§ 44. THE FIRST COUNCIL OF LYONS. 191
law and proved himself to be more than the equal of Freder ick in shrewdness and quickness of action. At his election the emperor is reported to have exclaimed that among the cardinals he had lost a friend and in the pope gained an enemy. Frederick refused to enter into negotiations looking to an agreement of peace until he should be released from the ban. Innocent was prepared to take up Gregory's conflict with great energy. All the weapons at the command of the papacy were brought into requisition: excommunica tion, the decree of a general council, deposition, the elec tion of a rival emperor, and the active fomenting of rebellion in Frederick's dominions. Under this accumulation of bur dens Frederick, like a giant, attempted to bear up, but in vain.1 All Western Christendom was about to be disturbed by the conflict. Innocent's first move was to out-general his antagonist by secretly leaving Rome. Alexander III. had set the precedent of delivering himself by flight. In the garb of a knight he reached Civita Vecchia, and there met by a Genoese galley proceeded to Genoa, where he was re ceived with the ringing of bells and the acclamation, " Our soul is escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler." Joined by cardinals, he continued his journey to Lyons, which, though nominally a city of the empire, was by reason of its proximity to France a place of safe retreat.
The pope's policy proved to be a master stroke. A deep impression in his favor was made upon the Christian world by the sight of the supreme pontiff in exile.2 The divi sion of European sentiment is shown by the method which a priest of Paris resorted to in publishing Innocent's sentence of excommunication against the emperor. " I am not ignorant," he said, " of the serious controversy and un-
1 M. Paris says he had never heard of such bitter hatred as the hatred between Innocent IV. and Frederick. Luard's ed., V. 193.
2 M. Paris, heretofore inclining to the side of Frederick, at this point dis tinctly changes his tone. See, for example, Luard's ed., IV. 478,
192 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1216-1294.
quenchable hatred that has arisen between the emperor and the pope. I also know that one has done harm to the other, but which is the offender I do not know. Him, however, as far as my authority goes, I denounce and excommunicate, that is, the one who harms the other, whichever of the two it be, and I absolve the one which suffers under the injury which is so hurtful to the cause of Christendom."
Innocent was now free to convoke again the council which Frederick's forcible measures had prevented from assembling in Rome. It is known as the First Council of Lyons, or the Thirteenth (Ecumenical Council, and met in Lyons, 1245. The measures the papal letter mentioned as calling for action were the provision of relief for the Holy Land and of resistance to the Mongols whose ravages had extended to Hungary, and the settlement of matters in dispute between the Apostolic see and the emperor. One hundred and forty prelates were present. With the exception of a few representatives from England and one or two bishops from Germany, the attendance was confined to ecclesiastics from Southern Europe.1 Baldwin, emperor of Constantinople, was there to plead his dismal cause. Fred erick was represented by his able counsellor, Thaddeus of Suessa.
Thaddeus promised for his master to restore Greece to the Roman communion and proceed to the Holy Land in person. Innocent rejected the promises as intended to deceive and to break up the council. The axe, he said, was laid at the root, and the stroke was not to be delayed. When Thaddeus of fered the kings of England and France as sureties that the emperor would keep his promise, the pope sagaciously re plied that in that case he would be in danger of having three princes to antagonize. Innocent was plainly master of the
1 Two German bishops seem to have been present. Hefele, V. 982 sq. Catholic historians have been concerned to increase the number of attending prelates from the north.