DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0422
406
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
been promoted to the office of Vice-Chancellor at Rome.
He was deep in the confidence of Honorius III. and of
Gregory IX.; he had been a friend and almost a favourite
of Frederick, consequently he was well acquainted with
every most effectual device to destroy him; he had already
convoked the Roman Catholic world by encyclical letters,1
to discuss amply the affairs of Europe, and of the Church,
which were at tha^ time in a deplorable condition.
Throughout Europe it was well understood that the
real object of this Council was the ruin of the great
Emperor ; and the clergy throughout all lands had orders
to repeat anew the sentence of excommunication. A
French curate, puzzled in his conscience, pronounced the
following pithy discourse on ascending his pulpit :—
“ Brethren, I have been commanded to excommunicate
the Emperor Frederick; but though I am acquainted with
the existence of an implacable hatred between the latter
and the Pope, I am truly ignorant of the cause of the
same. Certes, however, one of the two must be in fault!
But which is it of the two ? God only knows. In this
case, however, as far as I am concerned, I excommunicate
the culprit, and I absolve the victim of an injustice which
acts prejudicially on the whole of Christianity.” 2 This
speech made a great noise, and the curate was severely
punished by the Pope.
The reasons alleged by the latter for convoking this
General Council were, “To spare the Holy Land from the
attacks of the Karismeni, and to avert its complete ruin;
to drive away the Tartars, and other persecutors of the
Faith ; to succour Constantinople, and to settle the dis-
putes between the Holy See and Prince Frederick.”
No direct intimation was given to the Emperor of the
convocation of this Council, under the pretext that his
perverse machinations rendered all direct intercourse with
him impossible.
1 Laporte du Theil. Lettres des Papes, L. xix. Annales Eccles.,
1245.
2 Matthew Paris, 1245, p. 442. Sainte Foix says this spirited curate
was of St. Germain 1’Auxerrois.
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
been promoted to the office of Vice-Chancellor at Rome.
He was deep in the confidence of Honorius III. and of
Gregory IX.; he had been a friend and almost a favourite
of Frederick, consequently he was well acquainted with
every most effectual device to destroy him; he had already
convoked the Roman Catholic world by encyclical letters,1
to discuss amply the affairs of Europe, and of the Church,
which were at tha^ time in a deplorable condition.
Throughout Europe it was well understood that the
real object of this Council was the ruin of the great
Emperor ; and the clergy throughout all lands had orders
to repeat anew the sentence of excommunication. A
French curate, puzzled in his conscience, pronounced the
following pithy discourse on ascending his pulpit :—
“ Brethren, I have been commanded to excommunicate
the Emperor Frederick; but though I am acquainted with
the existence of an implacable hatred between the latter
and the Pope, I am truly ignorant of the cause of the
same. Certes, however, one of the two must be in fault!
But which is it of the two ? God only knows. In this
case, however, as far as I am concerned, I excommunicate
the culprit, and I absolve the victim of an injustice which
acts prejudicially on the whole of Christianity.” 2 This
speech made a great noise, and the curate was severely
punished by the Pope.
The reasons alleged by the latter for convoking this
General Council were, “To spare the Holy Land from the
attacks of the Karismeni, and to avert its complete ruin;
to drive away the Tartars, and other persecutors of the
Faith ; to succour Constantinople, and to settle the dis-
putes between the Holy See and Prince Frederick.”
No direct intimation was given to the Emperor of the
convocation of this Council, under the pretext that his
perverse machinations rendered all direct intercourse with
him impossible.
1 Laporte du Theil. Lettres des Papes, L. xix. Annales Eccles.,
1245.
2 Matthew Paris, 1245, p. 442. Sainte Foix says this spirited curate
was of St. Germain 1’Auxerrois.