§ 30. THE PEACE OF VENICE. 115
§ 30. The Peace of Venice. 1177.
The negotiations resulted in the Peace of Venice, which was embodied in twenty-eight articles.1 Alexander was acknowledged as legitimate pope. Calixtus, the anti-pope, was remanded to an abbey, while his cardinals were reduced to the positions they had occupied before their appointment to the curia. Beatrice was acknowledged as Frederick's legal wife, and his son Henry as king of the Romans. Rome and the patrimonium were restored to the pope, and Spoleto, the Romagna, and Ancona were recognized as a part of the empire.
The peace was ratified by one of the most solemn con gresses of the Middle Ages. Absolved from the ban, and after eighteen years of conflict, the emperor met the pope in front of St. Mark's, July 24, 1177. A vast multitude filled the public square. The pope in his pontifical dress sitting upon a throne in front of the portal of the cathedral must have had mingled with his feelings of satisfaction reminis cences of his painful fortunes since the time he was elected to the tiara. Cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other dig nitaries occupied lower seats according to their rank.
The emperor, on arriving in the magnificent gondola of the doge, with a train of prelates and nobles, was received by a procession of priests with banners and crosses, and the shouts of the people. He slowly proceeded to the cathedral. Overcome with feelings of reverence for the venerable pope, he cast off his mantle, bowed, and fell at his feet.2 Alex ander, in tears, raised him up,3 and gave him the kiss of
1 For the text see Mirbt, Quellen, 121-124. The chief authorities for the Peace of Venice are Alexander's Letters to Roger, archbishop of York, in Migne, 200, 1150 sqq. ; and Mansi, XXII. 180 sqq. ; the Chronicon of Romuald., archbishop of Salerno and commissioner from Sicily, in Muratori, Scrip. Her. Ital. VII. Mathews, pp. 99-105, also gives the text.
2 Vita Alex. : " prostravit se in terrain." Chron. Romualdi (Muratori, VII. 231) : " totum se extenso corpore prostravit."
3 Romuald. : " quern Alexander papa cum lacrymis benigne devans."
116 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1123-1198.
peace and his benediction. Thousands of voices responded by singing the Te Deum.1
Then the emperor, taking the hand of the pope, walked with him and the doge into the church, made rich offerings at the altar, bent his knees, and received again the apostolic benediction.
On the next day (the 25th), being the feast of St. James, the pope, at the emperor's request, celebrated high mass, and preached a sermon which he ordered the patriarch of Aquileia to translate at once into German. The emperor accom panied him from the altar to the door, and paid him the customary homage of holding the stirrup.2 He offered to conduct his palfrey by the bridle across the piazza to the bark ; but the pope dispensed with this menial service of a groom, taking the will for the deed, and gave him again his benediction.
This is the authentic account of contemporary writers and eye-witnesses. They make no mention of the story that the emperor said to the pope, " I do this homage to Peter, not to thee," and that the pope quickly replied, " To Peter and to me."
The hierarchical imagination has represented this interview as a second Canossa. In Venetian pictures the pope is seen seated on a throne, and planting his foot on the neck of the prostrate emperor, with the words of Ps. 91 : 13 :-
1 Romuald. : " moxque a Teutonicis Te Deum laudamus est excelsa voce cantatum." Vita Alex.: " Tune repleti sunt omnes gaudio et prce nimia Icetitia vox conclamantium in Te Deum laudamus insonuit usque ad sidera." Alexander writes to Roger of York: "innumera multitudine virorum et mulierum prcesente, alta voce reddente gratias et laudes Altissimo."
2 Alexander ad Rogerum (Migne, 200, 1131) : " Cum ascenderemus palafredum nostrum ibiparatum, stapham tenuit, et omnem honorem et reverentiam nobis-exhibuit, quam prcedecessores ejus nostris consueverunt antecessoribus." It is stated by Godfrey of Viterbo, an attendant of the emperor, that the old pope, through the pressure of the crowd, was thrown from his horse, and that the emperor assisted him to remount. Pertz, Archiv, IV. 363, quoted by Milman, bk. VIII. ch. IX.