RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Innocent III IV
went on Oct. 5, arriving on Dec. 2, and on Dec. 27 issued the summons for a council to meet on June 24 of the next year. Only 150 bishops attended, mostly French and Spanish, with scarcely any Germans. The pope went swiftly to work, with two comprehensive briefs of bitter accusation against Frederick. Thaddeus of Suessa, the imperial representative, made a skilful defense of his master, denied all legality to the assembly, and appealed to a future pope and a really ecumenical council; the representatives of the kings of France and England urged delay; but Innocent condemned Frederick on the counts of perjury, sacrilege, heresy, and felony — the last for his oppression of the kingdom of Sicily and refusal to pay the feudal dues from it. The German princes were exhorted to elect a new emperor, while Innocent himself would make provision for Sicily, after consultation with the cardinals.
The emperor was not slow in making answer. He
addressed an appeal to all Christian princes to
remedy the condition of the secularized
Progress Church by bringing back the clergy, of the especially the higher prelates, to the
Contest state of apostolic poverty and imita-
between tion of the humility of their Lord.
Pope and The pope also appealed to the sover- Emperor. eigns, and went beyond personal accusations to develop still further the theories of the subordination of the secular power to the spiritual, as they had been held from Gregory VII. to Innocent III. On both sides the excitement reached its height. The Dominicans and Franciscans went out as zealous preachers of a crusade against a heretical emperor, for which the same privileges would be granted as for the perilous journey to the Holy Land. Twice (Nov., 1245, and May, 1246) Innocent stubbornly rejected the mediation of Louis IX. of France, and in Sicily supported an aristocratic conspiracy which threatened Frederick's life, and in Germany the efforts of the three Rhenish archbishops to bring about a new election. On Apr. 21, 1246, he summoned the electors to proceed to the choice of Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, who, on May 22, was elected by the three archbishops, four bishops, and a number of counts and knights. The majority of these, with the imperial cities, adhered to the Hohenstaufen, and on Feb. 17, 1247, the " priests' king " came to an ignominious end. Innocent sought in various quarters for a successor, but without success until, in Oct., Count William of Holland, a youth of twenty, was elected by secular and ecclesiastical magnates of the Rhine provinces, though it was not until Nov. 1, 1248, that he was able to be crowned at Aachen, and his power was then scarcely felt beyond Mainz. Frederick seemed at first to have the upper hand in Italy. He occupied a large part of the States of the Church, the duchy of Spoleto, and the March of Ancona, while King Enzio and the mighty Ezzelino da Romano upheld his cause in Lombardy; and at the very moment of his deposition he was joined by Venice and the count of Savoy, whose adhesion gave him command of the Alpine passes, so that he planned to march on Lyons and force the pope to make terms. The situation was soon altered, however, by the success of Innocent's
partizans in gaining possession of Parma, a place of great strategic importance (June 16, 1247). This town became the central point of the struggle; and Frederick's fortunes began to decline when his besieging force was defeated with great loss by the garrison (Feb. 18, 1248). Innocent now redoubled his efforts to gain the command of Sicily, but without notable success. Cardinal Octavian succeeded better in Romagna; and Frederick suffered a severe blow in the capture of his favorite son, Enzio, by the Bolognese on May 26, 1249. Undaunted to the last, he was making new plans for strengthening his party in central and northern Italy and setting fresh hordes of Saracens in motion toward the north, when death put an end to his projects (Dec. 13, 1250). Innocent now set to work to crush his old enemy's heir, Conrad. After laying out a plan of campaign in consultation with William of Hol-
Conrad IV. land, who then returned to take command in Germany, the pope finally left Lyons (Apr. 19, 1251) and came down through Lombardy to Perugia. Naples and Capua came over to his side, but the eighteen-year-old Manfred succeeded in. checking the movement in the south, and at the beginning of 1252 Conrad won back the cities which had deserted him. Innocent sought new allies; but Richard of Cornwall, to whom he offered the crown of Sicily, declined it, and the French cardinals opposed the project. Charles of Anjou was considered, but without definite result. Finally Henry III. of England accepted the crown for his minor son, Edmund. Even Rome was threatened by Conrad's victory at Naples; yet Innocent undauntedly refused for the second time to receive his envoys and began proceedings against him on charges of oppressing the clergy, favoring heretics, and murder. Death again came to the pope's aid; in the winter of 1253-54 Conrad lost his father-in-law Otto of Bavaria, his nephew Frederick, and his half-brother Henry of Sicily, and on May 20, 1254, Conrad himself died, commending his two-year-old son Conradin to the pope's guardianship. Innocent now felt sure of the possession of Sicily; and Manfred, weakened by treachery among his own supporters, saw nothing for it but nominal submission. On Oct. 20, 1254, Innocent took formal possession of Sicily and Calabria. But Manfred suddenly escaped to Luceria and put himself at the head of his faithful Saracens. The pope's life-work, apparently so near completion, was once more threatened. On Dec. 2 Manfred captured Foggia; the papal legate and his army fled without striking a blow. The news of this disaster found Innocent stretched on a sick-bed in Naples and embittered his last hours. He died Dec. 7. Innocent's relations with France were governed by his desire to preserve a counterpoise against the emperor, and by the eager wish of
Innocent's Louis IX. to deliver the Holy Land.
Relations This latter explains Louis' efforts to
with make peace in 1244 and the neutral
France and attitude he assumed in the subsequent
England, conflict. But the Curia forced the
French nobles into a hostile position
by interference in national affairs and by cupidity,
so that Frederick found some support among them
Innocent IV-VTI