Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/818

Rh 794 ROME [HISTORY. had taken refuge in the castle of the Visconti of Campag- natico. Frederick without delay caused one of the Visconti to be seized and kept prisoner until Arnold was given up, and then consigned the latter to the papal legates. The pope in his turn gave the reformer into the hands of lold's the prefect, Pietro di Vico, who immediately hanged his cu ' prisoner, burnt his body at the stake, and cast his ashes '' into the Tiber. The execution took place in June 1155. The exact date and place of it are unknown ; we only know that Arnold met his fate with great serenity and firmness. But the Romans who had so basely deserted their champion would not give up their republic. Their envoys went to meet Frederick near Sutri, and made an address in the usual fantastic style on the privileges of the Roman people and its sole right to confer the imperial crown. But Frederick indignantly cut short their harangue, and they had to depart full of rage. He then continued his march, and, entering Rome on the 18th June 1155, was forthwith crowned in St Peter's by the pope. Thereupon the Romans rushed to arms, and made a furious attack on the Leonine city and the imperial camp. A desperate battle went on throughout the day ; and the knights proved that the equestrian order instituted at Arnold's suggestion was no empty sham. About a thousand Romans perished by the sword or by drowning, but their fellow-citizens made such determined preparations to continue the struggle that Frederick, on the 19th June, hastily retreated or rather fled, and was escorted as far as Tivoli by the pope and the cardinals. After all, the temporal power of the papacy was not restored, and the j re- republic still survived in the form bestowed on it by >lic Arnold of Brescia. Its existence was in truth favourable rather than injurious to Frederick, whose aim was to rule over Rome and treat the bishops as his vassals. He had not yet discerned that his best policy would have been to use the republic as a lever against the pope. The latter, with keener acumen, while remaining faithful to the feudal party in Rome, made alliance with the communes of Lombardy and encouraged them in their resistance to the emperor. Hadrian IV. died in 1159, and the national party elected Alexander III. (1159-1181), who energetic- ally opposed the pretensions of Frederick, but, having to struggle with three antipopes successively raised against him by the imperial party, was repeatedly driven into exile. During these schisms the senate quietly carried on the government, administered justice, and made war on some neighbouring cities and barons. An army compris- ing many nobles of the national party marched against Tusculum, but found it defended by several valiant officers and a strong band of German soldiery, who, on the 29th May 1167, inflicted on the Romans so severe a defeat that it is styled by Gregorovius the Cannse of the Middle Ages. Shortly afterwards the emperor arrived in Rome with his antipope Paschal III., and Alexander had to fly before him to Benevento. Then, at last, Frederick came to terms with the republic, recognized the senate, which accepted investiture at his hands, re-established the pre- fecture as an imperial office, and bestowed it on Giovanni, son of Pietro di Vico. He then hastily departed, with- out having advanced outside the Leonine city. Meanwhile Pope Alexander continued the crafty policy of Hadrian and with better success, for the Lombard cities had now formed a league and inflicted a signal defeat on the emperor at Legnano on the 29th May 1176. One of the results of this battle was the conclusion of an agree- ment between the pope and the emperor, the latter resigning his pretensions on Rome and yielding all that he had denied to Hadrian. And by the treaty of Venice (1st August 1177) the antipope was forsaken, Alexander III. recognized and hailed as the legitimate pontiff, and Agree- the prefect of Rome again nominated by the pope, to men *l whom the emperor restored the temporal power, acknow- |^J, ledging him the independent sovereign of Rome and of am i t j, the ecclesiastical state, from Acquapendente to Ceprano. pope, Frederick's troops accompanied the pope to Rome, where the republic was forced to make submission to him. But, proudly conscious as it still was of its strength, its surrender wore the aspect of a voluntary concession, and its terms began with these words " Totius populi Romani consilio et deliberatione statutum est," &c. The senators, elected yearly in September, had to swear fealty to the pope, and a certain proportion of nobles was included in their number. On his return to Rome, Alexander received a solemn welcome from all, but he had neither extinguished nor really subdued the republic. On the contrary, men's minds were more and more inflamed by the example of freedom displayed in the north of Italy. He died on the 30th August 1181. The fact that between 1181 and 1187 there were three popes always living in exile proves that the republic was by no means crushed. During the same period another blow was inflicted on the papacy by the marriage of Henry VI., son and successor to Frederick I., with Constance, sole heiress of the Norman line in Naples. For thus the kingdom was joined to the empire and the popes were more than ever in the latter's power. On the 20th December 1187 Clement III. (1187-91), being raised to the pontificate, made a solemn agreement with the Government of the Capitol before coming to Rome. And this peace or concordia had the air of a treaty between potentates of equal importance. Rome con- fronted the pope from the same standpoint from which the Lombard cities had confronted the emperor after Legnano. This treaty, the basis of the new constitution, was confirmed on the last day of May 1188 (Anno XLIV. of the senate). It begins with these words : " Concordia inter Dominum Papam Clementern III. et senatores populumque Romanum super regalibus et aliis dignitatibus urbis. " The pope was recognized as supreme lord, and invested the senators with their dignity. He resumed the privilege of coinage, but allowed one-third of the issue to be made by the senate. Almost all the old pontifical rights and prerogatives .were restored to him. The pope might employ the Roman militia for the defence of his patrimony, but was to furnish its pay. The rights of the church over Tivoli and Tusculum were confirmed ; but the republic reserved to itself the right of making war on those cities, and declared its resolve to dismantle and destroy the walls and castle of Tusculum. In this under- taking the pope was to co-operate with the Romans, even should the unhappy city make surrender to him alone. From all this it is clear that the church had been made T!ome. independent of the empire, and that the republic, despite ""'ep* its numerous concessions, was by no means subject to the j^ c ^ church. The pope, in fact, had obtained liberty of ^.^ election, and Frederick I., by resigning the investiture of the prefect, had virtually Denounced his claim to imperial power in Rome. The republic had no patrician nor any other imperial magistrate, and preserved its independence even as regarded the pope, who merely granted investiture to magistrates freely chosen by the people, and had no legislative nor administrative power in the city. His temporal dominion was limited to his great possessions, to his regalia, to a supreme authority that was very indefinite, and to a feudal authority over the barons of the Campagna and many cities of a state that seemed ever on the point of dissolution. The senate continued to frame laws, to govern, and to administer justice. The army carried on the wars of the republic, as we see by the tragic fate of Tusculum, which was razed to the ground on the 19th