Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
§ 96.14. =The Times of Frederick I. and Henry VI.,
A.D. 1152-1190.=--The nephew and successor of Conrad III.,
=Frederick I. Barbarossa=, A.D. 1152-1190, began his reign with
the firm determination to realize fully the ideas of Charlemagne
(§ 82, 3) by his pope Paschalis III., whom at a later period,
in A.D. 1165, he had canonized. With profound contempt at heart
for the Roman democracy of his time, he concluded a compact
in A.D. 1153 with the papal see, which confirmed him in the
possession of the imperial crown and gave to the pope the
_Dominium temporale_ in the Church States. After the death
of Eugenius which soon followed, the aged =Anastasius IV.=
occupied the papal chair for a year and a half, a time of peace
and progress. He was succeeded by the powerful =Hadrian IV.=,
A.D. 1154-1159. He was an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear, son
of a poor English priest, the first and, down to the present
time, the only one of that nation who attained the papal dignity.
He pronounced an interdict upon the Romans who had refused him
entrance into the inner part of the city and had treacherously
slain a cardinal. Rome endured this spiritual famine only for
a few weeks, and then purchased deliverance by the expulsion of
Arnold of Brescia, who soon thereafter fell into the hands of a
cardinal. He was indeed again rescued by force, but Frederick I.,
who had meanwhile in A.D. 1154 begun his first journey to
Rome, and on his way thither had humbled the proud Lombard
cities struggling for freedom, urged by the pope, insisted
that he should be surrendered up again, and subsequently gave
him over to the Roman city prefect, who, in A.D. 1155, without
trial or show of justice condemned him to be burnt and had
his ashes strewn upon the Tiber. In the camp at Sutri the pope
personally greeted the king who, after refusing for several days,
at length agreed to show him the customary honour of holding
his stirrup, doing it however with a very bad grace. Soon too
the senatorial ambassadors of the Roman people, who indulged in
bombastic, turgid declamation, presented themselves professing
their readiness on consideration of a solemn undertaking to
protect the Roman republic, and on payment of five thousand
pounds, to proclaim the German king from the Capitol Roman
emperor and ruler of the world. With a furious burst of anger
Frederick silenced them, and with scathing words showed them
how the witness of history pointed the contrast between their
miserable condition and the glory and dignity of the German name.
Yet on the day of the coronation, which they were not able to
prevent, the Romans took revenge for the insults he had heaped
upon them by an attack upon the papal residence in the castle
of Leo, and upon the imperial camp in front of the city, but
were repelled with sore loss. Soon thereafter, in A.D. 1155, the
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