[Footnote 244: Xviii.] [Footnote 245: The _Deliberatio_, or essential part of the Bull, is given in Migne's "Register of Imperial Concerns," no. xxix. See also the decretal _Venerabilem Fratrem_, no. lxii.] [Footnote 246: Lxi.] [Footnote 247: See R. Schwemer, _Innocenz III. und die Deutsche Kirche während des Thronstreites von 1198-1208_ (1882), and E. Englemann, _Phillip von Schwaben und Innocenz III._ (1896).] [Footnote 248: _Ep._, viii., 7.] [Footnote 249: _Ep._, vi., 163.] [Footnote 250: See E. Gütschow, _Innocenz III. und England_ (1904).] [Footnote 251: X., 69.] [Footnote 252: Xi., 28.] [Footnote 253: Xi., 29.] [Footnote 254: Xi., 232.] CHAPTER X JOHN XXII.: THE COURT AT AVIGNON In maintaining that the power of the Papacy waned after the Pontificate of Innocent III., I do not mean that there was such visible decay as even the most acute contemporary observer might have detected. The thirteenth century must have seemed to the statesmen of the time to strengthen the Papacy. The Dominican and Franciscan friars, quickly recognized by Innocent's successors, impressed on Europe the duty of implicit obedience. The great canonists began to make an imposing body of law out of the decrees of the Popes. Art developed in close association with religious sentiment. The hereditary feud with the Hohenstauffens ended, fifty years after the death of Innocent, with the complete overthrow of the son and grandson of Frederic II. Yet most historians now recognize that the thirteenth century was, for the Papacy, a period of slow and subtle decay. The mighty struggle with Frederic, Manfred, and Conradin exhausted the high-minded, but not heroic, successors of Innocent, and it ended only when, by summoning Philip of Anjou, they substituted French for German predominance and inaugurated another exacting period of conflict. The alternative was a period of comparative impotence and flabby parasitism. Into this the Papacy passed; and, unfortunately for it, the degeneration occurred just when the eyes of Europe were growing sharper. It was the date of the early renaissance of culture, inspired by the Moors: it was a rich period of civic development and prosperity: it was the time when castes of keen-eyed lay lawyers and scholars were growing. Arms were yielding to togas in the work of restricting the growth of the Papacy.