354
ESSAYS ON IBERTY
had been given a,vay for very little. Besides the tribute, the vassals owed feudal service to the Pope; but th'e government was not in his hands, and the imperial suzer- ainty remained. The great families had obtained from the Popes of their making such extensive grants that there \vas little remaining, and Otho I I I. tried to make up for it by a new donation. The loss of the patrimonies in Southern Italy established a claim on the Norman con- querors, and they became papal vassals for the kingdom of Sicily. But throughout the t\velfth century the Popes had no firm basis of their power in Italy. They were not al \va ys masters of Rome, and there was not a single pro- vincial to\vn they could reckon on. Seven Popes in a hundred years sought a refuge in France; two remained at Verona. The donation of Matilda was disputed by the emperors, and brought no material accession of terri- tory, until Innocent IlL, \vith his usual energy, secured to the Roman Church the south of Tuscany. He was the first Pope who governed a considerable territory, and became the real founder of the States of the Church. Before him, the Popes had possessions for which they claimed tribute and service, but no State that they admin- istered. Innocent obtained the submission of Benevento and Romagna. He left the towns to govern themselves by their o\vn laws, demanding only military _ aid in case of need, and a small tribute, which was not always exacted; Viterbo, for instance, paid nothing until the fifteenth century. The contest with Frederic II. stripped the Holy See of most of these acquisitions. In many cases its civil authority was no longer ackno\vledged; in many it became a mere title of honour, \vhile the real power had passed into the hands of _ the towns or of the nobles, sometimes into those of the bishops. Rudolph of Hal?,sburg restored all that had been lost, and surrendered the imperial claims. But while the German influence ,vas suspended, the influ- ence of France prevailed over the Papacy; and during the exile at Avignon the Popes were as helpless as if they had possessed not an acre of their own in Italy. It was
