154 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1198-1216.
married and the unmarried, of the good and the bad, the rich and the poor. " It is just and natural that the wicked should suffer ; but are the righteous one whit better off ? Here below is their prison, not their home or their final destiny. As soon as a man rises to a station of dignity, cares and trouble increase, fasting is abridged, night watches are prolonged, nature's constitution is undermined, sleep and appetite flee, the vigor of the body gives way to weakness, and a sorrowful end is the close of a sor rowful life." 1 In the case of the impenitent, eternal damnation perpetuates the woes of time. With a descrip tion of these woes the work closes, reminding the reader of the solemn cadences of the Dies Irce of Thomas of Celano and Dante's Inferno.'2'
Called forth from retirement to the chief office in Chris tendom, Innocent had an opportunity to show his contempt of the world by ruling it with a strong and iron hand. The careers of the best of the popes of the Middle Ages, as well as of ecclesiastics like Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas of Canterbury, reveal the intimate connection between the hie rarchical and ascetic tendencies. Innocent likewise displayed these two tendencies. In his treatise on the mass he antici pated the haughty assumption of the papacy, based on the rock-foundation of Peter's primacy, which as pope he after wards displayed.
On the very day of Coelestin's burial, the college of car dinals unanimously chose Lothario pope. Like Gregory I., Gregory VII., Alexander III., and other popes, he made a
1 II. 29.
2 The Dies Irce has been ascribed to Innocent. Here are the concluding words of this famous treatise. " Ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium (Matthew xiii.), (jemitus et ululatus, luctus et cruciatus, stridor et clamor, timor et tre mor, dolor et labor, ardor etfwtor, obscuritas et anxietas, acerbitas et asperitas, calamitas et egestas, angustia et tristitia, oblivio et confusio, torsiones et punctiones, amaritudines et terrores, fames et sitis, frigus et cauma, sulphur et ignis ardens in scccula sceculontm. Unde liberet nos Deus, qui est benedictusin scenila sceailorum. Amen." III. 17 ; Migne, 217, 746.
§ 36. INNOCENT'S TRAINING AND ELECTION. 155
show of yielding reluctantly to the election. He was ordained priest, and the next day, February 22, was consecrated bishop and formally ascended the throne in St. Peter's.
The coronation ceremonies were on a splendid scale. But the size of Rome, whose population at this time may not have exceeded thirty-five thousand, must be taken into account when we compare them with the pageants of the ancient city.1 At the enthronization in St. Peter's, the tiara was used which Constantine is said to have presented to Sylvester, arid the words were said, " Take the tiara and know that thou art the father of princes and kings, the ruler of the world, the vicar on earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, whose honor and glory shall endure throughout all eternity." Then followed the procession through the city to the Lateran. The pope sat on a white palfrey and was accompanied by the prefect of the city, the senators and other municipal officials, the nobility, the cardinals, archbishops, and other church dignitaries, the lesser clergy and the popular throng — all amidst the ringing of bells, the chanting of psalms, and the acclamations of the people. Along the route a singular scene was presented at the Ghetto by a group of Jews, the rabbi at their head carry ing a roll of the Pentateuch, who bowed low as they saluted their new ruler upon whose favor or frown depended their protection from the populace, yea, their very life. Arrived at the Lateran, the pope threw out handfuls of copper coins among the people with the words, " Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee." The silver key of the palace and the golden key of the basilica were then put into his hands, and the senate did him homage. A banquet fol lowed, the pope sitting at a table alone.2 Upon such pomp and show of worldly power the Apostles, whose lot was poverty, would have looked with wonder, if they had been
1 See Gregorovius, V. 7.
2 Elaborate descriptions of the ceremonies are given by Hurter, I. 92 sqq., and Gregorovius, V. 7-15.