Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/209

 PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MANFRED. 193 struggle on which all the rest depended, which in fact decided the destiny of the whole peninsula. The destruction of Manfred was an actual necessity to the success of the papal policy, and for years the Church sought throughout Europe a champion who could be allured by the promise of an earthly crown and assured salvation. In 1255 Alexander IY. authorized his legate, Bustand, Bishop of Bologna, to release Henry III. of England from his cru- sader's vow if he would turn his arms against Manfred, and the bribe of the Sicilian throne was offered to Henry's son, Edmund of Lancaster. When Bustand preached the crusade against Man- fred and offered the same indulgences as for the Holy Land the ignorant islanders wondered greatly at learning that the same pardons could be earned for shedding Christian blood as for that of the infidel. They did not understand that Manfred was necessarily a heretic, and that, as Alexander soon afterwards de- clared to Bainerio Saccone, it was more important to defend the faith at home than in foreign lands. In 1264, when Alphonse of Boitiers was projecting a crusade, Urban IY. urged him to change his purpose and assail Manfred, Finally, when Charles of Anjou was induced to strive for the glittering prize, all the enginery of the Church was exerted to raise for him an army of crusaders with a lavish distribution of the treasures of salvation. The shreivd lawyer, Clement IY., seconded and justified the appeal to arms by a formal trial for heresy. Just as the crusade was burst- ing upon him, Clement was summoning him to present himself for trial as a suspected heretic. The term assigned to him was February 2, 1266 ; Manfred had more pressing cares at the mo- ment, and contented himself with sending procurators to offer purgation for him. As he did not appear personally, Clement, on February 21, called upon the consistory to declare him condemned as a contumacious heretic, arguing that his excuse that the enemy were upon him was invalid, since he had only to give up his king- dom to avert attack. As but five days after this, on February 26, Manfred fell upon the disastrous field of Benevento, the legal pro- ceedings had no influence on the result, yet none the less do they serve to show the spirit in which Borne administered against its political opponents the laws which it had enacted against heresy.* III.— 13
 * Th. Cantimpratens. Bonum universale, Lib. 11. c. 2.— Matt. Paris ann. 1255