Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages/Book IV/Manifesto of the Emperor

by Frederick I

(b.) Manifesto of the Emperor, Oct. 1157.

Inasmuch as the divine power, from which is every power in Heaven and on earth, has committed to us, his anointed, the kingdom and the empire to be ruled over, and has ordained that the peace of the church shall be preserved by the arms of the empire,—not without extreme grief of heart are we compelled to complain to you, beloved, that, from the head of the holy church on which Christ impressed the character of his peace and love, causes of dissension, seeds of evil, the poison of a pestiferous disease seem to emanate. Through these, unless God avert it, we fear that the whole body of the church will be tainted, the unity riven, a schism be brought about between the kingdom and the priesthood. For recently, while we were holding court at Vesançon and with due watchfulness were treating of the honour of the empire and of the safety of the church, there came apostolic legates asserting that they brought such message to our majesty that from it the honour of our empire should receive no little increase. When, on the first day of their coming, we had honourably received them, and, on the second, as is the custom, we sat together with our princes to listen to their report,—they, as if inflated with the mammon of unrighteousness, out of the height of their pride, from the summit of their arrogance, in the execrable elation of their swelling hearts, did present to us a message in the form of an apostolic letter, the tenor of which was that we should always keep it before our mind's eye how the lord pope had conferred upon us the distinction of the imperial crown and that he would not regret it if our Highness were to receive from him even greater benefices. This was that message of paternal sweetness which was to foster the unity of church and empire, which strove to bind together both with a bond of peace, which enticed the minds of the hearers to the concord and obedience of both. Of a truth at that word, blasphemous and devoid of all truth, not only did the imperial majesty conceive a righteous indignation, but also all the princes who were present were filled with such fury and wrath that, without doubt, they would have condemned those two unhallowed presbyters to the punishment of death had not our presence prevented them. Whereupon, since many similar letters were found upon them, and sealed forms to be filled out afterwards at their discretion—by means of which, as has hitherto been their custom, they intended to strive throughout all the churches of the kingdom of Germany, to scatter the virus conceived by their iniquity, to denude the altars, to carry away the vessels of the house of God, to strip the crosses: lest an opportunity should be given them of proceeding further, we caused them to return to Eome by the way on which they had come. And, inasmuch as the kingdom, together with the empire, is ours by the election of the princes from God alone, who, by the passion of His Son Christ subjected the world to the rule of the two necessary swords; and since the apostle Peter informed the world with this teaching, "Fear God, honour the king": whoever shall say that we received the imperial crown as a benefice from the lord pope, contradicts the divine institutions and the teaching of Peter, and shall be guilty of a lie. Since, moreover, we have hitherto striven to rescue from the hands of the Egyptians the honour and liberty of the church which has long been oppressed by the yoke of an undue servitude, and are striving to preserve to it all the prerogatives of its dignity: we ask you as one to condole with us over such ignominy inflicted on us and on the empire, trusting that the undivided sincerity of your faith will not permit the honour of the empire which, from the foundation of Rome and the establishment of the Christian religion up to your own times has remained glorious and undiminished,^[1] to be lessened by so unheard of an innovation. And be it known beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we would rather incur danger of death than in our day to sustain the shame of so great a disaster.

1. This passage is an excellent illustration of the fact, so often insisted upon by Mr. Freeman, that there is no break in the continuity of history, and that the mediæval emperors considered themselves the direct successors of the Cæsars.