The peace, which Adrian had concluded with the king of Sicily, was
soon seized by Frederic Barbarossa as the pretext for a new quarrel
with the Church. The grounds on which the German despot professed to
be aggrieved were as follow: a predecessor of his, Lothair II., had in
his Italian war, in the foregoing century, obliged the king of Sicily
to own the feudal superiority of Germany over Apulia. Pope Innocent
II., who protested against this proceeding as a violation of his
rights, could only so far induce Lothair to respect them, as to agree
to let their lawful owner for the future jointly exercise them with
their lawless usurper. So that, when the Sicilian King, as Duke of
Apulia, should be presented, at the ceremony of his installation, with
a flag, the Pope was to hold the pole with one hand, and the Emperor
with the other.
Frederic Barbarossa renewed this right of joint lordship over Apulia
by a concordat with Eugenius III., in which he expressly stipulated
not to make any treaty with the king of Sicily, without the previous
consent of the Pope, who, however, was not required to enter into any
such obligation towards the German monarch.
And yet Frederic now put on the face of an injured man, declaring
that what had not been stipulated, had yet always been taken for
granted; and that Adrian, by making peace with King William, unknown
to the emperor, had flagrantly violated the concordat. In the height
of his ill-will, an incident fell out which gave free vent to his
animosity against the pope.
To settle his power in Burgundy, he summoned a Diet of the Empire to
meet at Besancon, in October, 1157. This Diet was numerously and
splendidly attended, not only by German but by foreign princes and
ambassadors from all parts of Europe; among the rest, by two
cardinals, namely, Roland and Bernard, as legates from the pope. The
emperor received their credentials in his oratory, where he gave them
a special audience; at which they also presented him a letter from
Adrian, who complained in it of the impunity with which Frederic had
allowed certain marauding knights to detain and plunder Eskill,
Archbishop of Lund, while travelling through Burgundy to his diocese.
In chiding him for so faithless a discharge of his duty, as sworn
champion of the Roman Church, the pope reminded the emperor of the
favours he owed that Church, especially mentioning among them his
imperial crown: "not that she repented of having so far obliged him,
on the contrary, she would rejoice if she could confer on him still
greater benefits."
As Frederic listened to this letter, which his chancellor Raynald read
up to him, he reddened with anger at that part of it which spoke of
his crown as a gift of the Church; but at the word "benefits" he could
not control himself, for, by this word he insisted, in the blindness
of passion, that the pope meant to assert that the empire was a feoff
of the Holy See.
The fact was, the original word _beneficium_ did signify, in the
corrupt Latin of the middle ages, a feoff as well as a benefit in
general; and this was enough for the emperor's humour, who would
listen to no explanation from the legates, that the word was used, not
in its technical, but its classical sense. In the heat of the dispute
which ensued, Cardinal Roland,--afterwards Pope Alexander
III.--exclaimed: "From whom then hath the Emperor his dignity, if not
from the Pope?" Whereupon, the Count Palatine, Otho of Bavaria, one of
the courtiers present, seized by a fit of fury, drew his sword, and
rushed towards the cardinal; but was checked in his purpose by Frederic,
who threw himself between the two; and then closed the audience by
ordering the legates to be escorted back to Rome, with injunctions not
to deviate from the directest line of route, nor to tarry in any
ecclesiastical domain through which they might pass.
Historians are agreed that Adrian had no intention, in the present
case, of practically asserting,--as Frederic in his politic wrath said
he did,--the feudal superiority in question. The English pope,
however, was not the less a stickler for that superiority in theory,
as well as Cardinal Roland and the rest of the hierarchy;--a
superiority which Pope Gregory VII. supported by the feelings and
convictions of Christendom at his day, taught as follows: that the
Pope, as Vicar on earth of our Lord in heaven, ought to stand superior
over every human power; and sought to realize it as the only means of
reforming the frightful disorders of that age.
Frederic Barbarossa, on the other hand, took, as was natural to a man
like him, bent on crushing the spiritual beneath the temporal power,
the opposite side of the question;--a side which was just as repugnant
to the feeling of the overwhelming majority of Christendom then, as it
was a century before; nay, which was at variance with his own
conscience, if one may judge from his conduct at a later period, when,
abandoned by fortune, and his pride humbled in the dust, he was driven
to hearken to its voice. For the present, he proclaimed the only
doctrine which his pride could brook, namely,--that he held his crown
from God alone, to whose Servant, the Pope, it simply belonged to
perform the ceremony of coronation. This doctrine of his imperial
dignity he caused to be stated in a circular, which he addressed to
all the provinces of Germany in vindication of his behaviour towards
the papal legates:--a measure rendered imperative by the religious
temper of the age. In this circular, [1] he denounces all, who differ
from its views, as enemies of the doctrine of our Lord and His
Apostles, as, in short, their slanderers; and, among other
extravagancies of his virulence, declares that one cause, among the
rest, why he so unceremoniously dismissed the legates, was the
discovery which he had made of blank papers in their possession, ready
signed and sealed; which they could fill up at pleasure, and which
were meant to empower them to dismantle the altars, plunder the sacred
vessels, and deface the crucifixes in the German churches. He further
informs the bishops of Germany, that _he_, and _he_ alone, it is who
really strives to protect their liberties against the Roman See, whose
yoke they groaned under.
Those, however, to whom this consoling piece of news was sent, knew
but too well what a mockery the word liberty was in the mouth of a man
who like Frederic had long ago trampled on the Concordat of Worms, and
who disposed of the benefices of the Church after the arbitrary manner
of Henry IV., to subserve his political ends.
As companion-piece to his circular, Frederic published an edict
forbidding, in future, all correspondence between his clergy and Rome.
The account which the cardinals Roland and Bernard gave, on their
arrival at Rome, of the way in which they had been treated by
Frederic, created a lively sensation at the papal court. The imperial
party in the conclave sought to exculpate their patron in the face of
the reproaches heaped upon him, by ascribing all the blame to the
ignorance and mismanagement of the legates. In the midst of the
conflicting opinions of his clergy, Pope Adrian deeply felt the
indignity which he had suffered in the persons of his representatives,
but did not allow himself to be betrayed into any violent
manifestation of displeasure; on the contrary, after the first
excitement of his feelings was over, he wisely resolved to do all in
his power to conciliate the emperor, without derogating from his own
dignity. To this end he wrote a brief, of which the substance is as
follows, to all the archbishops and bishops of Germany:
"As often as anything is attempted in the Church contrary to the honor
of God and the salvation of souls, it should be the care of our
brother bishops, and of all who profess to act according to the Holy
Spirit, to chastise such deeds as have been wickedly done, in a manner
pleasing to God. Our illustrious son Frederic, Emperor of the Romans,
we say it with profound sorrow, hath lately done what, so far as we
know, is without example in the times of his predecessors. For, on our
sending him two of our worthiest brethren,--namely, Cardinals Bernard
of St. Clement and Roland of St. Mark, our chancellor,--he appeared at
first to receive them with cordiality; but the next day, when they
read to him our letter, he broke out into such violence of passion at
a certain expression contained therein, namely, 'We have conferred on
thee the benefit of the crown,' that it is lamentable to think of the
reproaches which he is said to have cast at them, of the insults which
he obliged them to bear from him, of the dishonourable manner in which
he dismissed them from his presence, and drove them out of his states.
And then he issued an edict, forbidding you to leave the kingdom to
visit the Apostolic See. Concerning which things, though we are much
troubled, yet we derive the greatest consolation from this, that he
did not go to such lengths by your advice or by that of his princes.
Wherefore, we feel assured, that by your advice it will be easy to
recover him from the infatuation of his mind. For which reason,
Brethren, since it is plain that in this matter not only our, but your
cause, and that of the entire Church is at stake, we exhort you in the
Lord to oppose yourselves as a wall before the house of God, and to
spare no pains in reclaiming as soon as possible our said son to the
right path; taking especial care, at the same time, that Raynald, his
chancellor, and the Count Palatine, who dared to vomit out the
greatest blasphemies against our said legates and the Roman Church,
make full and public satisfaction, to the end, that as many ears were
wounded by their virulent speech, so many may be reclaimed by their
return to the right path. And let our said son reflect on past and
present events, and enter on that path along which it is known that
Justinian and other Catholic emperors walked; as, by following their
example, he will not fail to obtain honor on earth and happiness in
heaven. You, too, should you succeed in reclaiming him, will at once
offer a grateful tribute of obedience to St. Peter, and assert your
own and the Church's liberty. At all events, our illustrious son will
learn from your admonitions,--will learn from the infallible
Gospel,--that the most holy Roman Church, built by God's hand on a
most firm rock, however much she may be shaken by the winds, will yet
endure throughout all ages under the Lord's protection."
This brief threw those to whom it was addressed into no small
perplexity; for while, on the one hand, they secretly leaned to the
cause of the Church, they had become on the other so cowed and
truckling under the iron despotism of the emperor, that they felt
themselves unequal to the task of responding to the pope as their duty
prompted; so that they resolved, after some deliberation on the
subject, to lay the brief before Frederic, and to square their reply
according to his remarks. These were a tissue of the most contemptible
subterfuges and trifling,--as for example, "that he had issued no
edict against his clergy passing into Italy as pilgrims, and all
others that wished to go thither, on reasonable grounds, attested by
their bishops, could still do so; that he was chiefly actuated in his
proceedings by the wish to correct those abuses under which his
churches were overtaxed, and the discipline of his convents almost
ruined; that, though God had raised the Church by means of the state,
yet the Church now sought to overthrow the state--a requital which he
(Frederic) viewed as by no means divine; that the evil designs of the
Church against the Empire were not only proved by her writings, but by
the pictures, which, contrary to the imperial wishes, were allowed to
continue undefaced at Rome, under one of which, representing the
Emperor Conrad kneeling to the Pope, and receiving the crown, an
inscription asserted that he did so as the vassal of his Holiness."
For the rest, the bishops begged of the pope to appease their
sovereign by apologetic letters, so that the Church might continue at
peace, and the Empire lose none of its dignity.
Adrian smiled at the perverse spirit of pride which this reply from
the German hierarchy showed Frederic to be possessed of; and took only
the firmer resolution to get the better of him, by opposing a calm
dignity to his passion. He accordingly selected Cardinals Henry and
Hyacinth,--men of more experience in diplomacy than the rest of their
brethren in the conclave,--to go as legates on a new embassy to the
emperor; who in the meanwhile had arrived at Augsburg to review his
troops, previous to his second invasion of Italy. The two cardinals,
after being plundered and imprisoned on their passage of the Alps,
into Tyrol, by robber knights, who infested those parts, and, aware of
the quarrel between the emperor and the pope, thought they might thus
turn it to account; but were severely punished for their pains by
Henry, duke of Bavaria, who freed the sufferers; enabled them to reach
Augsburg in safety; where they had audience of the emperor.
The brief which they read to him from the pope, expressed the sorrow
of his Holiness at finding how greatly the term "beneficium" had been
misunderstood, and declared that no other than its ordinary meaning in
the Latin language was intended by it, and that the meaning of feoff
had not for a moment been entertained. Moreover, the word "contulimus"
in speaking of "conferring" the crown, was explained to have meant,
not that his Holiness had done so as though the emperor were his
vassal, but that he had simply set it on the emperor's head; an act
whereby it might be supposed that, at least, a feeling of thankfulness
and goodwill would be produced.
The brief ascribed to maliciously disposed persons the wrong
interpretations given to the pope's words, which had so deeply
incensed the emperor; and concluded by recommending to his good favour
the legates now accredited to him.
Frederic professed himself pacified by this brief; and, as soon as
some other points of difference were at his request satisfactorily
settled, he embraced the cardinals in token of his reconciliation with
the pope; and loaded them with such rich presents that they returned
home in the best humour.
[1] Radevicus, lib. i. cap. 10.