Villani's Chronicle Part 13

[Sidenote: 1234 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1235 A.D.]

-- 6.--_How the Sienese renewed the war with the Florentines on account of Montepulciano._ -- 7.--_Of a great miracle that came to pa.s.s in S.

Ambrogio in Florence, concerning the body of Christ._ -- 8.--_Yet again of the war of the Florentines with the Sienese._ -- 9.--_Of the conflagration in Florence._ -- 10.--_Yet again of the war with Siena._ -- 11.--_The same._ -- 12.--_Of the conflagration in Florence._ -- 13.--_How peace was made between the Florentines and the Sienese._

-- 14.--_How the Emperor Frederick came to enmity with the Church._

[Sidenote: 1220 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1226 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. De Vulg. El. i. 10: 50, 63. i. 11: 20. i. 13: 31. Par.

xi. 53.]

[Sidenote: 1230 A.D.]

After that Frederick II. was crowned by Pope Honorius, as we have aforesaid, in the beginning he was the friend of the Church, but a little time after, through his pride and avarice, he began to usurp the rights of the Church throughout all his Empire, and in the realm of Sicily and Apulia, appointing bishops and archbishops and other prelates, and driving away those sent by the Pope, and raising imposts and taxes from the clergy, doing shame to Holy Church; for the which thing by the said Pope Honorius, which had crowned him, he was cited, and admonished that he should leave to Holy Church her rights, and render the dues. But the Emperor perceived himself to be great in power and estate, alike through the force of the Germans and through that of the realm of Sicily, and that he was lord over sea and land, and was feared by all the rulers of Christendom, and also by the Saracens, and was b.u.t.tressed around by the sons which he had of his first wife, daughter of the landgrave of Germany, to wit Henry and Conrad, the which Henry he had caused to be crowned in Germany king of the Romans, and Conrad was duke of Suabia, and Frederick of Antioch, his first natural son, he made king, and Enzo, his natural son, was king of Sardinia, and Manfred prince of Taranto; wherefore he would not yield obedience to the Church, but rather was he obstinate, living after the fas.h.i.+on of the world, in all bodily delights. For the which thing by the said Pope Honorius he was excommunicated the year of Christ 1220, and did not for that reason cease from persecuting the Church, but so much the more usurped its rights, and so remained the enemy of the Church and of the Pope Honorius as long as he lived. The which Pope pa.s.sed from this life the year of Christ 1226, and after him was made Pope Gregory IX., born at Alagna in the Campagna, the which reigned as pope fourteen years; the which Pope Gregory had a great war with the Emperor Frederick, forasmuch as the Emperor would in no wise relinquish the rights and jurisdiction of Holy Church, but rather the more usurped them; and many churches of the kingdom he caused to be pulled down and deserted, laying heavy imposts upon the clergy and the churches; and whereas there were certain Saracens in the mountains of Trapali in Sicily, the Emperor, that he might be the more secure in the island, and might keep them at a distance from the Saracens of Barbary, and also to the end that by them he might keep in fear his subjects in Apulia, by wit and promises drew them from those mountains, and put them in Apulia in an ancient deserted city, which of old was in league with the Romans, and was destroyed by the Samnites, to wit by those of Benivento, the which city was then called Licera, and now is called Nocera, and they were more than 20,000 men-at-arms; and that city they rebuilt very strong; the which ofttimes overran the places of Apulia to lay them waste. And when the said Emperor Frederick was at war with the Church, he caused them to come into the duchy of Spoleto, and besieged at that time the city of a.s.sisi, and did great harm to Holy Church; for the which thing the said Pope Gregory confirmed against him the sentence given by Pope Honorius his predecessor, and again gave sentence of excommunication against him, the year of Christ 1230.

[Sidenote: 1233 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1234 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1236 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1237 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1239 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1240 A.D.]

-- 15.--_How peace was made between Pope Gregory and the Emperor Frederick._ -- 16.--_How the Church ordered a crusade over seas, whereof the Emperor Frederick was captain, and how, after the expedition had set forth, he turned back._ -- 17.--_How the Emperor Frederick pa.s.sed over seas, and made peace with the Soldan, and recovered Jerusalem, against the will of the Church._ -- 18.--_How the Emperor returned from over seas because the Kingdom had rebelled against him, and how he began war again with the Church._ -- 19.--_How the Emperor Frederick caused the Pisans to capture at sea the prelates of the Church which were coming to the council._ -- 20.--_How the Milanese were discomfited by the Emperor._ -- 21.--_How the Emperor Frederick besieged and took the city of Faenza._

-- 22.--_How the Emperor laid hold of King Henry, his son._

[Sidenote: Purg. iii. 121.]

[Sidenote: 1236 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 31-108.]

In these same times (albeit it had begun before) Henry Sciancato [the Lame], the first-born of the said Emperor Frederick, who had had him chosen king of the Romans by the electors of Germany as aforesaid, perceiving that the Emperor his father was doing all he might against Holy Church, and feeling the same heavy upon his conscience, time and again reproved his father, for that he was doing ill; whereat the Emperor set himself against him, and neither loving him nor dealing with him as with a son, raised up false accusers who testified that the said Henry had it in his mind to rebel against him as concerning his Empire, at the request of the Church. On the which plea (were it true or false) he seized his said son, King Henry, and two sons of his, little lads, and sent them into Apulia, into prison severally; and there he put him to death by starvation in great torment, and afterward Manfred put his sons to death. The Emperor sent to Germany, and again had Conrad, his second son, elected king of the Romans in succession to himself; and this was the year of Christ 1236. Then after a certain time the Emperor put out the eyes of that wise man Master Piero dalle Vigne, the famous poet, accusing him of treason, but this came about through envy of his great estate. And thereon the said M. Piero soon suffered himself to die of grief in prison, and there were who said that he himself took away his own life.

-- 23.--_How the war began between Pope Innocent IV. and the Emperor Frederick._

[Sidenote: 1241 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. xix. 100-102.]

It came to pa.s.s afterwards, as it pleased G.o.d, that there was elected Pope Messer Ottobuono dal Fiesco, of the counts of Lavagna of Genoa, the which was cardinal, and was made Pope as being the greatest friend and confidant whom the Emperor Frederick had in Holy Church, to the end there might be peace between the Church and him; and he was called Pope Innocent IV., and this was the year of Christ 1241, and he reigned as Pope eleven years, and added to the Church many cardinals from divers countries of Christendom. And when he was elected Pope, the tidings were brought to the Emperor Frederick with great rejoicing, knowing that he was his great friend and protector. But the Emperor, when he heard it, was greatly disturbed, whence his barons marvelled much, and he said: "Marvel not; for this election will be of much hurt to us; for he was our friend when cardinal, and now he will be our enemy as Pope;" and so it came to pa.s.s, for when the said Pope was consecrated, he demanded back from the Emperor the lands and jurisdictions which he held of the Church, as to which request the Emperor held him some time in treaty as to an agreement, but all was vanity and deception. In the end, the said Pope seeing himself to have been led about by deceitful words, to the hurt and shame of himself and of Holy Church, became more an enemy of the Emperor Frederick than his predecessors had been; and seeing that the power of the Emperor was so great that he ruled tyrannously over almost the whole of Italy, and that the roads were all taken and guarded by his guards, so that none could come to the court of Rome without his will and license, the said Pope seeing himself in the said manner thus besieged, sent secret orders to his kinsfolk at Genoa, and caused twenty galleys to be armed, and straightway caused them to come to Rome, and thereupon embarked with all his cardinals and with all his court, and immediately caused himself to be conveyed to his city of Genoa without any opposition; and having tarried some time in Genoa, he came to Lyons on the Rhone, by the way of Provence; and this was the year of Christ 1241.

-- 24.--_Of the sentence which Pope Innocent p.r.o.nounced at the council of Lyons-on-Rhone, upon the Emperor Frederick._

[Sidenote: 1245 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 55-78.]

When Pope Innocent was at Lyons, he called a general council in the said place, and invited from throughout the whole world bishops and archbishops and other prelates, who all came thither; and there came to see him as far as the monastery of Crugni [Clugny] in Burgundy the good King Louis of France, and afterwards he came as far as to the council at Lyons, where he offered himself and his realm to the service of the said Pope and of Holy Church against the Emperor Frederick, and against all the enemies of Holy Church; and then he took the cross to go over seas. And when King Louis was gone the Pope enacted sundry things in the said council to the good of Christendom, and canonized sundry saints, as the Martinian Chronicle makes mention where it treats of him. And this done, the Pope summoned the said Frederick to the said council, as to a neutral place, to excuse himself of thirteen articles proved against him of things done against the faith of Christ, and against Holy Church; the which Emperor would not there appear, but sent thither his amba.s.sadors and representatives--the bishop of Freneborgo [Freiburg] in Germany, and Brother Hugh, master of the mansion of S. Mary of the Germans, and the wise clerk and master Piero dalle Vigne of the Kingdom, who, making excuses for the Emperor that he was not able to come by reason of sickness and suffering in his person, prayed the said Pope and his brethren to pardon him, and averred that he would cry the Pope mercy, and would restore that which he had seized of the Church; and they offered, if the Pope would pardon him, that he would bind himself so to frame it that within one year the soldan of the Saracens should render up to his command the Holy Land over seas. And the said Pope, hearing the endless excuses and vain offers of the Emperor, demanded of the said amba.s.sadors if they had an authentic mandate for this, whereon they produced a full authorization, under the golden seal of the said Emperor, to promise and undertake it all. And when the Pope had it in his hand, in full council, the said amba.s.sadors being present, he denounced Frederick on all the said thirteen criminal articles, and to confirm it said: "Judge, faithful Christians, whether Frederick betrays Holy Church and all Christendom or no: for according to his mandate he offers within one year to make the soldan restore the Holy Land, very clearly showing that the soldan holds it through him, to the shame of all Christians." And this said and declared, he caused the process against the said Emperor to be published; and condemned him and excommunicated him as a heretic and persecutor of Holy Church, laying to his charge many foul crimes proved against him; and he deprived him of the lords.h.i.+p of the Empire, and of the realm of Sicily, and of that of Jerusalem, absolving from all fealty and oaths all his barons and subjects, excommunicating whoever should obey him, or should give him aid or favour, or further should call him Emperor or king. And the said sentence was pa.s.sed at the said council at Lyons on the Rhone, the year of Christ 1245, the 17th of July. The princ.i.p.al causes why Frederick was condemned were four: first, forasmuch as when the Church invested him with the realm of Sicily and of Apulia, and afterwards with the Empire, he swore to the Church before his barons, and before the Emperor Baldwin of Constantinople, and before all the court of Rome, to defend Holy Church in all her honours and rights against all men, and to pay the rightful tribute, and to restore all the possessions and jurisdictions of Holy Church, of the which things he had done the contrary, and was perjured, and treacherous, and had vilely and wrongfully defamed Pope Gregory IX.

and his cardinals by his letters throughout the whole world. The second thing was, that he broke the peace made by him with the Church, not remembering the pardons granted to him by withdrawal of the excommunications, and with respect to all the misdeeds done by him against Holy Church; and in that peace he had sworn and promised never to injure those who had been with the Church against him; but he had done quite the contrary, seeing that he had scattered them all, either by death or by exile, them and their families, taking away their possessions, and had not restored either to the Templars or to the Hospitallers their mansions which he had occupied, the which by the articles of the peace he had promised to restore and give back; and by force he had kept vacant eleven archbishoprics, with many bishoprics and abbeys in the Empire and in the Kingdom, not suffering those who were duly elected by the Pope to hold or to till them; doing violence and extortions on sacred persons, constraining them to appear and plead before his bailiffs and secular lords. The third cause was the sacrilege he had done, when by the galleys of Pisa, and by his son King Enzo, he had taken the cardinals and many prelates at sea, as we afore told, and caused some to be drowned in the sea, and kept some dying in cruel and harsh prisons. The fourth cause was, because he was found and convicted in many articles of heresy in the faith; and certainly he was no Christian Catholic, living always more after his delight and pleasure than according to reason or just law; and in fellows.h.i.+p with the Saracens. Likewise he used the Church and her offices but little or not at all, and did no alms; so that not without great and evident causes he was deposed and condemned; and albeit he did much injury and persecution to Holy Church after that he was condemned, yet in a short time every honour and state and power and greatness G.o.d took from him, and showed him His wrath, as we shall make mention hereafter. And because many have made question, who was to blame in the quarrel, whether the Church or the Emperor, hearing his excuses in his letters, therefore to this I make answer and say, that manifestly not by one divine miracle but by many was it shown that the Emperor was to blame, as G.o.d showed by open and visible judgments in His wrath upon Frederick and his seed.

-- 25.--_How the Pope and the Church caused a new Emperor to be elected in place of Frederick, the deposed Emperor._

[Sidenote: 1245 A.D.]

The said Frederick being deposed and condemned, as has been afore said, the Pope sent word to the electors of Germany who elect the king of the Romans, that they should without delay make a new choice for the Empire; and this was done, for they elected William, count of Holland and landgrave, a valiant lord, to whom the Church gave her support, causing a great part of Germany to rebel, and gave indulgence and pardon as if they were going over seas, to whoever should be against the said Frederick; whence in Germany there was great war between the said elected King William of Holland and King Conrad, son of the said Frederick; but the war endured but a short time, for the said King William died, the year of Christ . . . and the said Conrad reigned in Germany, whom his father Frederick the Emperor had caused to be elected king, as we shall make mention. From this sentence Frederick appealed to the successor of Pope Innocent, and sent his letters and messengers throughout all Christendom, complaining of the said sentence, and setting forth how iniquitous it was, as appears by his epistle written by the said Messer Piero dalle Vigne, which begins, after the salutation: "Although we believe, that words of the already current tidings, etc." But considering the real facts as to the process, and as to the deeds of Frederick against the Church, and as to his dissolute and uncatholic life, he was guilty and deserving of the deposition, for the reasons set forth in the said process; and afterwards for the deeds done by the said Frederick after his deposition; for if before he was and had been cruel and persecuting to Holy Church and to the believers in Tuscany and in Lombardy, afterwards he was much more so, as long as he lived, as hereafter we shall make mention. We will now leave for a time the story of the doings of Frederick, and turn back to where we left off telling of the doings of Florence and of the other noteworthy events which came to pa.s.s in those days throughout the whole world; returning afterwards to the doings and to the end of the said Frederick and of his sons.

-- 26.--_We will tell an incident in the affairs of Florence._

[Sidenote: 1237 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. xii. 102.]

The year of Christ 1237, Messer Rubaconte da Mandello of Milan being Podesta of Florence, the new bridge was made in Florence, and he laid the first stone with his own hand, and threw the first trowelful of mortar, and from the name of the said Podesta the bridge was named Rubaconte. And during his government all the roads in Florence were paved; for before there was but little paving, save in certain particular places, master streets being paved with bricks; and through this convenience and work the city of Florence became more clean, and more beautiful, and more healthy.

[Sidenote: 1238 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1240 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1248 A.D.]

-- 27.--_How and when there was a total eclipse of the sun._ -- 28.--_Of the coming of the Tartars into the parts of Europe, as far as Germany._ -- 29.--_Of a great miracle of an earthquake in Burgundy._ -- 30.--_Of a great miracle that took place in Spain._ -- 31.--_How the town of Sanginiegio was rebuilt and then destroyed._ -- 32.--_How the Tartars routed the Turks._

-- 33.--_How the Guelf party was first driven from Florence by the Ghibellines and the forces of the Emperor Frederick._

[Sidenote: 1248 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Par. xvi. 109, 110.]

[Sidenote: 127.]