In the said year of Christ 1184, the Emperor Frederick I., as he went from Lombardy into Apulia, passed through our city of Florence on the 31st day of July in the said year, and abode there some days; and receiving a complaint from the nobles of the country that the commonwealth of Florence had taken by force and occupied many of their castles and strongholds against the honour of the Empire, he took from the commonwealth of Florence all the whole territory and the lordship thereof up to the walls, and in the territory he set vicars of his own throughout the villages to administer the law and execute justice; and he did the like to all the other cities of Tuscany which had held with the Church when he was at war with Pope Alexander, save that he did not take the territory from the cities of Pisa and of Pistoia, which held with him. And in this year the said Frederick besieged the city of Siena, but did not take it. And these things he did to the said cities of Tuscany, forasmuch as they had not been on his side; so that, albeit he was at peace with the Church and had cried the said Pope mercy, as afore has been narrated, nevertheless, he did not cease from manifesting ill-will against the cities which had obeyed the Church; and thus the city of Florence was left without any territory for four years, until the said Frederick set forth on his voyage over seas, when he was drowned, as afore we have narrated.
§ 13.—How the Florentines took the cross, and went over seas to conquer Damietta, and therefore recovered their territory.
1188 a.d.
In the year of Christ 1188, all Christendom being moved to go to the succour of the Holy Land, there came to Florence the archbishop of Ravenna, the Pope's Legate, to preach the cross for the said expedition; and many good people of Florence took the cross from the said archbishop at S. Donato tra le Torri, or at S. Donato a Torri, beyond Rifredi, or the Monastery delle Donne, forasmuch as the said archbishop was of the Order of Citeaux [the Cistercian Order]; and this was on the 2nd day of the month of February in the said year, and the Florentines were in such great numbers that they made up an army in themselves over seas, and they were at the conquest of the city of Damietta, and among the first which took the city, and for an ensign they brought back thence a crimson standard which is still in the church of S. Giovanni; and because of the said devotion and aid given by the Florentines to Holy Church and to Christendom, the jurisdiction over the territory around was restored to the city of Florence by Pope Gregory and by the said Emperor Frederick, to the distance of ten miles around the city of Florence.
§ 14.—How the Florentines got the arm of the blessed apostle S. 1188 a.d. Philip. § 15.—How the Pope brought the Pisans and the Genoese to peace, thereby to strengthen the expedition over seas.
§ 16.—How Henry of Suabia was made Emperor by the Church, and how Constance, queen of Sicily, was given him to wife.
Henry of Suabia, son of the great Frederick, as we said before, whilst his father was alive, had been elected king of the Romans; and when he returned from over seas, and had ordered his government in Germany, he passed into Italy and came to Rome at the request of Pope Clement, and was received with honour by the Romans, forasmuch as he restored to them the city of Tusculum and its territory, which had rebelled against the Romans; which city was all destroyed and laid waste by the Romans, and was never afterwards rebuilt. And when the said Henry was come to Rome he found that the said Pope Clement was dead, which had sent for him; and Pope Celestine, a native of Rome, had been elected by the cardinals, so that the said Henry was present at his consecration, which took place on Easter Day of the Resurrection, in April, in the year of Christ 1192; and he lived as Pope six years and 1192 a.d. eight months and eleven days. And when Celestine had become Pope, on the second day after his consecration, he crowned the said Henry emperor. And before the said Henry departed from Germany, the Church was at variance with Tancred, king of Sicily and of Apulia (son to the other Tancred, which was sister's son to Robert Guiscard, as we made mention in the chapter wherein we treated of the said Robert), by reason that he did not, as he should, faithfully pay tribute to the Church, and that he presented bishops and archbishops to benefices at his pleasure to the shame of the Pope and of the Church; wherefore the said Pope Clement treated with the archbishop of Palermo to take away the kingdom of Sicily and Apulia from the said Tancred, and gave order to the said archbishop that Constance, sister of King William and rightful heiress of the realm of Sicily, which was a nun in Palermo, as we afore made mention, and was already more than fifty years old, should leave the convent, and he gave her dispensation that she might return to the world and enter into matrimony; and the said archbishop caused her secretly to depart from Sicily and come to Rome, and the Church gave her to wife to the said Emperor Henry, whence a little Par. iii. 109-120. while after was born the Emperor Frederick II., which brought such persecutions upon the Church, as we will tell hereafter in treating of him. And it was not without Divine occasioning and judgment that such a baneful heir must needs be the issue, being born of a holy nun, and she more than fifty-two years old, when it is almost impossible for a woman to bear a child; so that he was born of two contradictions—against spiritual laws, and, in a sense, against natural laws. And we find, when the Empress Constance was pregnant with Frederick, there was doubt in Sicily and throughout all the realm of Apulia whether, by reason of her advanced age, she could be pregnant; for the which thing, when the time came for her to be delivered, a pavilion was erected on the piazza at Palermo, and a proclamation was put forth that any lady who desired might go and see her, and many went thither and saw her, and therefore the doubt came to an end.
§ 17.—How the Emperor Henry conquered the kingdom of Apulia. 1196 a.d.
1200 a.d.
1203 a.d.
1192 a.d.
1197 a.d.
1198 a.d. § 18.—How the Emperor Henry rebelled against the Church, and persecuted it, and how he died. § 19.—How Otho IV. of Saxony was elected Emperor. § 20.—How the whole orb of the sun was eclipsed. § 21.—How they of Samminiato destroyed their whole city by their discords. § 22.—How the Florentines bought Montegrossoli. § 23.—How Innocent III. was made Pope.
§ 24.—How the Order of the Minor Friars began.
In the time of the said Pope Innocent began the holy Order of the Minor Friars, the founder whereof was the blessed Francis, born in the Par. xi. 43-117. city of Assisi in the Duchy, and by this Pope the said Order was accepted and approved with privilege, forasmuch as it was altogether founded on humility, and love, and poverty, following in all things the holy gospel of Christ, and shunning all human delights. And the said Pope saw in a vision S. Francis supporting the Church of the Lateran upon his shoulders, as he afterwards, after the same manner, beheld S. Dominic, the which vision was a figure and prophecy how by them should be supported Holy Church and the faith of Christ.