guished by the name of Innocent II. while the other CENT. xn. chose, for successor to Honorius, Peter, the son of Leo, a Roman prince, under the title of Anacletus II. The friends of Innocent were far from being numer ous in Rome, or throughout Italy in general, for which reason he judged it expedient to retire into France, where he had many adherents, and where he sojourned during the space of two years. His credit was very great out of Italy; for, beside the emperor Lotharius, the kings of England, France, and Spain, with other princes, espoused warmly the cause of Innocent, principally by the influence of St. Bernard, who was his intimate friend, and whose counsels had the force and authority of laws in almost all the countries of Europe. The patrons of Anacletus were fewer in number, and were confined to the kings of Sicily and Scotland. His death, in the year 1138, terminated the contest, and left Innocent in the entire and undisputed possession of the apostolic chair. The surviving pontiff presided, in the year 1139, at the second Lateran council, and, about four years after, ended his days in peace'.

tiffs, from

of Innocent

VIII. After the death of Innocent, the Roman Succession see was filled by Guy, cardinal of St. Mark, who of the pon ruled the church about five months, under the title the death of Celestine II. If his reign was short, it was, to the end of however, peaceable, and not like that of his suc- this century. cessor, Lucius II. whose pontificate was disturbed by various tumults and seditions, and who, about eleven months after his elevation to the papacy, was killed in a riot which he was endeavouring to suppress by his presence and authority. He was succeeded by Bernard, a Cistertian monk, and an eminent disciple of the famous St. Bernard, abbot of Clairval. This worthy ecclesiastic, who is distinguished among the popes by the title of Eugenius III. was raised to that high dignity in the year 1145, and, during a

1 Beside the ordinary writers of the papal history, see Jean de Lannes, Histoire du Pontificat du Pape Innocent II. Paris, 1741, in 8vo.

CENT. XII.

Contest between Frederic

and Adrian IV.

period of eight years, he was involved in the same perils and perplexities that had embittered the government of his predecessor. He was often obliged to leave Rome, and to save himself by flight from the fury of the people m; and the same reason engaged him to retire into France, where he resided for a considerable time. At length, exhausted by the opposition he met with in supporting what he deemed the prerogatives of the papacy, he died in the year 1153. The pontificate of his successor Conrad, bishop of Sabino, who, after his elevation to the see of Rome, assumed the title of Anastasius IV., was less disturbed by civil commotions; but it was not of long duration; for Anastasius died about a year and four months after his election.

IX. The warm contest between the emperors and the popes, which was considered as at an end ever Barbarossa since the time of Calixtus II., was unhappily renewed under the pontificate of Adrian IV. who was a native of England, and whose original name was Nicolas Breakspear. Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa, being placed in 1152 on the imperial throne, publicly declared his resolution to maintain the dignity and privileges of the Roman empire in general, and more particularly to render it respectable in Italy; nor was he at all studious to conceal the design he had formed of reducing the overgrown power and opulence of the pontiffs and clergy within narrower limits. Adrian perceived the danger that threatened the majesty of the church and the authority of the clergy, and prepared himself for defending both with

m There was a party formed in Rome at this time, whose design was to restore the Roman senate to its former privileges, and to its ancient splendor and glory; and, for this purpose, to reduce the papal revenues and prerogatives to a narrower compass, even to the tithes and oblations that were offered to the primitive bishops, and to the spiritual government of the church, attended with an utter exclusion from all civil jurisdiction over the city of Rome. It was this party that produced the feuds and seditions to which Dr. Mosheim has an eye in this eighth

section.

vigor and constancy. The first occasion of trying CENT. x. their strength was offered at the coronation of the emperor at Rome, in the year 1155, when the pontiff insisted upon Frederic's performing the office of equerry, and holding the stirrup to his holiness. This humiliating proposal was at first rejected with disdain by the emperor, and was followed by contests of a more momentous nature, relating to the political interests of the empire.

These differences were no sooner reconciled, than new disputes, equally important, arose in the year 1158, when the emperor, in order to put a stop to the enormous opulence of the pontiffs, bishops, and monks, which increased from day to day, enacted a law to prevent the transferring of fiefs without the knowlege or consent of the superior, or lord, in whose name they were holden ", and turned the whole force of his arms to reduce the little republics of Italy under his dominion. An open rupture between the emperor and the pontiff, was expected as the inevitable consequence of such vigorous measures, when the death of Adrian, which happened on the first of September, 1159, suspended the storm °.

election of a

X. In the election of a new pontiff, the cardinals A dispute were divided into two factions. The more numerous arises in the and powerful of the two parties raised to the ponti- new pontiff. ficate, Rowland, bishop of Sienna, who assumed the name of Alexander III. while the rest of the conclave elected to that high dignity Octavian, cardinal of St. Cecilia, known by the title of Victor IV. The latter was patronised by the emperor, to whom Alexander

n This prohibition of transferring the possession of fiefs from one to another, without the consent of the sovereign, or supreme lord, under whom they were holden, together with other laws of a like nature, formed the first effectual barrier that was opposed to the enormous and growing opulence and authority of the clergy. See Muratori, Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. vi. p. 239.

• See the accurate and circumstantial account of this whole affair that is given by the illustrious and learned count Bunau, in his history of Frederic I. written in German, p. 45, 49, 73, 99, 105, &c.

OENT. XII. was extremely disagreeable on several accounts. The council of Pavia, which was assembled by the emperor in the year 1160, adopted his sentiments, and pronounced in favor of Victor, who thus became triumphant in Germany and Italy; so that France alone was left open to Alexander, who accordingly fled thither from Rome for safety and protection. Amidst the tumults and commotions which this schism occasioned, Victor died at Lucca, in the year 1164; but his place was immediately filled by the emperor, at whose desire Guy, cardinal of St. Calixtus, was elected pontiff under the title of Pascal III. and acknowleged in that character by the German princes assembled in the year 1167, at the diet of Wurtzburg. In the mean time Alexander recovered his spirits, and, returning into Italy, maintained his cause with uncommon resolution and vigor, and not without some promising hopes of success. He held at Rome,

in the year 1167, the Lateran council, in which he solemnly deposed the emperor (whom he had, upon several occasions before this period, publicly loaded with anathemas and execrations), dissolved the oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken to him as their lawful sovereign, and encouraged and exhorted them to rebel against his authority, and to shake off his yoke. But, soon after this audacious proceeding, Frederic made himself master of Rome; upon which the insolent pontiff fled to Benevento, and left the apostolic chair to Pascal, his competitor.

XI. The affairs of Alexander seemed, soon after, to take a more prosperous turn, when (the greatest part of the imperial army being consumed by a pestilential disorder) the emperor was forced to abandon Italy, and when the death of Pascal, which happened in the year 1168, delivered him from a powerful and formidable rival. But this fair prospect soon vanished; for the imperial faction elected to the pontificate John, abbot of Strum, under the title of Calixtus III. whom Frederic, notwithstanding his absence in Germany, and the various wars and disputes in which he was

involved, supported to the utmost of his power. When CENT. XII. peace was in some measure restored to the empire, Frederic marched into Italy, A. D. 1174, to chastise the perfidy of the states and cities that had revolted during his absence, and seised the first opportunity of throwing off his yoke. Had this expedition been crowned with the expected success, Alexander would, undoubtedly, have been obliged to desist from his pretensions, and to yield the papal chair to Calixtus. But the event came far short of the hopes which this grand expedition had excited; and the emperor, after having, during the space of three years, been alternately defeated and victorious, was at length so fatigued with the hardships he had suffered, and so dejected at a view of the difficulties he had yet to overcome, that, in the year 1177, he concluded a treaty of peace at Venice with Alexander, and a truce with the rest of his enemies P. Some writers affirm, that, upon this occasion, the haughty pontiff trod upon the neck of the suppliant emperor, while he kissed his foot, repeating at the same time those words of the royal Psalmist: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet ." The greatest part, however, of modern authors have called this event in question, and consider it as utterly destitute of authority and unworthy of credit 1.

P All the circumstances of these conventions are accurately related by count Bunau, in his History of Frederic I. p. 115242. See also Fortunati Olmi Istoria della Venuta à Venetia occultamente nel A. 1177, di Papa Alessandro III. Venet. 1629, in 4to.-Muratori, Antiq. Italicæ medii ævi, tom. iv. p. 2, 9.Origines Guelphicæ, tom. ii. p. 379.-Acta Sanctorum, tom. i. April. p. 46, in Vita Hugonis abbatis Bona-Vallis, & tom. ii. April. in Vita Galdini Mediolanensis, p. 596, two famous ecclesiastics, who were employed as ambassadors and arbiters in the treaty of peace here mentioned.

q Psalm xci. 13.

r See Bunau's Life of Frederic I. p. 242.-Heumanni Pœciles. tom. iii. lib. i. p. 145.-Bibliotheque Italique, tom. vi. p. 5, as also the authors mentioned by Caspar Sagittarius, in his Introduct. in Histor. Eccles. tom. i. p. 630, tom. ii.