MATTHEW PARIS'S

ENGLISH HISTORY.

FROM THE YEAR 1235 TO 1273.

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN,

BY

THE REV. J. A. GILES, D.C.L.,

Late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1853.

How the pope secretly took to flight.

WHILST the year's orbit was revolving amidst these worldly changes, the emperor Frederick, urged on by the goadings of pride, began to repent of having, as above mentioned, humbled and bound himself to submission to the Church, and he now laid traps for the feet of the pope, and planned secret treachery, which afterwards, however, became evident enough. The pope, on the other hand, being forewarned of this, avoided as much as possible the fox-like meanderings of the emperor, and kept vigilant watch against them, nor would he put any trust in him or his friends, as he knew them all well, and thought of the future in comparison with the past.

On the day of the Holy Trinity, the pope, wishing to strengthen his party, because he had so few companions in his labours and participators in his anxieties, created ten cardinals; namely, Master John of Toledo, an Englishman by birth, and some others of distinguished family and morals. On the eighth day before the feast of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, he went with all the cardinals to the city of Castellana, eighteen miles from the city, in order to be nearer the emperor, to settle the peace, which was now become a suspicious, indeed a hopeless, matter; and on the eve of the day of the apostles Peter and Paul, he arrived at the city of Sutri. The emperor, however, kicking against him, sent him word that he would do nothing in the matters agreed on, unless he first received letters of absolution, and as the pope refused to do this, replying that it was dissonant to reason, a disagreement arose between them. The pope, therefore, foreseeing the results of his anger, determined on making a sudden and clandestine flight, and without any

one's being privy to his plans, lest the emperor should discover them and throw obstacles in the way of his retreat. There were some, however, who asserted that he did this more out of his love for the presents which people from this side of the Alps were about to bring to him, but who dared not pass through the emperor's territory, and that he fled more for the purpose of meeting and receiving them in his ever-open bosom, than from the fear of any one persecuting him. He therefore made some pretext or other, and diligently directed his steps towards Genoa, which was a country congenial to him, as the following narrative will show. On that day, therefore, that is, on the eve of the Apostles' day, it was intimated to the pope (so he afterwards asserted), that three hundred Tuscan knights were coming on that night to seize him. At this news he was greatly astonished, and put on a look of great alarm, and, at the time of the first sleep, leaving his papal ornaments, and again becoming Senebald, and but lightly armed, he mounted a swift horse, and with well-filled purse, and almost without the knowledge of his attendants, suddenly and secretly took his departure; nor did he spare his horse's sides, for before the first hour of day he had travelled thirty-four miles unattended by any one; indeed no one was able to follow him. In the middle of the night, the cry of "The pope has gone away," was raised, and nobody was aware of his departure except some, and those very few, of the cardinals. On this, Peter of Capua, with only one attendant, followed him at great risk, and on the same day found him at a castle on the coast, called Civita Vecchia. At that place the pope had been met by twentythree galleys and sixteen barges, each of the former of which carried sixty well-armed men and a hundred and four rowers, besides sailors; and, owing to this, suspicious people conjectured that the pope had been for some time before expecting and wishing for their arrival. They were all manned by armed men, and were commanded by the podesta of Genoa, whom they called admiral, and the chief men of the city, who all boasted that they were related by kindred or blood to the pope, in order that they might get a reward. The pope now embarked late in the day, on one of these galleys, accompanied by seven cardinals and a few attendants, and put to sea. Scarcely, however, had the voyagers reached

A.D. 1244.] THE EMPEROR ANNOYED AT THE POPE'S FLIGHT. 3

the open sea, when they were attacked by a heavy storm, the wind, however, not being against them, and with sails. spread, though not without fear and great danger, they were carried by the force of the storm for a hundred miles on the same course as the prelates had sailed who were taken prisoners by the emperor, and on the Friday following arrived at a harbour in an island belonging to the Pisans, where they passed the night. On the morrow, however, having been absolved from their sins, and heard the mass of the Virgin Mary, as they were in great dread of the Pisans, they set sail and arrived at an island of the Genoese, performing a hundred and twenty-four miles on that day. Escaping the dangers of the sea with much difficulty, owing to the storm, they made their way to the Port of Venus, and there stayed the Sunday and Monday; and on the Wednesday, to their great joy, they arrived at Genoa, and the pope was now fifteen days' journey distant from the city. In this city, where he was born, he was received by his fellow-citizens, relations, and kindred, with ringing of bells, with songs, and musical instruments, all crying out, "Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord;" to which they again replied, "Our soul is like a sparrow escaped from the toils," &c. &c. &c.

The emperor is annoyed at the pope's flight.

When the fact of the pope's flight became known to the emperor, he gnashed his teeth like a satyr, saying, “It is written, 'The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth ;"'" and being overcome with astonishment and grief, he accused the guardians of the ports and citizens of sloth and idleness, for having permitted his enemies so easily to escape through them. He then ordered a most strict watch to be kept over all the ways of exit around Genoa, especially towards France, in order that no money might be carried to the pope. And now the emperor proclaimed himself the open enemy of the pope. The latter, too, now no longer considered Genoa a safe refuge for himself, being well aware of the emperor's power, and remembering the words of the poet,

An nescis longas regibus esse manus? [Know you not the hands of kings, Are mighty overreaching things?]