HENCE.) The following year is marked by the death of Innocent III., whose intrigues had so much raised the papal authori ty, and occasioned so many wars in Europe. Besides his unprincipled political conduct, his character is stained by his cruel persecutions of the Albigenses, and the encour agement for that purpose given to the Spaniard Dominic and his followers, so distinguished in after times for their hostility against religious liberty. Innocent died at Peru gia, 1216, on his way to Tuscany, for the purpose of rcsior ing peace between the Pisans and Genoese, in order to com bine their forces for the defence ol Palestine.
Our attention should now naturally be directed to the magnificent conquests of the Venetians and Genoese dur ing the 4th cr usadc ; but as these transactions, and the naval victories of these two republics, deserve to be narrat ed in a more connected manner, their history will fall more properly to be considered under the article VENICE.
The contest between Otho and Frederic armed the cities of Italy against each other. The Milanese remained con stant in their attachment to the cause of Otho; and were joined by Thomas, count of Savoy, and Crema, Placentia, Alexandria, &c. On the other side, Pavia, Cremona, Par ma, Modena, &c. embraced the cause of Frederic, and were styled the Ghibeline League. The city of Pavia, however, after several defeats, was forced to join the opposite party. Notwithstanding these wars, the wealth of the Lombard cities was daily increasing ; and, even at this early period, the opulent among them had begun to lend money on in terest to their foreign neighbours—a trade which they af terwards monopolized to such a degree, that, in most Euro pean countries, the name Lombard became synonymous with that of banker. The progress of science, too, such as it existed in these ages, attested their prosperity. The uni versity of Bologna, originally dedicated to the study of the civil and canon laws, now possessed teachers of every branch of liberal science ; and the number of students, and the many rival establishments in other cities, demonstrated the zeal of the Italians for those acquirements, which had been unknown to their ancestors.
The death of Otho having now put an end to the compe tition for the empire, the Pope Honorius III. agreed to in vest the king of Naples with the imperial dignity, upon con dition of his immediately taking the cross, and proceeding to the Holy Land. Frederic, whose education at the papal court had taught dissimulation to a character otherwise re sembling his ancestors, readily accepted the condition. He,
however, remained in Germany for two years, until he had obtained the coronation of his son Henry (then only ten years old) as king of the Romans. He then entered Italy at the head of a considerable army, and proceeding directly to Rome, received from Honorius the imperial crown, re newing at the same time his promise of proceeding to Pa lestine. But the affairs of his hereditary kingdoms first de manded his attention; and he found them in such a state of anarchy and insubordination, that for several years they con tinned his sole object of attention, notwithstanding the en treaties and menaces of the pontiff. His zeal in the cause of the crusaders was at length roused, by his second mar riage with Yolanta, the heiress of the kingdom of Jerusa lent. He sent some reinforcements to the East, and began to make preparations for embarking at Brindisi, where he collected his army. A pestilential fever, which raged among the troops, and attacked the emperor himself, oblig ed him, for another year, to defer his voyage. But on the death of Pope Honorius, Gregory IX. who succeeded him, excommunicated the emperor for not performing his pro mise, accusing him at the same time of feigning disease, for the purpose of evading it. Frederic, however, ordering his bishops to disregard the papal sentence, and appealing to the European princes, determined by his actions to prove his sincerity, and embarked the following autumn for the Holy Land. But this measure did not appease the indig nation of the pope ; and not contented with exciting his subjects to rebellion, and sending an army of crusaders, headed by Frederic's own father-in-law, to lay waste his ter ritories, he even interdicted the Christains in Palestine from giving obedience to his orders. Notwithstanding these dif ficulties, the emperor succeeded in making an honourable peace with the sultan of Egypt, and Jerusalem was restor ed to the christains ; though such was the veneration of the patriarch for the papal mandates, that he refused to assist at Frederic's coronation ; and the new king of Jerusalem was obliged, with his own hands, to invest himself with the ensigns of royalty. His rapid return to Italy, soon discon certed the plans of his enemies ; the army, which had in vaded Naples, was dispersed ; and the pope, alarmed for his safety, hastened to conclude a treaty.