Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/249

 URBAN

213

URBAN

nlways ready for any work that presented itself. His life was a full one, yet business had not banished piety. "The Pope does what he will", reports a Sienese ambassador, "there has been no Pope since Alexander III so energetic in word and deed. . . . rhere is no obstacle to his will ... he does everj- Harttung, "Iter Itahcum", 675). Had his reign been onger, he woulil liave been one of the most striking igures in the history of the papacy. Urban's great mtagonist wa,-; Manfred, son of Frederick II, and isuri'fi'of the Sicilian crowni. Manfred's chief gift was •entralized system to rely on, but as a warrior he was acking in decision and boldness. After the battle of Montaperti, he became the hero of half Italy, the •entre of the Ghibelline party and of all opposition to he papacy. He was an.vious for peace and recogni- ion from the pope, and Urban w;is able to keep him n play until the long drawn-out negotiations with Dharles of Anjou were nearly complete. Within less han a year of his election the pope created fourteen lew cardinals. Of these six were relatives or de- )endants of the eight who had elected hhn, but seven vere Frenchmen, including his ow'n nephew and three vho had been St. Louis's counsellors. Thus Urban van sure of a majority in the Sacred College, but he )rought into being a French party which was a prin- hirteenth century and in the fourteenth became )ractically the whole College. Among the new cardi- lals were the three future popes, Clement IV, Martin \, and Honorius IV, who were to have the greatest ihare in finishing and defending his work.
 * hing by himself without taking advice" (Pflug-
 * act ; a.s an adiuini.strator he had his father's highly
 * ipal factor in ecclesiastical policy for the rest of the

Urban's fii-st step towards the restoration of his lower in Italy was to put the finances in order and )ay his predecessor's debts. He changed the bankers if the .\postolic Camera, employing a Sienese firm vhose services did much to assure the ultimate success if his plans. Urban's Italian pohcy gives a complete )icture of his statesmanship — astute and diplomatic m occasions, but with a marked predilection for ener- jhibelline cities and, by an adroit use of the then leclare null all obligations towards persons excom- Qunicate, was able to throw their commercial affairs nto confusion (for some curious details see Jordan, ' Origines ", 3.37 sq.). He estabhshed an ascendancy ver his partisans and raised up a new Guelph party lound to him by personal interest, which eventually urnished Charles of Anjou with monetary support .ithout which his expedition must have failed. In he Papal States new officers were appointed, im- lortant p<jints fortified, and the defensive system of nnocent III restored. At Rome Urban obtained the ecognition of his sovereignty, but he never risked a isit to the city. In Lombardy his most important ct was the strengthening of the traditional alliance etween the Holy See and the House of Este. By the liddle of 12(53 the general results of Urban's extra- iicilian IlaUan policy were seen in the almost com- lete restoration of order in the Papal States, he weakening of Manfred's alhances in Lombardy, nd the resurrection in Tuscany of the crushed iuelphs.
 * et ic measures. He aroused dissensions between rival
 * enerally acknowledged right of the Holy See to

A foreign conqueror for Sicily was necessary to at- ain the expulsion of Manfred, for after the defeat of ilexander IV's forces at Foggia (20 Aug., 125.5) all ope was lost of a direct conquest by the papacy, n 1252 Innocent IV had granted the crown of Naples the English Henry III for his second son, Edmund; ut the king had his hands too full at home and ,fi.s himself too prodigal to allow him to embark on he very costly Sicilian adventure. Charles of .Anjou, hough he had refu.sed the offer of Innocent IV, had oth the power and the ambition necessary for such

an undertaking. St. Louis's scruples as to the rights of Conrailin and Edmund were overcome, and though he refused the crown for himself or his .sons, he finally permitted its offer to his brother. In the mind of the holy king the Sicilian expedition appeared as a pre- hminary to a great crusade: he saw that Sicily would, in the hands of a French prince, be an ideal starting- point. Vet Louis had been desirous of peace between the pope and Manfred, and even the pope for a time seemed prepared to recognize him as King of Sicily, but the negotiations finally failed. Urban made it his business to prove that the fault lay with his op- ponent, for European opinion was interested in a struggle in which great princes such as .A.lphonsus of Aragon and Baldwin, the exiled Latin Emperorof Con- stantinople, had intervened on the side of peace. It was about May, 121)3, that St. Louis made up his mind, and shortly afterwards the envoy of Charles of Anjou appeared in Rome. The chief conditions laid down by Urban were as follows: Sicily must never be united to the empire, its king must pay an annual tribute, take an oath of fealty to the pope, and ab- stain from acquiring any considerable dominion in Northern Italy; the succession also was strictly regulated. The treaty in fact "was to be the last link in the long chain of acts which had e.stabli.shed the suzerainty of the Holy See over Sicily" (Jor- dan, 443).

The negotiations dragged on slowly as long as the pope felt no acute need of French intervention in Italy, but by May, 1264, the fortunes of the Church were threatening to decline quickly, in face of the rising activity and fortunes of the Ghibellines. Urban sent the French Cardinal Simon de Brion to France as his legate with power to concede certain disputed points: he was, however, to insist on a guarantee that Charles would not retain in perpetuity the Senator- ship of Rome; vows to go on a crusade to the Holy Land were to be commuted for the crusade against Manfred and his Saracens, which was to be preached throughout PVance and Italy. Urban's position was daily growing more dangerous in spite of the incom- prehensible inactivity of Manfred. He feared a sim- ultaneous attack from north and south, and even attempts to assas.sinate himself and Charles of Anjou by the emissaries of Manfred's reputed ally, the "Old Man of the Mountains". In August St. Louis's last objections to the treaty were over- come, and various concessions made to Charles's demands. The legate held several synods to ob- tain from the French clergy the tithes granted by the pope for the expedition. In Italy fortune continued to favour the Ghibellines; a Guelph army was de- feated in the Patrimony, and Lucca deserted to the enemy. Sienese intrigue threatened LVban's security at Orvieto, and on 9 Sept. he set out for Perugia, where he died

"Thus the man, whose bold initiative was to in- fluence so greatly the destinies of three great countries, to bring to a close the most glorious period of medieval Germany by the ruin of the Hohenstaufen, to intro- duce a new dynasty into Italy, and to direct French policy in a direction as yet unknown, quitted the stage before he had seen the consequences of his acts at the very hour when the negotiations, com- menced at his accession and continued throughout his reign, had reached completion" (Jordan, op. cit., 513),

If Urban's treatment of Manfred appear harsh and un.scrupulous, it must be remembered how the Church had suffered at the hands of the Hohen- staufen ever since the days of Frederick I. In the eyes of feudal law Manfred was a usurper with- out rights: he had callously seized his nephew Con- radin's crown, and even that nephew could not in- herit from a grandfather who had been deprived of his fief for rebellion against his suzerain. At this