Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/248

232 "ALT. them revenues on churches abroad on the Hberal scale of three hundred marks a year apiece* Vainly Pallavicino sought to prevent the passage of the cru- saders through Lombardy. The fate of Italy-one may almost say of the papacy-was decided, February 26, 1266, on the plam of Benevento, where Guelf and Ghibelline from all portions of the Peninsula faced each other. Had Charles been defeated it would have fared iU with the Holy See. Europe had looked with aver- sion on the prostitution of its spiritual power to advance its tem- poral interests, and success alone could serve as a justification, in an age when men looked on the battle ordeal as recording the iudgment of God. In the previous August, Clement had despair- ingly answered Charles's demands for money by declaring that he had none and could get none-that England was hostde, that Germany was almost openly in revolt, that France groaned and complained, that Spain scarce sufllced for her internal necessities, and that Italy did not furnish her own share of expenses. After the battle, however, he could exultingly write, in May, to Cardinal Ottoboni of San Adriano, his legate in England, that " Charles of Aniou holds in peace the whole kingdom of that pestilent man, obtaining his putrid body, his wife, his children, and his treasure," adding that ah-eady the Mark of Ancona had returned to obedi- ence that Florence, Siena, Pistoja, and Pisa had submitted, that envoys had come from Uberto and Piacenza, and that others were expected from Cremona and Genoa ; and on June 1 he announced the submission of Uberto and of Piacenza and Cremona.f Although one by one Pallavicino's cities revolted from him m the general terror, his submission was only to gain time, and m 1267 he risked another cast of the die by joining in the invitation to Italy of the young Conradin, but the defeat and capture of that prince at Taghacozza, in August, 1268, followed by his bar- barous execution in October, extinguished the house of Suabia and the hopes of the Ghibellines. Charles of Anjou was master of. Italy; he was created imperial vicar in Tuscany; even in the . Epistt. Urbani PP. IV. (Martene Thesaur. II. 9-50, 74-9,116-18,220-37 )- Epistt. Clement. PP. IV. (Ibid. pp. 176, 186, 196-200, 213, 218, 241-5, 2.0, .60, ^^*J Epistt. Clem. PP. IV. (Martene Thesaur. II. 174, 319, 327).-Eaynald. ann. 1266, No. 23.