DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0411
TRIUMPH OF THE TIARA.
395
Imperial Vicar, and entrusted with the charge of keeping
the Alpine passes, and of “ arresting ecclesiastics ” that
might seek to cross the Alps. He refused safe conduct
to French and English prelates who might wish to pass
through Italy, and took every means to declare that the
pretended council was but a fresh stratagem of Gregory
to move fresh treasons and intrigues against him, by
tampering with the interests and consciences of the
clergy of Europe.
To defeat these tyrannical edicts of Frederick, the
Pope chartered galleys from the Genoese, by the able
negotiation of Gregorio “ di Romania.” These ships were
engaged to embark the prelates who had gathered at
Nice, and to conduct them to the mouth of the Tiber ;
they were also to reconduct them back after the council
was dismissed.
This- negotiation, and the gathering of the great
primates of France and England and their trains, besides
innumerable other prelates of high rank, at Nice and
Genoa could not long be concealed from so vigilant an
enemy as Frederick ; he was also then in high spirits,
as the great Cardinal Giovanni Colonna (offended at some
slight, real or fancied, shown him at the Vatican) joined
the Imperial cause with all his mighty following. Frede-,
rick had ordered a fleet of twenty-seven galleys, com-
manded by Anselmo da Mari (having also the young
Enzio on board) to cruise in the Italian waters, for the
purpose of intercepting the Genoese fleet.
The war subsisting between Genoa and the League and
Frederick made a naval action fall perfectly within the
rules of all warfare; but to secure himself against what
he hoped would be the issue of this sea-fight, he sent to
the prelates offering them “safe conducts to Rome, if they
would first of all visit his Court, and hear, from his own
lips, his provocations and reasons for being at war with
Rome.”
The prelates unanimously declined to confer with an
excommunicated man, whom they mistrusted in every
way. But they found themselves thus between two
395
Imperial Vicar, and entrusted with the charge of keeping
the Alpine passes, and of “ arresting ecclesiastics ” that
might seek to cross the Alps. He refused safe conduct
to French and English prelates who might wish to pass
through Italy, and took every means to declare that the
pretended council was but a fresh stratagem of Gregory
to move fresh treasons and intrigues against him, by
tampering with the interests and consciences of the
clergy of Europe.
To defeat these tyrannical edicts of Frederick, the
Pope chartered galleys from the Genoese, by the able
negotiation of Gregorio “ di Romania.” These ships were
engaged to embark the prelates who had gathered at
Nice, and to conduct them to the mouth of the Tiber ;
they were also to reconduct them back after the council
was dismissed.
This- negotiation, and the gathering of the great
primates of France and England and their trains, besides
innumerable other prelates of high rank, at Nice and
Genoa could not long be concealed from so vigilant an
enemy as Frederick ; he was also then in high spirits,
as the great Cardinal Giovanni Colonna (offended at some
slight, real or fancied, shown him at the Vatican) joined
the Imperial cause with all his mighty following. Frede-,
rick had ordered a fleet of twenty-seven galleys, com-
manded by Anselmo da Mari (having also the young
Enzio on board) to cruise in the Italian waters, for the
purpose of intercepting the Genoese fleet.
The war subsisting between Genoa and the League and
Frederick made a naval action fall perfectly within the
rules of all warfare; but to secure himself against what
he hoped would be the issue of this sea-fight, he sent to
the prelates offering them “safe conducts to Rome, if they
would first of all visit his Court, and hear, from his own
lips, his provocations and reasons for being at war with
Rome.”
The prelates unanimously declined to confer with an
excommunicated man, whom they mistrusted in every
way. But they found themselves thus between two