§ 42. THE PAPAL CONFLICT WITH FREDERICK II. 181
Kampf zwischen Kaiserthum und Papstthum zur Zeit des Hohenstaufen, Fried. II., Berlin, 1903. Not important. — W. KNEBEL : Kaiser Fried. II. undPapst Hononus ///., 1220-1227, Minister, 1905, pp. 151. — HEFELE, V. — WATTENBACH, 196-211. — GREGOROVIUS, V. — RANKE, VIII. — FREEMAN : The Emp. Fred. II. in his Hist. Essays, 1st series, pp. 283- 313, London, 1871. —Art. Fred. II., by FUNK, in Wetzer-Welte, IV. 2029-2035, and arts, in Herzog, Gregory IX., by MIRBT, and Hononus III., and Innocent IV., by SCHULZ, with the copious lit. there given. Also, Das Briefbuch des Thomas von Gasta, Justitiars Fried. II. in Quellen u. Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Sibliotheken, Rome, 1895.
§ 42. The Papal Conflict with Frederick II. Begun.
BETWEEN the death of Innocent III. and the election of Boniface VIII., a period of eighty years, sixteen popes sat on the throne, several of whom were worthy successors of the greatest of the pontiffs. The earlier half of the period, 1216-1250, was filled with the gigantic struggle between the papacy and Frederick II., emperor of Germany and king of Sicily. The latter half, 1250-1294, was marked by the establishment of peace between the papacy and empire, and the dominance of the French, or Norman, influence over the papacy.
Scarcely was Innocent in his grave when Frederick II. began to play his distinguished role, and to engage the papacy in its last great struggle with the empire — a desperate struggle, as it proved to be, in which the empire was at last completely humbled. The struggle kept Europe in turmoil for nearly forty years, and was waged with three popes, — Honorius III., Gregory IX., and Innocent IV., the last two, men of notable ability. During all this time Frederick was the most conspicuous figure in Christendom. The struggle was carried on not only in the usual ways of diplomacy and arms, but by written appeals to the court of European opinion.
Frederick II., the grandson of Frederick Barbarossa, was born near Ancona, 1194. His father, Henry VI., had joined Sicily to the empire by his marriage with the Norman prin-
182 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1216-1294.
cess Constance, through whom Frederick inherited the warm blood of the South. By preference and training, as well as birth, he was a thorough Italian. He tarried on German soil only long enough to insure his crown and to put down the rebellion of his son.1 He preferred to hold his court at Palermo, which in his letters he called " the Happy City." The Romans elected him king in 1196, and at his father's death a year later he became king of Sicily. The mother soon followed, and by her will " the child of Apulia," as Frederick was called, a boy then in his fourth year, passed under the guardian care of Innocent III. After Otto's star had set, he was crowned king at Frankfurt, 1212, and at Aachen, 1215. Frederick was not twenty when Innocent's career came to an end.
Honorius III., 1216-1227, was without the ambition or genius of his predecessor Innocent III. He confirmed the rules and witnessed the extraordinary growth of the two great mendicant orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic. He crowned Peter of Courtenay, emperor of Byzantium, the only Byzantine emperor to receive his crown in Rome.2 The pope's one passion was the deliverance of Jerusalem. To accomplish this, he was forced to look to Frederick. To in duce him to fulfil the vow made at his coronation, in 1215, to lead a crusade, was the main effort of his pontificate. The year 1217, the date set for the crusade to start, passed by. Honorius fixed date after date with Frederick, but the emperor had other plans and found excuses for delay. In 1220 he and his wife Constantia received the imperial crown at the hands of the pope in Rome.3 For the second time
1 Ranke, VIII. 337, calls him a foreigner on German soil.
2 The coronation took place outside the walls of the city. Peter died in prison on his way to Constantinople.
3 The coronation ceremonies passed off amidst the general good will of the Roman populace and were interrupted by a single disturbance, a dispute over a dog between the ambassadors of Florence and Pisa which ultimately involved the cities in war. Villani, VI. 2.