“I am igno− “rant my very dear brethren, of the motives of this “anathema, I only know, that there exists between “the pope and the emperor great differences, and an “implacable hatred; which of them is right I can− “not inform you: but I excommunicate as far as “in me lies, him who is wrong, and I absolve him “who is aggrieved in his privileges.” This is the most sensible sermon which, to our knowledge, has been preached in the 17th century. St. Louis, who censured more loudly than the curate the deposition of Frederick, went to Cluni, and drew the pope there also, whom he would not suffer to enter farther into the kingdom. Their first conferences remain secret; and all that can be said of them is, that the obstinate pontiff was deaf to the pacific counsel of the sainted king. But history²⁴⁰ has handed down to us a little more of the details of a second interview, which took place the following year, at Cluni also, between Innocent and Louis.: “The Holy− “land is in danger, said the king; and no hope ex− “ists of delivering it without the help of the emperor “who holds so many ports, isles, and coasts under “his authority. Most Holy Father, accept his “promises, I beseech you in my own name, and “in the name of the thousands of faithful pil− “grims, in the name of the universal church: “open the arms to him who seeks for mercy: “it is the gospel which commands you to do “so; imitate the goodness of him whose vicar you “are.” The pope ‘bridling up,’ says Fleury,²⁴¹ persisted in his refusal. Thus these two personages, we may say, exchanged their provinces; it was the monarch who assumed the charitable language of the gospel, it was the priest who preserved the inflexible attitude of presumptuous power. At the same period, we behold a sultan of Egypt, Melie-Saleh, giving lessons of probity to the successor of St. Peter. Pressed by Innocent IV. to abandon, contrary to the faith of treaties, the interests of Frederick, Melie-Saleh replied: “Your envoy has spoken to us about Jesus “Christ, with whom we are better acquainted than “you are, and whom we more worthily honour.— “You pretend that peace between all nations is the “object of your desires; we do not desire it less “than you. But there exists between us and the “emperor of the West, an alliance, a reciprocal “friendship, which commenced with the reign of the “sultan our father, whom may God receive to glory: “we shall therefore, conclude no treaty unknown to “Frederick, or contrary to his interests.” ²⁴¹ Matt. Paris, p. 697. Velly’s Hist, of France, vol. iv. p. 469.—La Chaise’s Hist, of St Louis, p. 449. ²⁴² Hist. Eccles. 1. 83. n. 40.