follow the design of his Predecessor year 1244 to redress the Evils of the Church by a General Council for the calling whereof he sent his Circular Letters throughout all Europe It was held at Lyons the year following and was opened upon the Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles It was at this Council that the Cardinals received from Innocent the Red-Hat for a distinction of their Dignity and the Obligation which they had to loose even their Lives for the cause of God and of his Church especially in this Persecution of the Emperor Frederick The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch as also those of Aquilea and Venice assisted at this Council together with one hundred and fourty Arch-Bishops and Bishops of France Italy Spain England Scotland and Ireland the Deputies of many other places the Abbots of Cluni the Cistercians and Claraval the General of the order of St. Dominick and the Vicar of that of St. Francis as also a great number of other Abbots and Priors of the same Kingdoms There came scarcely any at all from Germany for fear of offending the Emperor nor from Hungary by reason of the irruption which the Tartars had made at that time into those Countries Baldwin the Emperor of Constantinople who came to desire assistance from the Pope was there also together with Raymond Count of Tholose Raymond Berenger Count de Provence and the Ambassadors of the Emperor the Kings of England France and the other Christian Princes Affairs of the greatest moment certainly passed with wonderful Expedition in those times in Comparison of what they do in our days For this great Council wherein matters of the Greatest Importance were treated of the smallest of which would now take up much a longer time and would be discussed and debated with extraordinary difficulty was finished in three Sessions In the first of them the Pope being seated upon a Throne which was raised in the great Church at Lyons having at his Right hand the Emperor of Constantinople and upon his Left the other Princes he made a most Pathetick Discourse in which comparing his pains and Grief to those of Jesus Christ upon the Cross he said that the Church had received five great Wounds from which it was impossible but he must be extremely sensible of her pain The first was the abuses and disorders which were so frequent among the Ecclesiasticks The Second was by the Insolence and the Tyranny of the Sarasins year 1245 who had prophaned the Sacred places and laid wast the Holy City and were upon the point of taking all that remained in Palestine from the Christians The third Wound was that which was given by the Schism of the Greeks whose power though it had been brought down yet now began to rise again and even to threaten Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremities The fourth was by the furious irruption of the Tartars into Hungary even to the very consines of Germany where they filled all with Blood Slaughter and Ruin The Fifth was by the terrible Persecution of Frederick who exposed the Church to all those Sufferings for which Pope Gregory had cut him off from the Body of the Church in which he not only persisted but daily augmented his former guilt by new and greater Crimes After which the Patriarch of Constantinople and Valeran Bishop of Berylus who was sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to implore the Succour of the Christians of the West gave a Relation of the deplorable condition wherein the Affairs of the Latins were in Greece and Palestine And then Thadeus de Sessa the Judge of the Imperial Palace and the Emperors Ambassador rose up and spoke to the Council in the name of his Master At first that he might gain the Favour of the Assembly he repeated in general and few words what the Pope had said concerning the Sarasins Greeks Tartars and the Emperor and protested that Frederick whose Power by reason of so many Victories as he had gained against his Enemies was greater than ever it had been before offered himself withal his heart to employ all that he had his Fortunes and his Arms to reduce the Greeks to reason and to repulse the Tartars and that he was ready to go himself in person and at his own charges into Palestine to drive out the Corasmins and there to reestablish the Affairs of the Christians which were in such ill terms and that in the mean time he promised to restore to the Church whatsoever should be found that he had taken from it and to make all the satisfaction that could be expected if in any thing he had offended To this the Pope not doubting but all this was said as an Artifice to surprize and amuse the Council only answered that they were not met there to talk of new promises but to see that he performed those which he had already made upon his Oath which he had so often eluded And then added he after having so often deceived us what Caution will he give to Warrant that which he promiseth The Kings of France and England boldly and without delay answered Thadeus ought not they to be accepted By no means replyed the Pope because if he should again fail in his promises as thereis reason enough to believe that he will we shall be obliged to take our remedy against these two Kings So that the Church for one Enemy which she hath now upon her hands shall then have three which are the three most puissant Princes in all Europe Then Thadeus continuing his discourse to come to the point which was in question and upon which he was defired to insist he endeavoured to answer precisely to all the Crimes which the Pope had objected against Frederick And being very dexterous and wonderful Eloquent he spoke with so much Art and gave so soft and plausible a turn to his defence that there were very many in the Assembly who appeared highly satisfied But Innocent who was a very able man and who was perfectly well acquainted with all the Circumstances of this Affair replied instantly to all that the Emperors Ambassadour had said in defence of his Master and answered to every particular with as much exactness and Strength as if he had been a long time before prepared by seeing what Thadeus would say upon this Subject And this was what was done in this first Session In the Second which was held eight days after upon Tuesday the fifth of July diverse Bishops especially the Spaniards who were come in greater numbers to the Council than any other Nation tendered an accusation consisting in many Articles against the Emperor urging the Pope to condemn him especially upon this whereon they insisted principally That it was the intention of that Prince as appeared by his own Letters to dispoil the Ecclesiasticks of all their Estates and to reduce them to the same condition that they were in during the times of the primitive Persecution The Ambassadour on
this Reason therefore passing from one Extreme to another he Disrobed himself of all his Authority and made the little Baldwin the Fifth his Nephew year 1182 be crowned King an Infant of about five Years of Age the Son of his Sister Sybilla by the Marquis of Montferrat her first Husband leaving the Government of the Kingdom to the Earl of Tripolis the Man whom he had before most disgraced and who was the declared Enemy of Earl Guy against whom he was so incensed year 1182 that he had recourse to Arms to be Revenged on him But these Matters were composed by the Prudence of William Archbishop of Tyre great Chancellor of the Realm year 1183 who found out Expedients to patch up a kind of Accord between these two quarrelling Lords Then it was Resolved to send with all speed a great Ambassage into the West to desire a quick and powerful Assistance against Saladin who now began to push his Conquests even into Palestine For this Purpose Choice was made of Heraclius the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were then the two most considerable Men of the Holy Land both in regard of the Number and the Valor of the Knights of these two Orders who were now become most Powerful and most Famous throughout all Christendom These Ambassadors Arrived happily at the Port of Brindes but their Negotiation was not answerably happy to that of their Voyage For the different Interests of the Christian Princes at that time were such as would not permit them to ingage in an Enterprise of such Difficulty as was the Leading of an Army of Crusades into Palestine as the Ambassadors desired William King of Sicily was ingaged in a War against the Cruel Andronicus to take Vengeance upon that Tyrant who had horribly Massacred all the Latins that were at Constantinople that so he might with greater Facility usurp the Imperial Throne by putting to Death the young Alexis the Son of Manuel Having therefore been able to procure nothing more from this Prince besides great Promises for the future they crossed through Italy to Verona where Pope Lucius and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held a great Assembly of Princes and Prelates to determine the Differences between them and to settle the Affairs of Italy The Emperor who was absolutely resolved to re-settle his Authority which the Wars during the Schism which had been made with the Papal See had so much weakned gave them nothing but fair Words and great Hopes and for the Pope as he ever distrusted the Romans who not long before had Revolted from him he was able to do no more than to give the Ambassadors his Letters to the Kings of England and France wherein he exhorted them to this Enterprise as Alexander the Third his Predecessor had before to little Purpose done The Patriarch therefore and the great Masters of the Hospitallers after having performed their last Duty to the Master of the Temple who Died at Verona passed into France There they were most magnificently Received and Treated by the Order of the King Philip Augustus at Paris to whom they presented the Keys of the Holy City of the Tower of David and the Holy Sepulchre with the Royal Standard in token that they put themselves under his Protection and to oblige him to Succor the Holy Land as if it were his own Kingdom now that it was reduced to such extreme Danger by the Infidels Whereupon a general Assembly of all the Prelates and great Men of the Realm was called at Paris to Debate this great Affair and they considering that the King was not above eight and twenty Years of Age and had no Issue were of Opinion That he ought not in Person to undertake such a dangerous Voyage only Philip promised the Ambassadors that he would move his Subjects throughout the whole Realm to inrowl themselves for this War and that he would at his own Cost furnish all those liberally for their Maintenance who would take up Arms for so Just and Holy a War This Answer was not at all to the Satisfaction of the Patriarch however he contented himself as well as he could upon the Hopes which he had that the King of England upon whom they did particularly rely in Syria would make himself the Head of the Enterprise That King was Henry the Second the Son of Geoffry Earl of Anjou who had married Maud the Empress the Widow of the Emperor Henry the Fourth she was Daughter to Henry the First King of England so that this Henry the Second was Grand-child both to Henry the First and to Fowk d' Anjou King of Jerusalem who was the Father to Geoffry Earl of Anjou and to Amauri King of Jerusalem and by reason thereof he was Cousin German to Baldwin the Fourth who was the late King of Palestine so that doubtless he was more particularly Obliged than any other Prince to Defend that Realm which might one Day descend to him by Inheritance He was also more especially Obliged to it for the Expitation of the Crime which he had Committed year 1183 in permitting the Assassins of St Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury to Murder him in his own Church and he had accepted it as a Penance from the Pope within three Years to lead an Army in Person to the Holy Land More than ten Years were already slip'd away since the Term prefixed and he had not done any thing towards the Accomplishment of his Promise of which he was by a Letter from Pope Lucius reminded in Terms sharp enough who told him plainly that it was impessible for him to escape the severe Judgments of God who would not permit himself to be mocked and whose Vengeance he would have cause to Fear if he persisted willfully in the breach of his Promise All these Considerations made the Patriarch hope for more happy Success to his Negotiation in England in regard that in this pressing Necessity it was probable either that the King would go in Person into Palestine for the satisfaction of his Promise or at least that he would send one of his three Sons to command the Army and bigg with these Expectations he crossed the Sea with his Colleague and in the beginning of the Year following came to London year 1185 Henry who was beforehand resolved not to grant what the Ambassadours came to desire would nevertheless save his Reputation and therefore he did them all the Honour imaginable and took the most plausible Courses to justify his Conduct He therefore sent for them to Reading where the Court then was and gave them a most favourable Audience He very graciously and with great marks of Goodness and Compassion heard the Patriarch Heraclius who in a most passionate Discourse after he had presented him with the Keys of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre represented the piteous Condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in the East were reduced who he said stretched out their beseeching Hands
to him who above all others had so many powerful Reasons both Divine and Humane to oblige him to take them into his Protection The King gave him Hopes that he should in a little time receive Satisfaction in what he had proposed assuring him with all the appearances of a great Sincerity that with God's Help all should go well and that this Affair should succeed to his Contentment And in the Interim he conducted the Amhassadours to London there to attend the more particular Answer which he promised to give them after he had first according to the Custom taken the Advice of the Prelates and Lords of his Parliament upon it which he had ordered to be called against the first Sunday in Lent And accordingly he did not fail to call a Parliament where besides the great Men of England there were also present William King of Scotland and David his Brother and the Lords of that Realm which then was held of the King of England Now the Patriarch as the Pope in his Letter and himself in his Speech had done principally insisted upon the Promise which the King made when he obtained his Absolution to go in Person to the Holy Land the King consulted the Bishops and the Abbots in the Case to know whether considering the present Circumstances of his Affairs he was obliged to aquit himself of his Promise by accomplishing that part of his Penance which was imposed on him by the Pope and to which he had so solemnly obliged himself This certainly was a most nice and curious Case of Conscience and which ought in the first place to be decided in regard that if his Promise was binding there was no longer place for Deliberation and that he had but one Choice to make which was to acquit himself of it by undertaking the Voyage If he was not obliged to that Condition of his Penance then it must fall under Examination whether of these two was most Expedient either that the King should assist the Orientals without going in Person out of the Kingdom or that he should himself conduct the Succours into Palestine As for the King to shew that his Proceedings were clear and with good Faith upon the matter he would by all means that the Patriarch and the great Master should themselves Assist at the Debate while this Question was under Deliberation with full and intire Liberty there to offer what they should judge Convenient And withal he strictly required of all that assisted at that Assembly that they should faithfully give their Opinions without any sort of Complaisance to him and declare their Judgment upon their Consciences which of these two was most expedient and necessary for his Souls Health and Salvation year 1185 protesting that he was firmly resolved to put in Execution what should be determined by the Plurality of Votes in that Assembly The more severe Opinion assuredly was That the King should abide by his Word and Promise that he should accomplish the Penance which he had accepted of and that he should go in Person to the Succour of the Holy Land and this the Patriarch failed not to support with all the Reasons and Arguments which could be alledged For urged he What is there in all Civil Society which ought to be more sacred and inviolable than the Word of a mighty King Can there be any thing that ought more religiously to be observed than a Promise made upon receiving the Holy Sacrament at the Absolution given for an Offence which was granted upon the Condition of accomplishing the Penance which is accepted to satisfie God Almighty And supposing that there could be a Dispensation so as to change it to another Who could give that Dispensation or make that Exchange except the Pope who had imposed the Penance and who was so far from being willing to grant any such Dispensation that he presssed the Performance of it in the most pressing Terms and with the most terrible Menaces of the Judgments of God if the Satisfaction was longer deferred These Arguments without doubt appeared very strong Nevertheless all the Bishops and Abbots among whom there were many extraordinary knowing and very good People among others Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Man of most wonderful Merit concluded with one common Consent for the more mild Opinion and maintained that the King was not only not obliged at present to undertake this Voyage to Palestine but also that it was more conducing to the Health of his Soul that he should stay to govern his Dominions in regard that the Promise which he had made in accepting the Penance was not only in its own Nature dispensable but ought to be dispensed with because nothing could oblige a Prince to the prejudice of another Promise which was made before it and which was indispensable and by which the King by his Coronation Oath had obliged himself to govern his Subjects and defend them against the Attempts of all their Enemies both Foreign and Domestick which it was impossible for him to do in his Absence in a Government where his Presence could not be wanting And for what concerned one of the Sons of the King which was desired in default of the King 's going in Person they all agreed unanimously with the Lords Temporal that the Parliament had no power to determine upon it in regard they were absent and that therefore the Resolution which was to be taken upon that Matter depended absolutely upon their own Will and Pleasure And in short they judged all together that though the King had of himself a mighty desire to go this Voyage yet he ought not to undertake it without first consulting the King of France who in respect of the Estates of Normandy Guienne and other Provinces which he held in the French Monarchy was his Lord and Soveraign But that notwithstanding he might give liberty to his Subjects to take up the Cross and undertake that Voyage upon the first Occasion and that the King should advance a Sum of Money for their Support who should undertake this War who it was promised should follow shortly after This was the Resolution which was taken in the Parliament of London and with which the Patriarch Heraclius who was of a very violent Humour was so exasperated by thinking all his Hopes and Endeavours were lost that he instantly threw off all manner of Respect which was due to so great a Prince and treated him after so rude a fashion that it is impossible to excuse it under the soft name of Zeal as he endeavoured to persuade the World For the King that he might sweeten what seemed so harsh in this matter was resolved himself to remonstrate to the Ambassadours whom he sent for the Reasons which had moved the Parliament to come to that Resolution which they esteemed so prejudicial to the Hopes of their Embassage He informed them that it was the fear they had that the French with whom they never continued long in Peace would draw some
and St. Paul at the Castle of Chinon bestowing his Maledictions upon his disobedient Sons which he would never be persuaded to revoke notwithstanding the repeated Instances which were made to him by the Bishops who waited on him in his Sickness He did however receive the Sacrament and Extream Unction with great Devotion giving manifest Tokens of his Repentance in submitting to the Divine Justice which he acknowledged had justly laid this great Change of Fortune upon him as a Punishment for those Crimes which he had committed in his Prosperity He had also the Misfortune that his Domesticks every one seizing upon something left him without any thing else but a poor Sheet to cover him But his Son Richard who had so furiously opposed him in his Life gave all the Testimonies of an excessive Sorrow for his Death and caused him to be carried most magnificently adorned in his Royal Robes to be interred at the Nunnery of Fontevraud where he had a desire to be buried This new King himself assisted at the Funerals where he testified by the abundance of his Tears that he was unfeignedly touched with Sorrow and Remorse for his Father's Death But it is reported that to his other Grief he had the Displeasure to be afflicted with an odd and unaccountable Accident for as he approached the Corps of the deceased King as he lay in the Coffin the Blood which gushed out of his Nostrils seemed to reproach him with his Ingratitude and unnatural Rebellion and even as the Discourse went the Parricide of his Father whom his Disobedience did in some measure seem to have hastned to his Tomb sooner than Nature which was yet strong and vigorous in him had intended He nevertheless stayed out the whole Ceremony till such time as the Royal Defunct was interred in the Quire of the Church of those Religious Nuns which verified the Revelation of a Monk who praying upon a certain time for the Prosperity of the King heard these words which he then did not understand but which were explained by the Event He shall take up my Sign and in carrying it shall be mightily tormented The Belly of his Wife shall rise up against him and at the last he shall be hid among the Veils For as he took the Cross for the Holy War he carried the Sign of Jesus Christ and he was immediately after cruelly tormented by the Persecutions of his Sons which continued till his Death after which he was covered with the Veil of Death being interred in a Quire of Veiled Nuns We must however do Justice to the Memory of this Prince who was one in this Crusade though it so happened that he never had his part in any Action in regard it was so long deferred by the War whereof he was the Occasion He was a French Man by Nation born in the City of Mans which he therefore used to call his Darling and most assuredly he was one of the greatest and most potent Kings that ever sat upon the English Throne and certainly had been the most fortunate if either he had never been a Father or if toward the latter end of his thirty and five Years Reign he had not met with the Opposition of the young and invincible Philip the August whose Fortune supported by his Courage and admirable Prudence was as a fatal Curb which according to the Prediction of the famous Morling was to tame this fierce and haughty Leopard or like a strong Dam which stopped short and broke that impetuous Torrent of his Power and Ambition year 1189 which menaced an Inundation over the rest of France whereof Henry already possessed a very great part For besides England where he reigned as Soveraign Monarch and Ireland which he had conquered Scotland which was Tributary to him he also possessed Normandy in the Right of Inheritance descending to him by his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter of Henry I. King of England and by Geoffrey Earl of Anjou his Father who was Son to Count Fowk he had Anjou Maine Touraine a great part of Berry and Avignion where he pretended to be Soveraign And in Right of Queen Eleonor his Wife whom Lewis the Young quitted to him by a Canonical Sentence he had Gascon Guienne Poitou and the other Countries which depended upon them Besides that Britanny fell to his third Son Geoffrey by the Marriage of the Heiress of that Country So that he was as potent on this Side the Sea where he was a Homager to the Crown of France as he was on the other side where he was King of England and Lord of Ireland He was of a middle Stature but of a Shape no way handsom by reason that he was extream gross and corpulent notwithstanding that he was not only very temperate but amidst the great Affairs in which he was always employed and which he managed with wonderful Application in continual Action either travelling or Walking or making use of the more violent Exercises of Riding the great Horse or Hunting that thereby he might abate the growing unwieldy by his Fatness to which his Sanguin Complexion had condemned him As for any thing else he was of Temperament robust and sound having a large full Breast and a big Head His Eyes were blew handsom and full of Fire His Hair yellow and soft inclining something too much towards the red His Voice hoarse his Speech rough and his Mind very fierce and Martial For his Mind he was very dexterous and of a penetrating Understanding but something more crafty than became so great a Prince He had however cultivated his Spirit with the Study of Ingenuous Learning which inabled him with a certain Eloquence very easily and naturally to express himself And there was in his Soul such a Stock of Vices as well as Vertues natural Perfections and Imperfections which were so blended together that if they would not permit it to be said of him that he was a very exceeding good Prince yet they very absolutely prohibit the fixing the Character of a very ill one upon him For he was gentle and sweet to every body when he was in dangers but harsh fierce and severe when he saw himself out of them he was complaisant abroad morose to his Domesticks liberal to Strangers and in publick but parsimonious to his own and too great a Husband in his private Affairs A great Promiser but a slender Performer above all things loving his Liberty and hating Constraint to that degree that he could not endure to be a Slave to his own Word or his Faith which he made no great scruple upon occasion to violate In matters of Justice he was too slow and sometimes by the Interposition of Money which he loved excessively he would wholly remit the Execution of it He drew great Sums from his Subjects with which he often chose rather to buy Peace than maintain War in which he did not delight though when he was forced to make War he did it like a great Captain and
Council and the fourth of Lateran and one of the greatest which the Church had ever had for besides the Pope who presided in Person the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and the Deputies of those of Antioch and Alexandria were present at it together with seventy one Archbishops four hundred and twelve Bishops with the Proxies of divers others above eight hundred Abbots and Priors and the Ambassadors of the Emperor Frederick II. Henry the Emperor of Constantinople of the Kings of England France Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus and Aragon The Pope who was a Man very learned and eloquent opened the Session by a Speech which is verbatim inserted into the Acts of the Council as he spoke it and therein after he had acquainted them that the principal Reason why he had assembled them was to consider how they might relieve the Holy Land he brought in Jerusalem addressing her self to the Christians of the West and to implore their Assistance in the Language of the holy Scripture representing in a manner so pathetick and moving the piteous Estate to which she was reduced under the Tyrannick Dominion of the Sarasins to the shame of the Christian Name that it was impossible but the whole Assembly should be moved with it or refuse taking the generous Resolution of employing all things for the Deliverance of the holy City from that cruel Servitude So that after they had established the Doctrines of the Faith against the Heresies of Berengarius Amauri de Chartres the Albigenses and the Abbot Joachim without meddling with his Person by reason that he submitted himself to the Judgment of the Holy See and after they had regulated such Matters as concerned Discipline and the Reformation of Manners the Fathers with the Consent of the Ambassadors of the Princes made these following Orders for the Crusade That the Bishops should cause it to be preached in their respective Diocesses above all enjoyning the Preachers to press it as a thing necessary for all those who took it upon them to put themselves by true Repentance into a State of Grace thereby to preserve themselves in the Favour of God year 1215 and to procure his Blessings upon them and the Vndertaking That they themselves should exhort the Kings the Princes and Persons of the greatest Quality to take upon them the Cross and to contribute to the Expences of the Holy War That the Bishops the Abbots the Priors and all other Ecclesiasticks should give the twentieth part of their Revenues and the Pope and Cardinals the tenth towards the carrying on the Crusade And to excite others by his Example to this Liberality the Pope promised that besides this Tax he would provide Shipping and great Sums of Money for the particular Maintenance of such of the Romans as should take upon them the Cross That the Crusades should have all the same Privileges Spiritual and Temporal which the former Popes had indulged to the first Crusades That they should all be in readiness to pass into Palestine by the 1st Day of June in the following Year That in the Interim those who resolved to be of the Land-Army should come to the Rendezvouz which should be appointed whither the Pope would send his Legate and that those who chose rather to go by Sea should repair to the Port of Brindes in Pavia or to Messina in Sicily where he himself would be present to take care and give Orders for what should be needful since he was not as he passionately desired permitted to pass beyond the Seas and take the Voyage with the Crusades That there should be either a Peace or a Truce among the Christian Princes for four Years and that during that time all publick Sports and Turnaments should be straitly prohibited That those who aided the Crusades or furnished them with Equipage should enjoy the Benefits of the Indulgences And on the contrary that such as favoured the Pyrates and such Christian Merchants as betrayed their Brethren by selling Arms and Ammunition to the Sarasins should as impious Traytors to God and Religion be exposed to all the Censures of the Church It must be avowed that our Ancestors who acted as exactly and prudently but with far fewer Intrigues of Nicity and Ceremony than we do at this Day were far more expeditious in the concluding of their greatest Affairs than in the succeeding Ages This great Council wherein so many and such important Matters were debated both in relation to Faith and Manners so many things of a differing Nature as the Policy and the Discipline of the Church the Peace among the Christian Princes and the War against the Insidels and almost the general Interests of all Europe was terminated in less than three Weeks continuing only between the Feast of St. Martin and that of St. Andrew a time which now would scarcely be thought sufficient for the regulating of one single Preliminary Article in an Assembly of far less importance than this was And that which is still more admirable the Execution immediately succeeded the Debates and Determinations no manner of Considerations Passions or Interests being capable of stopping or even so much as retarding it every one gladly contributing what was his part towards the Performance and Accomplishment of the whole Design The Bishops preached the Crusade in all places year 1216 with mighty Zeal and great Success and the Pope to give the greater Authority to it after he had published it in Rome went to preach it himself in Tuscany where there was an insinite of Crusades every one desiring to have the Honour to receive the Cross from his own Hands But as he was going to Pisa to accord the Differences between that Republick and the other of Genoa which did something hinder the Effect of the Crusade in his Passage by Perusa he was seized with a violent Fever occasioned by his great Pains and the excessive Heats of the Season which in a few days carried him out of the World He died the 6th Day of July in the 19th Year of his Pontificate and the 49th of his Life after having performed all the Duties of a Soveraign Pope in such perfection that there have been few of his Successors I do not say that have surpassed him but that have been equal to him and if we may give Credit to the unanimous Consent of all the Authors that write of him none greater either in Learning in Prudence in Firmness of Resolution in Authority over all the Powers of the Earth for the maintaining the Discipline of the Church in its Force and Vigour or any more zealous for the Purity of the Faith or more conversant than himself in all manner of vertuous Actions which as they are the Effects so they are upon Earth the most certain Marks of a most eminent Sanctity And from hence doubtless we may conclude year 1216 that there is nothing more Unjust or more Weak than the giving Credit to the Fable of the Apparition of this Pope being pursued by a
Dragon after his Death which demanded Justice of God against him till at last covered all over in slames he was condemned to Purgatory till the day of Judgment for having commited three great Crimes in his Life for which he had certainly been condemned to Hell for ever if our Lady to whose Honor he had built a Church had not obtained the Grace for him that he repented of them before his latest Breath Now this which calls it self an Apparition so plainly resembles the travelling Stories of Apparitions of this Nature that I am astonished there should be any who should doubt of its Falshood so much as for a Moment but it is the sordid Humor of low Spirits to dishonor the Memories of the greatest Lives in the World whom they durst scarcely speak of or look upon whilest they were in it and nothing is more frequent than for Calumny to blast the Reputation of the Dead by reason of that Impunity which Men hope for by being undiscovered nor is there any thing so silly but what will either by the Weakness of some or the Malice of others be believed so that the most sottish and groundless Illusions come many times to gain the Reputation as well as the Name of supernatural Visions and Revelations The Cardinal Cencius a Roman of the illustrious House of Savelli a Person of a great Estate and as great Learning succeeded Innocent within two days by the Name of Honorius the III and imitating his Predecessor in his Zeal for the Deliverance of the Holy Land he at the same time writ Letters to the Princes and Prelates throughout all Europe exhorting them powerfully not to cool in their Zeal which they had till then manifested for the Execution of what had been Decreed in the Holy Council in reserence to the Crusade And the Consequence of these Letters and the Negotiations of his Legats which he sent to all places to press the Accomplishment of this great Affair which lay so near his Heart and which he followed so closely with his utmost Application and Diligence was so successful that an infinite number of Crusades particularly among the Northern Nations were ready to pass both by Sea and Land into the Holy Land at the time appointed He who ought to have Headed them was the Emperor Frederick the II. who had with the first taken upon him the Cross then when he stood in need of the Assistance of the late Pope Innocent for his Establishment against Otho in the imperial Dignity He took it upon him with more Solemnity the year after the Battle of Bovine when all things being at Peace in Germany he was by the Authority of Pope Innocent the second time crowned at Aix by the Hands of Siffride Archbishop of Mayence There he renewed his Vow and with a great deal of Reverence and Submission received the Decree of the Council for the Crusade But as he had a specious Pretext to deser his Voyage in regard he had not been at Rome to receive the imperial Crown nor to regulate the Affairs of Italy the Pope thought it was not convenient at that time to press him further with the Accomplishment of his Vow year 1217 So that Andrew King of Hungary was taken in to supply his Place upon this great Occasion being the only King of Europe who was in a Condition to march at the Head of the Crusades For Peter de Courtenay the Emperor of Constantinople had by Treachery been taken Prisoner in Macedon by Theodore Comnenius who had seized upon Thessaly Philip the August who had already fulfilled his Vow did not believe that he was obliged to ingage himself in another Crusade at a time when France stood in need of him to oppose the Albigenses England Scotland and Ireland were extremely agitated by the Troubles which the Fury of Civil War had raised in them The Kings of Castile Portugal and Navarre were in Arms against the Moors who always prevented the People of Spain from entring into the Crusades with other Nations for the Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre by obliging them in continual Action against those Infidels who were possessed of many of their Provinces And the King of Arragon was so far from joyning with the Crusades that he had taken Arms in favour of the Hereticks the Albigenses against whom there was another Crusade at the same time And the King of Norway who had caused a great many Men of War to be fitted out for the Holy War would not abandon his Realm by taking the Cross altho he obliged many of his Subjects to undertake it year 1217 that so he might have a share in the Honor of the Enterprise The King of Hungary was therefore the only Prince of Europe who in Person made that Holy Voyage and the principal Princes and Prelates who accompanied him in the Undertaking were the Dukes of Austria Bavaria Moravia Brabant Limbourg the Counts Palatin of the Rhine of Los of Juliers of Holland and Wida the Marquis of Baden the Archbishop of Mayence and the Bishops of Bamberge Passau Strasbourg Munster and Vtrecht as also the greatest part of the Prelates of Hungary who would accompany their King in this War The Cousades whose Number increased daily without expecting those who not being yet ready might well enough follow after to Re-inforce the Army in Palestine divided themselves into several Bodies for the greater Convenience of Passage Andrew King of Hungary with Leopold Duke of Austria Lewis Duke of Bavaria and the greatest part of the other Princes took their Way by Land to Venice where they imbarked upon the Shipping of the Republick which expected them to transport them to the Island of Cyprus which was appointed by the Pope for the Place of Rendezvouz It is said that upon this Occasion to pay the Charges of their Passage the King quitted Dalmatia to the Venetians Another Party of the Crusades were embarked at Genoa Messina and Brindes where they received Orders from the Pope by which he commanded them with all possible Expedition to joyn the King of Hungary in Cyprus and to follow him whithersoever he should judge it necessary to lead them expressly prohibiting them upon pain of Excommunication to separate from the Gross of the Army under pretence of going as Pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulchre in regard that he feared that this irregular Devotion at such an unseasonable time might weaken the Army and inrich the Infidels by the great Tributes which they exacted of the Pilgrims and the continual Excursions which they made at last to rob them of all they had Those of Cologne and the Frisons animated by the sight of three wonderful Crosses which miraculously appeared in Heaven whilest the Crusade was preaching upon the Friday before Whitsunday put to Sea with a gallant Fleet of three hundred Ships and about the end of May joyning in the Mouth of the Maze with that of William Earl of Holland and George Count of Wida they all together set
the Knights which are the prime Nobility possess great Estates under the Authority of the Great Master of the Teutonick Order But whilest these Military Orders began thus much about the same time to Establish themselves by little and little in Jerusalem that of the Hospitallers both Ancient and Modern which one may say were the Model of the others made a great Progress in Palestine and became of great Consideration by the great Services which it Performed both in Peace and War and upon this Account both the number of Pilgrims as also of Soldiers and Gentlemen who entred into that Order increasing daily St. Gerard the Provincial of the Isle of Martigues who was Master of the Hospitallers when Jerusalem was taken from the Sarasens built about the Year 1112. a third Hospital giving it the Name of St. John Baptist and there placed his new Knights who a little time after began to form the Design of following a Conduct and Manner of Living more Austere and more Perfect than that of the old Fraternity And indeed when after the Death of Gerard Fryer Bryan Roger was chosen by plurality of Voices to be the Great Master of the Hospitallers these new Knights of the third Erection of St. John Baptist persisting in their first Resolution of Living in greater Perfection would needs Imitate the Knights-Templers and add to their other Vows that of Chastity they separated from the Ancient Hospitallers and chose for their Master Fryer Raymond of Pavia a Gentleman of Dauphiny who drew up for them new Constitutions full of solid Christian Piety which may be seen in the Book of the Statutes of that Order with the Approbation of Pope Calixtus the Second in the Year 1123. as also the Priviledges which have been granted to them by forty eight Soveraign Popes After which time to distinguish themselves from the other they called themselves the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and wore a white Cross of eight Angles upon a black Habit. This is that famous Order which contrary to what usually happens to other Establishments hath daily Increased for above this five hundred Years Advancing to the supreme Elevation of Splendor and Glory wherein it appears at this very Day That Order I say which in all times hath had the Honor to have its Commanders and Knights of all that is Brave and Generous among the Nobility of all Europe and above all those Princes who have been most Remarkable and more distinguished by the Greatness of their Merit than by their Illustrious Names or Birth that Order in short which under the Celebrated Names of Rhodes and Maltha hath filled the Earth the Sea and all the Corners of our World with the glorious Trophics of an infinite number of Victories which they have Obtained against the Turks As for the ancient Hospitallers who were thus separated from these New ones with whom they formerly made up one Order under one great Master they still retained their ancient Name of St. Lazarus they added to the Habits of their Knights a green Cross to distinguish them from the others and maintained themselves within the Limits of their first Institution which allowing of Marriage consisted of three principal Vows of Charity to withdraw themselves from the World to the Service of the Infirm and Leprous of Chastity either in a single or conjugal State and of Obedience to their great Master and above all to be continually ready to Fight against the Infidels and the Enemies of the Church They also performed after this very signal Services in Palestine year 1119 which obliged the Kings Fulk Amaurus Baldwin the Third and Fourth and the Queens Melisantha and Theodora to take them into their particular Protection and to honor them with many Marks of their Royal Bounty the precious Testimonies whereof they do to this day preserve in their Treasury It was for this Cause that the young King Lewis at his Return from the Holy Land brought with him some of them into France there to Exercise their charitable Functions and to this purpose gave them the Supervising of all the Operations of the Infirmaries within his Realm as also the Castle of Boni near Orleans to be the principal House and chief Residence of their Order on this side the Sea as appears by his Letters Patents of the Year 1154. Signed by the Chancellor Huges in the Presence of the Constable Matthew de Montmorency which was Confirmed to them by Philip Augustus in the Year 1208 who also granted them great Priviledges and Immunities which have since been Augmented and solemnly Confirmed by twelve of our Kings of France In process of time the Order extended it self by Degrees through all Europe but principally in France England Scotland Germany Hungary Savoy Sicily Pavia Calabria Campania in Italy where the Emperor Frederick the Second gave them great Possessions in the Year 1225 which was also confirmed to them afterwards by the Bulla's of many Popes It was in that flourishing Estate wherein this Order was in Europe under this Emperor and under the King St. Lewis that the Pope Honorius the Third Approved it and Confirmed it anew giving it the Rule of St. Augustin with many great Priviledges which were also afterwards Augmented by the Bulla's of Pope Gregory the Ninth Alexander the Fourth Clement the Fourth Nicholas the Third Gregory the Tenth and John the Twenty second and many other Soveraign Popes who granted to them the same Favours which were Enjoyed by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by which they were impowred to hold Estates given either by particular Persons or Bodies Politick and Corporate and all the Hospitals and Infirmaries with their Goods and Possessions which at any time belonged to this Order In the time that the Affairs of the Christians were almost become Desperate in the East after the Return of St. Lewis from his Voyage to the Holy Land the great Master of St. Lazarus with the greatest part of the Knights came to settle themselves in France where this devout King who took this Order into his Royal Protection and gave them of his Bounty a thousand Marks besides other Favours which he conferred on them became in a manner a new Founder and in effect it is most certain as appears by most authentick Acts that after this time the principal Seat of the Order of St. Lazarus as well on this as the other side of the Sea hath always been kept at their Castle of Boni where the general Chapter of the Order ought to be kept once every three Years and that the Kings of France have always been the Conservators and Patrons of the Order and have nominated and appointed the great Master That these great Masters have Exercised their Jurisdictions upon all the Knights of the Order in all the States of Christendom as the Generals of the Cistertians Premonstratenses and other Orders which at present are in France Exercise theirs over all the Religious of other Realms It
the other side endeavoured to satisfie the Council in every particular of the Charge year 1245 But perceiving that the greatest part of his Judges were not like to be favourable to him he desired that at least it might be deferred for some days till the third Session to the end that the Emperor who he assured them was upon his way to come to the Council might have time according to his desire to make his appearance To this the Pope willingly consented as believing that if that Prince were present all differences would easily be adjusted And although many who desired that this Affair should be quickly determined opposed it he gave twelve days respit in which they laboured in the private meetings to regulate all the other matters that were under debate At last the term being expired and that the Emperor who would by no means acknowledge the Council to be the Judge of his differences with the Pope did not appear the third Session was held upon the Monday being the seventeenth day of July where the seventeen Decrees which were made for the reformation of manners and discipline were approved as also those for finding out the ways to succour the Empire of Constantinople and to oppose the irruption of the Tartars and for the Publication of a Crusade against the Sarasins who possessed the Holy Land That which was decreed upon this Article was That the Crusade should be preached in all places That those who had already taken upon them the Cross and had not accomplished their Vow should be constrained by the Prelates to take it up upon pain of Excommunication That the Ancient Crusades and those who should take it up anew should at a certain time and place to be appointed repair to the Pope to receive his Benediction That there should be either a Peace or a Truce for four years among all the Christian Princes That during all that time there should be no publick Turnaments or Tiltings held That the Lords of the Crusade should retrench all manner of Superfluity and Vain Magnificence in their train their Equipage their habits and their Tables That the Bishops should take great care to exhort their People and especially such upon whom they imposed any Pennance for their Crimes to contribute some part of their Goods to the Holy War and that they should keep an exact Register of what was thus collected That all the Ecclesiasticks should be obliged to pay for this War the twentieth part of their Revenue for three years those only excepted who took up the Cross themselves and that the Pope and the Cardinals should pay the tenth to give an example to others who might be ashamed not to follow them And in short all the Privileges granted by the Councils and by the Popes in Favour of the Crusades were confirmed and all those Punishments denounced by the Bullas and the Canons against such as enterprised any thing against the Persons or Estates of the Crusades or against such as favoured the Pyrates or carried Arms to the Infidels were also ratified And for the obtaining the aid of God Almighty it was ordered that Prayers should be made in all Churches in the Octaves of the Nativity of our Blessed Lady After this the Cause of the Emperor who had refused to appear was taken into consideration And as his Ambassador Thadeus perceived that the Sentence which was already prepared was going to be pronounced by the Pope he protested aloud against it to stop it from proceding any further crying That he appealed to a general Councel To which the Pope replyed with great Moderation That this was one that all the Prelates and Princes had been called to and that if the Bishops of Germany and some others were not present it was the Fault of his Master who had hindred them from coming On the other part Hugh Bigod William de Chanteloup and Philip Basset the Ambassadours of England who favoured Frederick the Brother-in-Law of their King whose Sister he had married to gain time presented to the Pope Letters in the Name of the whole English Nation which contained two very nice points wherein they demanded to have Justice done them and which doubtless would take up a great deal of time The first was upon what the late King John had done who in despight and contrary to all right as well as against the Inclination of all his People had they said made a Donation of England and Ireland to the Pope to have the Crown for the future held of the Holy See which they protested was wholly null and void the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having in the name of the whole Body of the Realm opposed it The Second was a complaint to the Pope that his Legates Nuncio's and other Ministers year 1245 whom he sent into England besides the levying of the Peter-Pence made there under a thousand Pretexts such insupportable Exactions upon the People as they were resolved no longer to suffer To this Innocent who easily discovered the Artifice answered coldly That the Council being not assembled for those matters the discussion of them must be deferred till some other time wherein they might be debated more fully and with more leisure And then after having acquainted the Assembly with how much respect Honour and all the Testimonies of a sincere affection he had treated the Emperor Frederick both before and since his Pontificate and acquainted them how many times he had ineffectually endeavoured to reduce him to his Duty by mild and gentle methods he first pronounced the Sentence against him viva voce and afterwards caused it to be read by which He declared him excommunicate deprived him of the Empire and all his Realms and of all manner of Honours preheminences and Dignities for all those Crimes which are therein at large expressed absolving all his Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance which they had taken to him and expresly prohibiting all manner of persons under pain of Excommunication to acknowledge him either as Emperor or as King or in that quality to give him either Counsel or Aid And at the same time the Bishops who held the Tapers lighted in their hands approved and confirmed the Sentence and in extinguishing them pronounced the Anathema against him After which the Pope rising from his Throne began the Te Deum with which Hymn this famous Council was concluded in which there was neither Decree nor Canon made concerning matters of Faith though there were many Heresies in those times there being nothing made but certain Regulations for the Discipline of the Church and after the Judgment which was given against Frederick the Pope decided nothing but a Politick and tender Affair of State in which all Sovereigns seemed to have a great Interest For upon occasion of this Council the Estates of Portugal being disatisfied with their King Dom Sanches whom in by reason of the weakness of his Mind they believed unfit and unable to govern they sent to Lyons the Archbishop