell the
remaining lands of Courtenay and the marquisate of Namur, and by this
and other expedients managed to return with an army of thirty thousand
men. What would not Baldwin I, or Henry his uncle, or John de Brienne
his father-in-law have been able to effect with an army of thirty
thousand soldiers of the West? But Baldwin the Incapable did next to
nothing.
By this time the strip of country remaining to the Emperor was only
that immediately surrounding the city. All the rest was in the hands
of Greek or of Bulgarian. When these were at war, the city was safe;
when these were united, the city was every moment in danger of
falling. Baldwin used his new recruits in gaining possession of the
country for a distance of three days' journey round his capital--about
sixty miles in all--which was something. But how was the position to
be maintained or to be improved? There were no revenues in that
bankrupt city, from whose port the trade had passed away, and which
had lost the command of the narrow seas. What was the condition of the
citizens we know not. That of the imperial household was such that the
Emperor's servants were fain to demolish empty houses for fuel, and to
strip churches of the lead upon their roofs to supply the daily wants
of his family. He sent his son Philip to Venice as security for a
debt; he borrowed at enormous interest of the merchants of Italy; and
when all else failed, and the money which he had raised at such
ruinous sacrifices had melted away, and his soldiers were clamoring
for pay, he remembered the holy relics yet remaining to the city, in
spite of the cartloads carried off during the great sack of 1204, and
resolved to raise more money upon them.
There was, first of all, the Crown of Thorns. This had been already
pledged in Venice for the sum of thirteen thousand one hundred and
thirty-four pieces of gold to the Venetians. As the money was spent
and the relic could not be redeemed within the time, the Venetians
were preparing to seize it. They would have been within their right.
But Baldwin conceived an idea, so clever that it must have been
suggested by a Greek, which, if successfully carried out, would result
in the attainment of much more money by its means. He would _give_ it
to Louis IX of France. A relic of such importance might be pawned, it
might be given, but it could not be sold. Therefore Baldwin gave it to
King Louis. By this plan the Venetians were tricked of their relic, on
which they had counted; the debt was transferred to France, which
easily paid it; the precious object itself, to which Frederick II
granted a free passage through his dominions, was conveyed by
Dominican friars to Troyes, whither the French court advanced to
receive it, and a gift of ten thousand marks reconciled Baldwin and
his barons to their loss. After all, as the prospects of the State
were so gloomy, it might be some consolation to them to reflect that
so sacred a relic--which had this great advantage over the wood of the
true Cross, that it had not been and could not be multiplied until it
became equal in bulk to the wood of a three-decker--was consigned to
the safe custody of the most Christian King of France.
This kind of traffic once begun, and proving profitable, there was no
reason why it should not continue. Accordingly, the Crown of Thorns
was followed by a large and very authentic piece of the true Cross.
St. Louis gave Baldwin twenty thousand marks as an honorarium for the
gift of this treasure, which he deposited in the Sainte-Chapelle. Here
it remained, occasionally working miracles, as every bit of the true
Cross was bound to do, until the troubles of the league, when it was
mysteriously stolen. Most likely some Huguenot laid hands upon it, and
took the same kind of delight in burning it that he took in throwing
the consecrated wafer to the pigs.
And then more relics were found and disposed of. There was the baby
linen of our Lord; there was the lance which pierced his side; there
was the sponge with which they gave him to drink; there was the chain
with which his hands had been fettered: all these things, priceless,
inestimable, wonder-working, Baldwin sent to Paris in exchange for
marks of silver. And then there were relics of less holiness, but
still commanding the respect and adoration of Christians; these also
were hunted up and sent. Among them were the rod of Moses, and a
portion--alas! a portion only--of the skull of John the Baptist.
Thirty or forty thousand marks for all these treasures! And it seems
but a poor result of the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins that
all which came of it was the transferrence of relics from the East to
the West--nothing else. Such order as the later Greek emperors had
preserved, changed into anarchy and misrule; such commerce as
naturally flowed from Asia into the Golden Horn, diverted and lost; a
strange religion imposed upon an unwilling people; the break-up of the
old Roman forms; the destruction by fire of a third of the city; the
disappearance of the ancient Byzantine families; the ruin of the
wealthy, the depression of the middle classes; the impoverishment of
the already poor; the decay and loss of learning: these were the
things which the craft and subtlety of Dandolo, working on the Franks'
lust of conquest, had brought about for the proud city of the East.
But the end was drawing daily nearer. Vatatces of Nicæa died. He was
succeeded by his son Theodore, on whose death the crown of Nicæa
devolved upon an infant. The child was speedily, though not
immediately, openly dethroned by the regent, Michael Palæologus. When
at length the imperial title was assumed by the latter, Baldwin
thought it advisable to attempt negotiations with him. His ambassadors
were received with open contumely; Michael would give the Latins
nothing. "Tell your master," he said, "that if he be desirous of
peace, he must pay me, as an annual tribute, the sum which he receives
from the trade and customs of Constantinople. On these terms I may
allow him to reign; if he refuses, it will be war."
That was in the year 1259. Michael, no putter-forth of empty and
boastful words, prepared immediately for the coming war; so in his
feeble way did Baldwin, but his money was spent, his recruits were
melting away, the Venetians alone were his allies, and the Genoese had
joined the Greeks. And yet Michael did not know--so great was the
terror of the Frank and Flemish name which the great Baldwin, Henry of
Flanders, and John de Brienne had left behind them--how weak was the
Latin empire; how unstable were the defences of the city.
Michael, in 1260, marched into Thrace, strengthened the garrisons, and
expelled the Latins yet remaining in the country. Had he, the same
year, marched upon Constantinople, the city would have been his. But
the glory of taking it was destined for one of his generals.
The Greek Emperor, returning to Nicæa, sent Alexius Strategopoulos,
his most trusted general, on whom he had conferred the title of cæsar,
to take the command of his armies in Europe. He laid strict orders
upon him to enter the Latin territory as soon as the existing truce
was concluded: to watch, report--act upon the defensive if
necessary--but nothing more.
Now the lands round Constantinople had been sold by their Latin
seigneurs to Greek cultivators, who, to defend their property, formed
themselves into an armed militia, called "Voluntaries." With these
voluntaries Alexius opened communications, and was by their aid
enabled to get accurate information of all that went on among the
Latins. As soon as the truce expired, he marched his troops across the
frontier and approached the city. His force--doubtless the Latins were
badly served by their spies--seemed too small to inspire any serious
alarm, and the Latins, who had recently received succor from Venice
which made them confident, resolved on striking the first blow by an
attack on the port of Daphnusia. They accordingly despatched a force
of six thousand men, with thirty galleys, leaving the city almost bare
of defenders. This, then, was the moment for successful treachery. One
Koutrilzakes, a Greek voluntary, secured the assistance of certain
friends within the town. Either a subterranean passage was to be
opened to the Greeks, or they were to be assured of friends upon the
walls. Alexius, at dead of night, brought his army close to the city.
At midnight, against a certain stipulated spot the scaling-ladders
were placed, where there were none but traitors to receive the men; at
the same time, the passage was traversed, and Alexius found himself
within the walls of the city.[52] They broke open the Gate of the
Fountain; they admitted the Greek men-at-arms and the Coman
auxiliaries before the alarm was given; and by daylight the Greeks had
complete command of the land wall, and were storming the imperial
palace. There was one chance left for Baldwin. He might have betaken
himself to the Venetians, and held their quarter until the unlucky
expedition to Daphnusia returned, when they might have expelled the
Greeks, or made at least an honorable capitulation. But Baldwin was
not the man to fight a lost or losing battle. He hastily fled to the
port, embarked on board a vessel, and set sail for Euboea. In the
deserted palace the Greek soldiers found sceptre, crown, and sword,
the imperial insignia, and carried them in mockery through the
streets.
While Baldwin was flying from the palace to the port, behind him and
around him was the tramp of the rude Coman barbarians, proclaiming
that the city was taken. The houses, hastily thrown open as the first
streaks of the summer day lit up the sky, resounded with the
acclamations of those, yesterday his own subjects, who welcomed the
new-comers with cries of "Long live Michael the Emperor of the
Romans!" The house of Courtenay had played its last card and lost the
game. Pity that it was thrown away by so poor a player.
It matters little about the end of Baldwin. He got safely to Euboea,
thence to Rome, and lived twelve or thirteen years longer in
obscurity. When he died, his only son, Philip, assumed the empty title
of emperor of Constantinople, which, Gibbon says, "too bulky and
sonorous for a private name, modestly expired in silence and
oblivion." It took, however, a long time to expire. Two hundred and
fifty years later one of its last holders was the inheritor of so many
shadowy claims that his very name in history is blurred by them. René
of Anjou gave himself, among other titles, that of emperor of
Constantinople.
Constantinople was taken, and the Latin Empire destroyed at a blow.
There were, however, still remaining the Venetian merchants, who had
the command of the port, and who might, by holding out until the
return of the ships from Daphnusia, undo all. Alexius set fire to
their houses, but was careful to leave their communications with the
vessels unmolested. They had therefore nothing left but to secure the
safety of their wives, families, and movable property, which they did
by embarking them on board the ships. And when the Daphnusian
expedition returned, they found, to their surprise, that the Greeks
held the whole city except a small portion near the port, and had
manned the walls. A hasty truce was arranged; the merchants loaded
every ship with their families and their property; the Latin fleet
sailed down the Dardanelles, and the Latin Empire in the East was at
an end.
It began with violence and injustice: it ended as it began. There were
six Latin emperors, of whom the first was a gallant soldier; the
second, a sovereign of admirable qualities, and an able administrator;
the third, a plain French knight, who was murdered on his way to
assume the purple buskins; the fourth, a weak and pusillanimous
creature; the fifth, a stout old warrior; and the last, a monarch of
whom nothing good can be said and nothing evil, except that which was
said of Boabdil (called _El Chico_), that he was unlucky. As the
Latins never had the slightest right or title to these possessions in
the East, so the western powers were never impelled to assist them,
and their downfall was merely a matter of time. In the interests of
civilization their occupation of the city seems to have been
unfortunate; they learned nothing for themselves, they taught nothing;
neither East nor West profited. They destroyed the old institutions,
so that the ancient Roman Empire was broken up by their conquest; they
inflicted irreparable losses on learning and art; and perhaps the only
good result of their conquest was that, for the moment, at least, it
deflected the course of trade with the East from the Golden Horn, and
sent it by another route to Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
INNOCENT III EXALTS THE PAPAL POWER
A.D. 1208
T.F. TOUT
Under Pope Innocent III the example of Gregory VII
(Hildebrand) was followed, with the result of still further
strengthening and extending the pontifical sway. When
Innocent became pope (1198), the holy see was engaged in a
desperate contest for supremacy with the Hohenstaufen rulers
of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry VI, son of Frederick
Barbarossa, had but recently died, leaving his wife
Constance, heiress of the kingdom of Naples or the "Two
Sicilies," and a son, Frederick--afterward Frederick
II--born in 1194, to be dealt with by the Pope.
While the imperial power under the Hohenstaufens was making
head against the papal authority, Italy was overrun in parts
by German subjects of the emperors, and in two expeditions
(1194 and 1197) Henry VI recovered the Two Sicilies from the
usurper Tancred of Lecce. In his dealings with the Sicilies
Innocent therefore had to reckon with the German influence
which played an important part in the new settlement of the
kingdom. His triumphs in this field, as well as in his
conflicts with Philip Augustus of France, Otto IV of
Germany, and King John of England, and in the war which he
made upon heretics, are set forth in the following article
in their historical order, and the cumulative growth of his
supremacy forms a subject of increasing interest to the end.
After the great emperors came the great Pope. Within four months of
the death of Henry VI, Celestine III had been succeeded by Innocent
III, under whom the visions of Gregory VII and Alexander III at last
became accomplished facts, the papal authority attained its highest
point of influence, and the empire, raised to such heights by
Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI, was reduced to a condition of
dependence upon it.
The new Pope had been Lothaire of Segni, a member of the noble Roman
house of Conti, who had studied law and theology at Paris and Bologna,
and had at an early age won for himself a many-sided reputation as a
jurist, a politician, and as a writer. The favor of his uncle, Clement
III, had made him cardinal before he was thirty, but under Celestine
III he kept in the background, disliked by the Pope, and himself
suspicious of the timid and temporizing old man. But on Celestine's
death on January 8, 1198, Lothaire, though still only thirty-seven
years of age, was at once hailed as his most fitting successor, as the
strong man who could win for the Church all the advantages that she
might hope to gain from the death of Henry VI. Nor did Innocent's
pontificate belie the promise of his early career.
Innocent III possessed a majestic and noble appearance, an unblemished
private character, popular manners, a disposition prone to sudden fits
of anger and melancholy, and a fierce and indomitable will. He brought
to his exalted position the clearly formulated theories of the
canonists as to the nature of the papal power, as well as the
overweening ambition, the high courage, the keen intelligence and the
perseverance and energy necessary to turn the theories of the schools
into matters of every-day importance.
His enunciations of the papal doctrine put claims that Hildebrand
himself had hardly ventured to advance, in the clearest and most
definite light. The Pope was no mere successor of Peter, the
vicegerent of man. "The Roman pontiff," he wrote, "is the vicar, not
of man, but of God himself." "The Lord gave Peter the rule not only of
the Universal Church, but also the rule of the whole world." "The Lord
Jesus Christ has set up one ruler over all things as his universal
vicar, and as all things in heaven, earth, and hell bow the knee to
Christ, so should all obey Christ's vicar, that there be one flock and
one shepherd." "No king can reign rightly unless he devoutly serve
Christ's vicar." "Princes have power in earth, priests have also power
in heaven. Princes reign over the body, priests over the soul. As much
as the soul is worthier than the body, so much worthier is the
priesthood than the monarchy." "The Sacerdotium is the sun, the Regnum
the moon. Kings rule over their respective kingdoms, but Peter rules
over the whole earth. The Sacerdotium came by divine creation, the
Regnum by man's cunning."
In these unrestricted claims to rule over church and state alike we
seem to be back again in the anarchy of the eleventh century. And it
was not against the feeble feudal princes of the days of Hildebrand
that Innocent III had to contend, but against strong national kings,
like Philip of France and John of England. It is significant of the
change of the times, that Innocent sees his chief antagonist, not so
much in the empire as in the limited localized power of the national
kings. When Richard of England had yielded before Henry VI, the
national state gave way before the universal authority of the lord of
the world. But Innocent claimed that he alone was lord of the world.
The empire was but a German or Italian kingdom, ruling over its
limited sphere. Only in the papacy was the old Roman tradition of
universal monarchy rightly upheld.
Filled with these ambitions of universal monarchy, Innocent's survey
took in both the smallest and the greatest of European affairs.
Primarily his work was that of an ecclesiastical statesman, and
intrenched far upon the authority of the State. We shall see him
restoring the papal authority in Rome and in the Patrimony,[53]
building up the machinery of papal absolutism, protecting the infant
King of Sicily, cherishing the municipal freedom of Italy, making and
unmaking kings and emperors at his will, forcing the fiercest of the
western sovereigns to acknowledge his feudal supremacy, and the
greatest of the kings of France to reform his private life at his
commands, giving his orders to the petty monarchs of Spain and
Hungary, and promulgating the law of the Church Universal before the
assembled prelates of Christendom in the Lateran Council.
Nevertheless, the many-sided Pontiff had not less near to his heart
the spiritual and intellectual than the political direction of the
universe. He had the utmost zeal for the extension of the kingdom of
Christ. The affair of the crusade was, as we shall see, ever his most
pressing care, and it was his bitterest grief that all his efforts to
rouse the Christian world for the recovery of Jerusalem fell on deaf
ears. He was strenuous in upholding orthodoxy against the daring
heretics of Southern France. He was sympathetic and considerate to
great religious teachers, like Francis and Dominic, from whose work he
had the wisdom to anticipate the revival of the inner life of the
Church. As many-sided as strong, and successful as he was strong,
Innocent III represents it worthily and adequately.
Even before Innocent had attained the chair of Peter, the worst
dangers that had so long beset the successors of Alexander III were
over. After the death of Henry VI, the Sicilian and the German crowns
were separated, and the strong anti-imperial reaction that burst out
all over Italy against the oppressive ministers of Henry VI was
allowed to run its full course. The danger was not so much of
despotism as of anarchy, and Innocent, like Hildebrand, knew how to
turn confusion to the advantage of hierarchy.
No real effort was made to obtain for the little Frederick the crowns
of both Germany and Sicily, While Philip of Swabia, her
brother-in-law, hurried to Germany to maintain, if he could, the unity
of the Hohenstaufen empire, Constance was quite content to secure her
son's succession in Naples and Sicily by renewing the homage due to
the Pope.
Having thus obtained the indispensable papal confirmation, Constance
ruled in Naples as a national queen in the name of the little
Frederick. She drove away the German bandits, who had made the name of
her husband a terror to her subjects. Markwald of Anweiler left his
Apulian fiefs[54] for Romagna. But the Pope joined with Constance in
hostility to the Germans. Without Innocent's strong and constant
support she could hardly have carried out her policy. Recognizing in
the renewal of the old papal protection the best hopes for the
independence of Sicily, Constance, on her death in 1198, called on
Innocent III to act as the guardian of her son. Innocent loyally took
up her work, and struggled with all his might to preserve the kingdom
of Frederick against his many enemies. But the contest was a long and
a fierce one.
No sooner was Constance dead than the Germans came back to their prey.
The fierce Markwald, driven from Romagna by the papal triumph, claimed
the regency and the custody of the King. The Saracens and Greeks of
Sicily, still numerous and active, joined the Germans. Walter, Bishop
of Troja, Chancellor of Sicily, weaved deep plots against his master
and his overlord. But the general support of the Church gave Innocent
a strong weapon. Roffrid, Abbot of Monte Casino, a tried friend of
Henry VI, declared for Innocent against Markwald, who in revenge
besieged the great monastery, until a summer storm drove him baffled
from its walls. But the purchased support of Pisa gave Markwald the
command of the sea, and Innocent had too many schemes on foot and too
little military power at his command to be able to make easy headway
against him.