§ 44. THE FIRST COUNCIL OF LYONS. 193
situation. The council was in sympathy with him. Many of its members had a grudge against Frederick for having been subjected to the outrage of capture and imprisonment by him.
At one of the first sessions the pope delivered a sermon from the text, " See, ye who pass this way, was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow ? " He dwelt upon five sorrows of the Church corresponding to the five wounds of Christ : the savage cruelty of the Mongols or Tartars, the schism of the Greeks, the growth of heresy, the desolation of Jerusalem, and the active persecution of the Church by the emperor. The charges against Frederick were sacrilege and heresy. As for the charge of heresy, Thaddeus maintained that it could be answered only by Frederick in person, and a delay of two weeks was granted that he might have time to appear. When he failed to appear, Innocent pronounced upon him the ban and declared him deposed from his throne. The deliverance set forth four grave offences; namely, the viola tion of his oath to keep peace with the Church, sacrilege in seizing the prelates on their way to the council, heresy, and withholding the tribute due from Sicily, a papal fief. Among the grounds for the charge of heresy were Freder ick's contempt of the pope's prerogative of the keys, his treaty with the Sultan on his crusade, allowing the name of Moham med to be publicly proclaimed day and night in the temple, having intercourse with Saracens, keeping eunuchs over his women, and giving his daughter in marriage to Battacius, an excommunicated prince. The words of the fell sentence ran as follows : —
" Seeing that we, unworthy as we are, hold on earth the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to us in the person of St. Peter, ' what soever ye shall bind on earth,' etc., do hereby declare Frederick, who has rendered himself unworthy of the honors of sovereignty and for his crimes has been deposed from his throne by God, to be bound by his sins and cast off by the Lord and we do hereby sentence and depose him ; and all who are in any way bound to him by an oath of allegiance we forever release and
194 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1216-1204.
absolve from that oath ; and by our apostolic authority, we strictly forbid any one obeying him. We decree that any who gives aid to him as em peror or king shall be excommunicated ; and those in the empire on whom the selection of an emperor devolves, have full liberty to elect a successor in his place." 1
Thadcleus appealed from the decision to another council.2 His master Frederick, on hearing what was done, is said to have asked for his crown and to have placed it more firmly on his head. In vain did the king of France, meeting Inno cent at Cluny, make a plea for the emperor, finding, as the English chronicler said, " but very little of that humility which he had hoped for in that servant of the servants of God." Frederick's manifesto in reply to the council's act was addressed to the king of England and other princes, and reminded them of the low birth of the prelates who set themselves up against lawful sovereigns, and denied the pope's temporal authority. He warned them that his fate was likely to be theirs and announced it as his purpose to fight against his oppressors. It had been his aim to recall the clergy from lives of luxury and the use of arms to apostolic simplicity of manners. When this summons was heeded, the world might expect again to see miracles as of old. True as these principles were, and bold and powerful as was their advocate, the time had not yet come for Europe to espouse them, and the character of Frederick was altogether too vulnerable to give moral weight to his words.3
The council's discussions of measures looking to a new crusade did not have any immediate result. The clergy, besides being called upon to give a twentieth for three years, were instructed to see to it that wills contained bequests for the holy enterprise.
1 Mansi, XXIII. 612 sqq., 638; Luard's ed. of M. Paris, IV. 445-456. Gregorovius calls this decree "one of the most ominous events in universal history/' V. 244. 2 BrSholles, VI. 318.
3 Too much credit must not be given to Frederick for a far-seeing policy based upon a love of truth or a perception of permanent principles. The rights of conscience he nowhere hints at, and probably did not dream of.