“I, per− “forming full allegiance and vassalage to the church, “for the kingdom of Sicily, and for all the territory “on this side the Pharos of Messina, to the fron− “tiers of the ecclesiastical state, now and hence− “forward promise to be faithful and obedient to St. “Peter, to the pope my supreme liege, and to his “successors canonically elected; I shall form no “alliance contrary to their interests; and, if from “ignorance I shall be unfortunate enough to form “such, I shall renounce it on the first order which “they may be disposed to signify to me. ²⁴⁸ Velly’s Hist, of France, vol. v. p. 326—345. It was in order to obtain so precarious a crown, to usurp a throne so degraded, that Charles of Anjou entered Sicily, animated by his presence the Guelphic faction, and set it at variance, from the Alps to Mount Etna, with that of the Ghibelines. The latter attached itself more than ever to Manfred, who, after some success, fell and perished at the battle of Beneventum. The young Conradine, until now eclipsed by Manfred, and detained by his mother in Germany, at length appeared: everywhere the Ghibelines received him, and strenuously supported him against the arms of Charles, and the anathemas of Clement; but, defeated at the plain of Tagliaoozzo, he fell into the hands of his rival. Charles was ungenerous enough to deliver his disarmed enemy into the hands of corrupt judges: distrust and revenge borrowed juridical forms; Conradine, at the age of eighteen, was decapitated at Naples, the 26th October, 1258; and the most faithful defenders of his indisputable rights shared his fate. The Ghibelines were proscribed through all Italy; rivers of blood bathed the steps of the subaltern throne, in which Charles went to seat himself at a pontiff’s feet. Some writers assert that Clement disapproved of the murder of the young prince; others accuse him of having advised it, and of having said, that the saving of Conradine, would be the ruin of Charles; that the safety of Charles exacted the death of Conradine²⁴⁸ However it was, the Holy See triumphed by the extinction of the house of Swabia. ²⁴⁹ Vita Corradini, mors Caroli; mors Corradini, vita Caroli. Giannone, Istoria di Napoli. 19, c. 4. Full of the idea of his power²⁴⁹ Clement decided, that all ecclesiastical benefices were at the disposal of the pope; that he could confer them whether vacant or not vacant, giving them in the latter case in reversion, or as they term it in expectancy. Such audacity astonished Louis, and the indignation he conceived at it dictated an ordinance, known by the name of ‘the pragmatic sanction’ of which the following is a summary: “The prelates, patrons, and collators to benefices, “shall fully enjoy their privileges. “The cathedral and other churches of the king− “dom shall make their elections freely. “The crime of simony shall be banished the “kingdom.