DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0251
FREDERICK I.
235
notice, he commanded two judges from every commune
in Italy to attend the assembly; the chief jurists in
Italy, and, in particular, four of the greatest legists of
the celebrated University of Bologna, were charged with
a compilation of the Imperial prerogatives, including
many which had fallen into disuse for a century.
Since the discovery of a copy of the Pandects of Jus-
tinian,1 a rapturous admiration and revival of the pres-
tige exercised over the mind of the populations of old by
the prerogatives of the great Roman Empire had been
renewed: it had become the fashion to compare the great-
ness of the German Emperors to the Caesars of old, to
whom the mastery of the world was attributed. And
Frederick, intoxicated with success, persuaded himself
(as many other mortals have since done) that the supre-
macy of the world was really reserved for him. We are
told by Otton Morena2 (an historian of the time) that,
during a ride with two celebrated legists of Bologna,
Frederick, addressing them, demanded if they really con-
sidered him to be the “ rightful owner of the earth ? ”
“Not as regards its real and actual property,” timidly
answered one. “ Yes, in regard even to its real and
actual property,” more adroitly replied the other ; and,
on his return home, his complaisance was rewarded by
a gift of the horse he had been mounted on.
The Emperor opened the Diet of Roncaglia with an
oration in German, as he was but imperfectly acquainted
with Latin and Italian ; and made the customary formal
professions of intending to reign “ with justice and
humanity, and to respect the liberties of the communes,
so far as they did not trench upon Imperial preroga-
tives; ” then, after a semblance of deliberation amongst
the Italian clergy and delegates, the following terms were
agreed on:—
The Italians surrendered, under the title of “Regalia,”
1 This copy of the Pandects, now in the Laurentian Library at
Florence, was discovered at Amalfi, by the Pisans, in the year 1137, a
little more than twenty years before the Diet of Roncaglia, and Bologna
instantly adopted the enthusiastic study of them.
1 Otton. Morena. Hist., p. 1018.
235
notice, he commanded two judges from every commune
in Italy to attend the assembly; the chief jurists in
Italy, and, in particular, four of the greatest legists of
the celebrated University of Bologna, were charged with
a compilation of the Imperial prerogatives, including
many which had fallen into disuse for a century.
Since the discovery of a copy of the Pandects of Jus-
tinian,1 a rapturous admiration and revival of the pres-
tige exercised over the mind of the populations of old by
the prerogatives of the great Roman Empire had been
renewed: it had become the fashion to compare the great-
ness of the German Emperors to the Caesars of old, to
whom the mastery of the world was attributed. And
Frederick, intoxicated with success, persuaded himself
(as many other mortals have since done) that the supre-
macy of the world was really reserved for him. We are
told by Otton Morena2 (an historian of the time) that,
during a ride with two celebrated legists of Bologna,
Frederick, addressing them, demanded if they really con-
sidered him to be the “ rightful owner of the earth ? ”
“Not as regards its real and actual property,” timidly
answered one. “ Yes, in regard even to its real and
actual property,” more adroitly replied the other ; and,
on his return home, his complaisance was rewarded by
a gift of the horse he had been mounted on.
The Emperor opened the Diet of Roncaglia with an
oration in German, as he was but imperfectly acquainted
with Latin and Italian ; and made the customary formal
professions of intending to reign “ with justice and
humanity, and to respect the liberties of the communes,
so far as they did not trench upon Imperial preroga-
tives; ” then, after a semblance of deliberation amongst
the Italian clergy and delegates, the following terms were
agreed on:—
The Italians surrendered, under the title of “Regalia,”
1 This copy of the Pandects, now in the Laurentian Library at
Florence, was discovered at Amalfi, by the Pisans, in the year 1137, a
little more than twenty years before the Diet of Roncaglia, and Bologna
instantly adopted the enthusiastic study of them.
1 Otton. Morena. Hist., p. 1018.