DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0237
ITALIAN COMMUNES.
221
of the clergy; taught that the supreme Pontiff was but
the “ Bishop ” superior of the clergy, and that the latter
possessed no divine right to superior sanctity over the
laity.
In those days, when books could hardly be said to
exist in any practical sense, all who would now be the
readers of a man’s works were then his “ hearers,” and
flocks gathered round a favourite teacher from all parts
of Europe ; it can readily be understood how fanatical
was the idolatry he inspired, more especially when he
was in his own person an example of self-denying and
lofty virtue. Nor can we blame the mistakes into which
an ardent and generous but inexperienced generation fell,
when we have seen so many attempts in after times fail,
by enthusiasts more enlightened, to restore to Rome her
former grandeur, and her former place amongst nations.
Innocent II., disheartened and dismayed at finding
Rome eluding his authority (and, instead, eagerly seeking
the counsels of Arnaldo), addressed letters of prayer for
assistance to the German Emperor. The head of the
Senate appealed in like manner to Caesar, and called for
the presence of the Emperor in Rome, “ to revive the
splendours of the state, once of Justinian and Constantine,
whilst the Senate and the Roman people were now also
to govern.”
The Pope demanded aid from the Republican party
(established 24th September, 1143). Neither of these
appeals received an answer, and Innocent II., unable to
stem the adverse current of the day, died broken-hearted.
Lucius II., his successor, perished of a wound received
in the assault of the capital; Eugenius III. was forced to
flee from Rome, and for nearly ten successive years the
person of the Pontiff was so little respected by his own
subjects that the head of the Church and the nominal
chief of the Italian leagued cities was in perpetual
danger of death, or of insult, when the change of
sovereigns in Germany opened a new era to both Italy
and to the Papacy.
In Germany the Emperor Conrad expired in the year
221
of the clergy; taught that the supreme Pontiff was but
the “ Bishop ” superior of the clergy, and that the latter
possessed no divine right to superior sanctity over the
laity.
In those days, when books could hardly be said to
exist in any practical sense, all who would now be the
readers of a man’s works were then his “ hearers,” and
flocks gathered round a favourite teacher from all parts
of Europe ; it can readily be understood how fanatical
was the idolatry he inspired, more especially when he
was in his own person an example of self-denying and
lofty virtue. Nor can we blame the mistakes into which
an ardent and generous but inexperienced generation fell,
when we have seen so many attempts in after times fail,
by enthusiasts more enlightened, to restore to Rome her
former grandeur, and her former place amongst nations.
Innocent II., disheartened and dismayed at finding
Rome eluding his authority (and, instead, eagerly seeking
the counsels of Arnaldo), addressed letters of prayer for
assistance to the German Emperor. The head of the
Senate appealed in like manner to Caesar, and called for
the presence of the Emperor in Rome, “ to revive the
splendours of the state, once of Justinian and Constantine,
whilst the Senate and the Roman people were now also
to govern.”
The Pope demanded aid from the Republican party
(established 24th September, 1143). Neither of these
appeals received an answer, and Innocent II., unable to
stem the adverse current of the day, died broken-hearted.
Lucius II., his successor, perished of a wound received
in the assault of the capital; Eugenius III. was forced to
flee from Rome, and for nearly ten successive years the
person of the Pontiff was so little respected by his own
subjects that the head of the Church and the nominal
chief of the Italian leagued cities was in perpetual
danger of death, or of insult, when the change of
sovereigns in Germany opened a new era to both Italy
and to the Papacy.
In Germany the Emperor Conrad expired in the year