[320] 'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non fuit adeo punitum.'
[321] There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. Heineccius, De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum sigillis), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of Pope Innocent III.
The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is one which mediæval writers are very fond of. It seems to have originated with Gregory VII.
[322] Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can rightfully demand.
[323] Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: τὸν δὲ φάναι, ὡς οὐχ ἑκὼν τάδε ἐπιχειρεῖ, ἀλλά τις συνεχῶς ἐνοχλῶν αὐτὸν βιάζεται, καὶ ἐπιτάττει τὴν Ῥώμην πορθεῖν.
[324] See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz, M. G. H., iv., evidently compiled soon after his death.
[325] Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in Rome:—'In præsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... præsentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt reliquiæ quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero domitum miror. Vale.'
[326] The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new character is one which mediæval writers delight to illustrate. In [Appendix, Note D], there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), written in the beginning of the twelfth century.
[327] In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear.
[328] Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans.