IV. CHAP. kingdom (which he knew he should not be able to keep to himself or annex to the Papacy) upon a powerful friend, who might be able to protect him from oppression. He had it in his thought to have given that investiture to Charles of Anjou, brother to Saint Lewis, whom he most desired and courted to be his fast friend. But before he would enter upon such a public declaration, (which he well knew could gratify but one, and would disoblige many,) he resolved that he would first vindicate his own title, and so make it appear to be in his power to bestow. To that purpose he granted the crusade against Manfredo and Ecelino, and all other enemies of the Church, who made any claim to the kingdom of Naples or Sicily. Manfredo claimed the kingdom of Naples by the death of the Emperor Frederic his father, and was well received by the people, who preferred their subjection to him before submission to the Pope, or to any upon whom he would confer the dominion: so that Manfredo was not like to be driven out by bulls and excommunications, which, by the lavish spending them, grew every day less terrible; and the Pope therefore hoped to raise an army by this crusade, with which many princes were very much scandalized, to see an expedient made use of against a Christian prince and a Catholic kingdom, that was only proper to invite all Christians to make war against Turks and Infidels. Attempts of the Pope to ney from Alexander now foresaw, that though he might draw mo- have some benefit from the crusade, his chief deEngland re-pendance must be upon a stock of money of his own, sisted in the which he used all possible devices to procure, and Henry III had some encouragement to hope well from the old King of England, (for Harry the Third was still living,) notwithstanding the inhibition by parliament, reigns of and Ed ward I. IV. which his predecessors could never shake. That un- CHAP. happy and irresolute Prince had at this time need of the Pope to dispense with him for not performing some oath he had taken, (as he had often use of his omnipotency in that point,) and therefore was willing to dispense with that ordinance of parliament, and gave the Pope's ministers leave to come into the kingdom to collect money from the Clergy; but the Clergy protested against it, and declared they would neither yield therein to the Pope or the King, and so kept their money to themselves. And Henry the Third was no sooner dead, but his son Edward the First (who had observed from what fountains his father's calamities principally flowed, and had a greater reputation in the world,) resolved to lessen that power the Clergy had by the laws and customs of the kingdom; the insolent using whereof had compelled his father and his grandfather to introduce the Pope's authority to control the other, and which, without the help of the crown, could never have found that submission in England: and therefore he did not only make them supply him with very great sums of money, but took away those liberties and privileges from the greatest monasteries which most subjected the people to their obedience, and caused the statute Statute of of Mortmain to be passed in parliament, to hinder the increase of their temporal possessions as prejudicial to the kingdom, and which indeed made them so powerful with the people: by another statute he retrenched and limited the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical judges and all this without consulting the Pope, and in a time when heresies, as they call them, were broached and countenanced in England, of which it will be more proper to speak hereafter. Mortmain. CHAP. Pope Alexander, receiving this discountenance in England, could not prosecute his other designs with vindication that vigour which they required, and ended his seven Bulls in of the ho Francis quisition. 66 nour of St. years reign without any other notable record or moand in aid nument of his having been Pope, than two very noof the In- torious bulls: one whereof was a testimony or declaration and verification of what Gregory the Ninth had sufficiently published, of the marks which St. Francis had in his flesh of the wounds of our Saviour; which Alexander confirms “ cum pœnarum im"positione adversus aliter affirmantes. Siquis spiritu "temerariæ præsumptionis insaniens, divini muneris "invidus, Apostolica judicia sacrilegus impugnatur, et præmissa vel alia prodigiorum signa, quibus in eccle"sia Dei sanctitas prædicti confessoris eluxit, improba "contradictionis morsibus obtrectanda crediderit, Vo"lumus et Mandamus, ut eum sanæ menti restituat ju“dicialis severitas disciplinæ, ita quod districtâ proprü "Prælati castigatione correctus, Dei opera blasphemare "dediscat &c." which being in a still more tragical way than had been before in any bull, I thought not unfit to be inserted. The other bull was to authorize and compel all secular or civil magistrates to assist and execute all the sentences and judgments which should be inflicted by the Inquisition in cases of heresy, or upon heretical persons, which had never before been required. And so we leave Alexander the Fourth in the peace and quiet of his grave. Urban IV. Urban the Fourth was chosen upon the death of Alexander; and, following his example in all he had done and all he intended to do, renewed the crusade against Manfredo, and declared the nomination and investiture of Charles of Anjou. But there was quickly a fire kindled in his own house, so that he could IV. could neither much help or much hurt his neigh- CHAP. bours. For the senators of Rome assumed to themselves all authority in whatsoever concerned the temporal jurisdiction; and, because he would not acquiesce in that their assumption, they drove him out of the city of Rome, and so vexed him, that his short reign of three years gave him no time to prosecute, or to bring any of his great projections to any maturity. For Charles of Anjou, to the end that he might come into Italy attended and accompanied as became the son and the brother of so great a King, spent so much time in making those preparations, that before he could come to Rome the Pope was dead; and so his expedition for Naples was likewise necessary to be deferred. IV.crowns lem. Upon the death of Urban, Clement the Fourth, Clement who was at that time employed in France to recon-Charles of cile the displeasure of the King of England towards Anjou King of Naples Simon Montfort, was chosen Pope. Being a French- and Jerusa man, he confirmed the grants his predecessors had made to Charles of Anjou, brother to the King of France, made him Governor of Rome, with the title of Senator, and crowned him King of Naples and Jerusalem; with a condition (which he was sworn to perform) never to accept to be Emperor, though he should be chosen, nor upon any conditions whatsoever to put the kingdom of Naples into the hands and possession of the Emperor, and likewise to pay yearly to the holy chair eight thousand ounces of plate, and a white hackney, or palfrey. Thus was that investiture given that hath cost-France and Italy such a deluge of blood and devastation; and which had been offered before to Edmund, brother to our Edward the First, and was by the advice CHAP. of that wise King declined, who neither liked the title, IV. nor the expense he foresaw the recovering and keep Defeat and death of ing it would require: nor was St. Lewis very fond of it for his brother, who, the excellent French historian says, was drawn to accept it by the vanity of his wife, who burned with envy to have the title of Queen, as well as her other three sisters. The fierceness and cruelty of Charles in his first Manfredo. entrance into his charge, was a sad omen of all those tragedies that ensued. He made the haste that became him to come to a battle with his rival Manfredo, who was as impatient as he for that trial of his right but the treachery of those he trusted lost the day, and himself, behaving himself bravely, was killed in the fight. Charles might very probably have enjoyed the fruit of his conquest, if he had used his victory as worthily as he had gotten it; but he suffered his army to exercise all the rapine, insolence, and inhuman cruelties that could be devised, and (which made as great a noise) suffered the wife and children of Manfredo, and all the great men who were taken prisoners in the battle, to die in prison for want of such accommodation and treatment as persons of that condition are seldom deprived of; and this inhumanity was universally odious; besides the not suffering the body of Manfredo to be buried because he was excommunicated: but this he did soon after so outact, that so slight a piece of cruelty was no more worth mentioning. Defeat and execution of Conradin. Conradin, (of whom we have spoken before,) the son of Frederic the Emperor, upon the death of his father, thought he had a good title to the kingdom of Sicily; and returning about this time from the holy war with great reputation, though not above sixteen years |