CLEMENT
19
CLEMENT
Seated in the Lateran, Pope Clement turned his
attention to the gigantic task of massing the forces
of Christendom against the Saracens. He was the
organizer of the Third Crusade; and if that imposing
expedition produced insignificant results, the blame
nowise attaches to him. He dispatched legates to
the different courts, who laboured to restore harmony
among the belligerent monarchs and princes, and to
divert their energy towards the reconquest of the
Holy Sepulchre. Fired by the example of the Em-
peror Barbarossa and of the Kings of France and
England, a countless host of Christian warriors took
the road which led them to Palestine and death. At
the time of Clement's death, just before the capture
of Acre, the prospects, notwithstanding the drowning
of Barbarossa and the return of Philip Augustus, still
seemed bright enough.
The death of the pope's chief vassal, William II of Sicily, precipitated another unfortunate quarrel be- tween the Holy See and the Hohenstaufen. Henry VI, the son and successor of Barbarossa, claimed the kingdom by right of his wife Costauza, the only le- gitimate survivor of the House of Roger. The pope, whose independence was at an end, if the empire and the Two Sicilies were held by the same monarch, as well as the Italians who detested the rule of a for- eigner, determined upon resistance, and when the Sicilians proclaimed Tancred of Lecce, a brave but illegitimate scion of the family of Roger, as king, the pope gave him the investiture. Henry advanced into Italy with a strong army to enforce his claim ; an op- portune death reserved the continuation of the con- test to Clement's successor, Celestine III. By a wise moderation Clement succeeded in quieting the dis- turbances caused by contested elections in the Dio- ceses of Trier in Germany and St. Andrews in Scot- land. He also delivered the Scottish Church from the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of York and declared it directly subject to the Holy See. Clement canon- ized Otto of Bamberg, the Apostle of Pomerania (d. 1139), and Stephen of Thiers in Auvergne, founder of the Hermits of Grammont (d. 1124).
Barosius, Ann. EccL. ad ann. IISS; Life and Letters in Mansi, XXII, 5-!3. P. L.. CCIV, 5; Michaud, Hist, des Croi- sades (Brussels, 1841); Conder, The Latin Kingdom of Jeru- salem (London, 1897): Artaud de Montor, History of the Roman Pontiffs (New York, 1867).
James F. Lotjghlin.
Clement IV, Pope (Guido Le Gros), b. at Sainf- Gilles on the Rhone, 2.3 November, year unknown; elected at Perugia 5 February, 1265; d. at Viterbo, 29 November, 1268. After the death of Urban IV (2 October, 1264), the cardinals, assembled in conclave at Perugia, discussed for four months the momentous question whether the Church should continue the war to the end again.st the House of Hohenstaufen by calling in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of St. Louis of France, or find some other means of securing the in- dej^endence of the papacy. No other solution offering itself, the only pos- sible course was to unite upon the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina, by birth a Frenchman and a subject of Charles. Guido Le Gros was of noble extraction. When his mother died, his father, the knight Foulquois, entered a Carthusian monastery where he ended a saintly life. Guido married, and for a short time wielded the spear and the sword. Then devoting himself to the study of law under the able direction of the famous Durandus, he gained a national reputation as an advocate. St. Louis, who entertained a great re- spect and affection for him, took him into his cabinet and made him one of his trusted councillors. His wife died, lea\nng him two daughters, where- upon he imitated liis father to the extent that
he gave up worldly concerns and took Holy or>
ders.
His rise in the Church was rapid; 1256, he was Bishop of Puy; 1259, Archbishop of Narbonne; De- cember, 1261, Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina. He was the first cardinal created by Urban IV (Eubel, Hier- archia Catholica, 7). He was in France, returning from an imi)ortant legation to England, when he re- ceived an urgent message from the cardinals demand- ing his immediate presence in Perugia. Not until he entered the conclave, was he informed that the unani- mous vote of the Sacred College had confided into his hands the destinies of the Catholic Church. He was astonished; for only a man of his large experience could fully realize the responsibility of him whose judgment, at tliis critical juncture, must irrevocably shape the course of ItaUan and ecclesiastical history for centuries to come. His prayers and tears failing to move the carchnals, he reluctantly accepted the hea\-y burden, was crowned at Viterbo, 22 February, and, to honour the saint of his birthday, assumed the name of Clement IV. His contemporaries are unani- mous and enthusiastic in extolling his exemplary piety and rigorously ascetic life. He had a remarkable aversion to nepotism. His first act was to forbid any of his relatives to come to the CXiria, or to attempt to derive any sort of temporal advantage from his elevation. Suitors for the hands of his daughters were admonished that their prospective brides were "children not of the pope, but of Guido Grossus", and that their dowers should be extremely modest. The two ladies preferred the seclusion of the convent.
The Neapolitan question occupied, almost exclu- sively, the thoughts of Clement IV during liis short pontificate of 3 years, 9 months, and 25 days, which, however, witnessed the two decisive battles of Bene- vento and Taghacozzo (1268), and the execution of Conradin. The negotiations with Charles of Anjou had progressed so far under the reign of Urban IV that it is <lifficult to see how the pope could now well draw back, even were he so inclined. But Clement had no intention of doing so. The power of Man- fred and the insecurity of the Holy See were increas- ing daily. Clement had already, as cardinal, taken an active part in the negotiations with Charles and now exerted himself to the utmost in order to supply the ambitious but needy adventurer mth troops and money. Papal legates and mendicant friars appeared upon the scene, preaching a formal crusade, with the amplest indulgences and most la\'ish promises. Sol- diers were obtained in abundance among the warlike chivalry of France; the great difficulty was to find money with which to equip and maintain the army. The clergy and people failed to detect a crusade in what they deemed a personal quarrel of the pope, a "war hard by the Lateran, and not with Saracens nor with Jews" (Dante, Inf., canto xxviii); though, in reality, Saracens, implanted in Italy by Frederick II, made up the main strength of Manfred's army. Al- though reduced at times to utter destitution, and forced to pledge everj-thing of value and to borrow at exorbitant rates, the pope did not despair; the expe- dition arrived, and from the military point of view acliieved a brilliant success.
Charles, preceding his army, came to Rome by sea, and upon the conclusion of a treaty, by which the liberties of the Church and the overlordship of the Holy See seemed to be most firmly secured, he re- ceived the investiture of his new kingdom. On 6 Jan- uary, 1266, he was solemnly crowned in St. Peter's; not, as he had wished, by the pope, who took up his residence in Viterbo and never saw Rome, but by cardinals designated for the purpose. On 22 Febru- ary was fought the battle of Benevento, in which Charles was completely \dctorious; Manfred was fount! among the slain. Naples opened her gates and the Angevin dynasty was established. Though a
