END OF SELECTIONS FROM BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
Here begins the Fifth Book: How Frederick I. of Staufen of Suabia was Emperor of Rome, and of his descendants, and concerning the doings of Florence which were in their times, and of all Italy.
§ 1.—After the death of Conrad of Saxony, king of the Romans, 1154 a.d.
Epist. vi. (5) 135, 136. Purg. xviii. 119, 120. Cf. Par. iii. 119. Frederick Barbarossa was elected Emperor, called Frederick the Great, or the First, of the house of Suabia, and surnamed of Staufen. This Frederick, when he had received the votes of the electors, proclaimed himself, and then came into Italy, and was crowned at Rome by Pope Adrian IV., in the year of Christ 1154, and reigned 37 years between king of the Romans and Emperor. He was liberal and a man of worth, eloquent and noble, and glorious in all his deeds. At the first he was friendly to Holy Church in the time of the said Pope Adrian, and rebuilt Tivoli, which had been destroyed; but the same day that he was crowned there was a great scuffle and fight between the Romans and his followers in Nero's meadow, where they were waiting for the said Emperor, to the great loss of the Romans; and again within the portico of St. Peter's; and it was all burnt and destroyed, to wit, the part of Rome which is around St. Peter's. And when he returned to Lombardy in the first year of his reign, because the city of Spoleto would not obey him, forasmuch as it pertained to the Church, he brought an army Epist. vi. (5) 137. against it, and overcame it, and destroyed it utterly; and through his desire to usurp the rights of the Church, he soon became her enemy: for after the death of Pope Adrian, in the year of Christ 1159, 1159 a.d. Alexander III., of Siena, was made Pope, who reigned 22 years; and he, to maintain the rights of Holy Church, had great war with the said Emperor Frederick for long time; which Emperor raised up against him four schismatical anti-popes at divers times, one after the other, and three thereof were cardinals. The first was Octavianus, which took the name of Victor; the second, Guy of Cremona, which took the name of Pascal; the third was John of Struma, which took the name of Calixtus; the fourth was called Landone, which took the name of Innocent; whence came great schism and affliction to the Church of God, forasmuch as these Popes by the power of the Emperor Frederick held all the patrimony of St. Peter and the Duchy, so that the said Pope Alexander had no authority. But the said Pope Alexander fought valiantly against them all, and excommunicated them: the which all, one after the other, during his reign, died an evil death. But whilst they were reigning by the power of Frederick, the said true Pope, Alexander, not being able to abide in Rome, went to the French court to King Louis the Pious, which received him graciously. And it is said in France that when the said Pope was coming to Paris secretly with a small company in the guise of a lesser prelate, immediately that he came to St. Maure, near to Paris, albeit they had not had news of the Pope, yet by Divine miracle there rose a voice: "Behold the Pope! behold the Pope!" and the bells began to ring, and the king, with the clergy and the people of Paris, went out to meet him, whence the Pope marvelled greatly, forasmuch as none knew of his coming; and he thanked God, and made himself known to the king and to the people, and began to give the benediction. And afterwards in France the said Pope called a general council in the city of Tours in Touraine, in the which he excommunicated the said Frederick, and deposed him from the Empire, and absolved all his barons from their oaths, and deposed them of the house of Colonna in Rome, that neither they nor their successors should ever be allowed to hold any office in Holy Church, seeing that they all held to the aid and favour of the said Frederick against the Church. And in that council all the kings and lords of the West promised and leagued themselves with Louis, king of France, in aid of the said Pope Alexander and of Holy Church, against the said Frederick, and likewise many cities of Lombardy rebelled against the said Frederick, to wit, Milan, and Cremona, and Piacenza, and held with the Pope and with the Church; for the which thing, when the said Frederick was passing through Lombardy to go into France against King Louis, who was supporting Pope Alexander, and found that the city of Epist. vi. (5) 136.
1157 a.d.
Purg. xviii. 119-120. Epist. vi. (5) 135, 136. Milan had rebelled against him, he laid siege thereto, and, after long siege, he took it, in the year of Christ 1157, in the month of March, and destroyed the walls thereof and burnt all the city, and caused the ground to be ploughed and sown with salt; and the bodies of the Three Kings or Magi which came to adore Christ by the guiding of the star, which were in the city of Milan, in three tombs hewn out of porphyry, he caused to be taken from Milan and sent to Cologne, whence all the Lombards were very wrathful. And afterwards, crossing the mountains to destroy the realm of France, with the aid of the king of Bohemia and the king of Dacia—that is, Denmark—he entered into Burgundy; but King Louis of France, with the aid of Henry, king of England, his son-in-law, and with many lords and barons, was ready to oppose him, so that by the grace of God he had no power, nor gained any land there, but through lack of victuals those kings returned to their own countries and Frederick to Italy. And he made war against the Romans, forasmuch as they had come over to the side of the Church and of Pope Alexander; and when the said Romans with their host were in the region of Tusculum, they were defeated by the chancellor of the said Frederick and his German troops in the place called Monte del Porco, and many Romans were taken and slain in such great numbers that cartloads of dead bodies were taken to Rome to be buried, and this defeat is said to have been by reason of the treachery of the Colonnas, which were always with the Emperor and against the Church; wherefore they were by the Pope deprived of all temporal and spiritual benefit; and because of the said defeat the Romans drove the Colonnas away from Rome, and destroyed an ancient and very beautiful fortress pertaining to them, which was called La Gosta, which is said to have been built by Cæsar Augustus, and this was in the year of Christ 1167. 1167 a.d. And after this the Emperor came to Rome to besiege it and to destroy it, and brought it into great straits. The Romans caused the clergy of Rome to take the heads of St. Peter and of St. Paul and to carry them in procession all through Rome, for the which thing the Romans all took the cross against the Emperor, and the first which took it was M. Matteo Rosso the Elder, of the Orsini family, grandfather to Pope Cf. Inf. xix. 70. Nicholas III., and by reason of old age he had abandoned arms, and taken the habit of a penitent; and for this cause he put off the said habit and took his arms again, for which he was much commended, and by reason of this he and his came into favour with the Church, and increased greatly. After the said M. Matteo, Gianni Buovo, a great citizen of Rome, took the cross, and afterwards all the others with great zeal and desire; for the which thing, when the Emperor heard thereof, either through fear, or rather through a miracle of the blessed Apostles, straightway he departed from the siege of Rome with his followers, and returned to Viterbo, and the city of Rome was set free.
§ 2.—How Pope Alexander returned from France to Venice, and the Emperor returned to obedience.
Then, after the said Pope Alexander had been long time in France, by the aid of the kings of France and of England he returned with his court into Italy by sea, and, landing in Sicily, he was devoutly received and favoured by King William, which then was king thereof, and which declared himself faithful to Holy Church, and that he held the island from him; for the which thing the said Pope confirmed him king of Sicily, and gave him Apulia, wherefore the said King William with his fleet bore him company by sea as far as the city of Venice, whither the Pope desired to go for more security, that the Emperor Frederick might not hurt him; and to show favour to the faithful believers in Holy Church in Lombardy, he sojourned in the said city of Venice, and by the Venetians was reverently received and honoured; and by his favour the Milanese rebuilt the city of Milan in the year of 1168 a.d. Christ 1168. Then, a little while after, the Milanese, with the aid of Piacenza and Cremona, and of the other cities of Lombardy which obeyed Holy Church, built a city in Lombardy, to be a rampart and defence against the city of Pavia, which always was against Milan, and held with the Empire; and since this city was built, to the honour of the said Pope Alexander, and to the end it might be more famous, they called it Alessandria; and afterwards it was surnamed City della Paglia [of Straw], in contempt, by the Pavians; and at the prayer of the Lombards the Pope gave it a bishop, and deposed the bishop of Pavia, and took away from him the dignity of the Pallium and of the Cross, forasmuch as he had always held with the Emperor Frederick against the Church.
§ 3.—How the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was reconciled with the Church, and went over seas, and there died.
The Emperor Frederick, seeing himself much cast down from his state and sovereignty, and that many cities of Lombardy and of Tuscany were rebelling against him and holding with the Church and with Pope Alexander, which had greatly increased in estate by the favour of the kings of France and of England, and of William, king of Sicily, sought to reconcile himself with the Church and with the Pope, to the end he might not wholly lose the honour of the Empire, and he sent a solemn embassy to Venice to Pope Alexander to ask for peace, promising to make all amends to Holy Church, and the Pope graciously hearkened to him, wherefore the said Frederick went to Venice and threw himself at the feet of the said Pope, and asked for mercy. Then the said Pope set his foot upon his neck, and said the verse of the psalter: "Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis, et conculcabis leonem et draconem" [Ps. xci. 13]; and the Emperor answered, "Non tibi sed Petro" [Not to you, but to Peter, was it said], and the Pope answered, "Ego sum vicarius Petri" [I am in the place of Peter]; and then he forgave him every offence which he had committed against Holy Church, causing him to restore that which he held from Holy Church; and this he promised and did, under compact that whatsoever should be found held in possession by the Church on that day throughout the Kingdom, should pertain for ever to Holy Church; and it was found that Benivento was so held; and this was the cause why the Church holds as hers the city of Benivento. And this done, he reconciled him with the Romans, and with Manuel, emperor of Constantinople, and with William, king of Sicily, and with the Lombards; and as amends and penance he imposed upon him, and he promised, to go over seas to the succour of the Holy Land, forasmuch as Saladin, the soldan of Babylon, had retaken Inf. iv. 129. Jerusalem and many other fortresses held by the Christians; and this he did. Then the said Frederick, having taken the cross in the year of 1188 a.d. Christ 1188, departed from Germany with an immense host, and went by land through Hungary to Constantinople as far as Armenia [Pisidia]; but when the said Frederick was come into Armenia, it being summer and very hot, as he was bathing for his solace in a little river called the river of Ferro [Iron], he was miserably drowned. And this, it is believed, was the judgment of God by reason of the many persecutions which he had brought upon Holy Church: and he left a son, which was named Henry, whom he had caused to be elected king of the Romans before he passed over seas in the year of Christ 1186; and when the said Frederick was dead, his wife, with her son and with their followers, albeit many of them died on this voyage, returned from Syria to the West without having gained anything. We will now return to our subject of the doings of Florence and of other things which were in the time when the said Frederick was reigning; but first we will tell of King Philip of France and of King Richard of England, which went over seas to the succour of the Holy Land in this same time.