Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/229

DEATH OF FREDERIC II. 213 While Euggieri, in the summer of 1245, was precipitating the conflict in Florence, Innocent lY., in the Council of Lyons, was passing sentence of dethronement on Frederic II. and trying to find some aspirant hardy enough to accept the imperial crown. Frederic laughed the sentence to scorn and easily disposed of his would-be competitors, but he was obliged to struggle hard to main- tain his Italian possessions, and his death, December 13, 1250, relieved the papacy from the most formidable antagonist 'which Its ambitious designs had ever encountered. Skilled equally in the arts of war and peace, untiring in activity, dismayed by no reverses, intellectually far in advance of his age, and encumbered with few scruples, Frederic's brilhant abilities and indomitable courage had been the one obstacle in the papal path towards domi- nation over Italy and the foundation on that basis of a universal theocratic monarchy. His son, Conrad lY., a youth of twenty- one, was scarce to be dreaded in comparison, though Innocent cautiously waited for a while in Lyons before venturing into Italy After reaching Genoa, June 8, 1251, he addressed to Piero da Yerona and Yiviano da Bergamo a brief which shows that the intervening six months had not sufficed to dull the sense of rejoic- ing at the death of his great opponent, and that no more time was to be lost in taking full advantage of the opportunity A dithyrambic burst of exultation is followed by the declaration that thanks to God for this inestimable mercy are to be rendered not so much in words as in deeds, and of these the most accept- able is the purification of the faith. Frederic's favor towards here- tics had long impeded the operations of the Inquisition throughout Italy, and now that he is removed it is to be put into action every- where with aU possible vigor. Inquisitors are to be sent into all parts of Lombardy; Piero and Yiviano are ordered to proceed forthwith to Cremona, armed with all necessary powers ; rulers who do not zealously assist them will be coerced with the spir- itual sword, and, if this proves insufficient, Christendom will be aroused to destroy them in a crusade. This bull was foHowed bv a rapid succession of others addressed to the Dominican provin- cials and to potentates, ordering strenuous co-operation, and the in the middle of the fifteenth century, by Sant' Antonino, Prior of San Marco into a charitable association for the care of orphans (Villari, Storia di Giro/ Savonarola, Firenze, 1887, I. 37).