Hadrian V.

Elected

Aug. 18.

John XXI.

The first of these, Peter of Tarantaise (Innocent V.), was elected in January, took up his residence in Rome, and died in June. Ottobuoni Fieschi, the nephew of Innocent IV., answered his kindred, who July 9, died crowded around him with congratulations on his election, "Would that ye came to a cardinal in good health, not to a dying Pope." He just lived to take the name of Hadrian V., to release his native Genoa from interdict, and to suspend with his dying breath the constitution of Gregory X. concerning the Conclave. He was not crowned, consecrated, or even ordained priest. Hadrian V. died at Viterbo. The immediate choice of the cardinals now fell on Pedro Juliani, a Portuguese, the Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum. Though the cardinals had already obtained from the dying Hadrian the suspension of the severely restrictive edict of Gregory X. concerning the Conclave, the edict was popular abroad. There were many, and among them prelates who declared that, excepting under that statute, and in conformity with its regulations, the cardinals had no right to the sole election of the Pope. There was a great uproar in Viterbo, instigated by these prelates. The Archbishop of Corinth, with some other ecclesiastics who were sent forth to read the suspension of the edict by Hadrian V., confirmed by John XXI., the new Pope, was maltreated; yet, even if the ceremonial was not rigidly observed, there had been the utmost speed in the election of John XXI. The Pope was a man

1" In tantam prorupere temeritatis insaniam, ut in dubium auctoritatem et jurisdictionem collegii ejusdem Ecclesiæ revocarent, et de illis in derogationem ipsarum disputantes utilibet, enervare immo et evacuare pro viribus niterentur inanibus argumentis." — Rescript. Joann. XXI., apud Raynald.

of letters, and even of science; he had published some mathematical treatises which excited the astonishment and therefore the suspicion of his age. He was a churchman of easy access, conversed freely with humbler men, if men of letters, and was therefore accused of lowering the dignity of the Pontificate. He was perhaps hasty and unguarded in his language, but he had a more inexpiable fault. He had no love for monks or friars it was supposed that he meditated some severe coercive edicts on these brotherhoods. Hence his death (he was crushed by the falling of the roof in a noble chamber which he had built in the palace of Viterbo) was foreshown by gloomy prodigies, and held either to be a divine judgment, or a direct act of the Evil One. John XXI. was contemplating with too great pride the work of his own hands, and burst out into laughter; at that instant the avenging roof came down on his head. Two visions revealed to different holy men the Evil One 20? 1277. hewing down the supports, and so overwhelming the reprobate Pontiff. He was said by others to have been, at the moment of his death, in the act of writing a book full of the most deadly heresies, or practising the arts of magic.1

May 15 (?)

Nicolas III. il

For six weeks, the Cardinals, released from the coercive statute, met in conclave without coming Nov. 25, to any conclusion. At length the election 1277 fell on John Gaetano, of the noble Roman comperto. house, the Orsini, a man of remarkable beauty of person and demeanor. His name, "the Accomplished," implied that in him met all the graces of the handsom

1 Ptolem. Luc. xxvi. Nangis, however, says that he died "perceptis ɔmnibus sacramentis ecclesiasticis.". Sub ann. 1277. Siffred. in Chronic.

est clerks in the world; but he was a man likewise of irreproachable morals, of vast ambition, and of great ability. This age of short-lived Popes was the age of magnificent designs as short-lived as their authors. The nobler, more comprehensive, more disinterested scheme of Gregory X. had sunk into nothing at his death; that of Nicolas III. had deeper root, but came not to maturity during his reign, or in his line. An Italian, a Roman, was again upon the throne of St. Peter. The Orsini at first took up his residence at Rome. He built a splendid palace, the Vatican, near St. Peter's, with gardens around, and fortified with a strong wall. He repaired, enlarged, and strengthened the Lateran Palace. Unlike his rash predecessor, he was a friend to the great monastic orders: he knew how completely the preachers and other mendicants still, notwithstanding the hatred of the clergy, now they had taken possession of the high places of theology, ruled the public mind. To Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventura the world looked up as to its guiding lights; nor had they lost their power over the popular passions.

Nicolas III. did not in any degree relax the Papal superintendence over Christendom to its extreme limits he is interfering in the affairs of Poland and Hungary, mediating in the wars between France and Spain, watching over the crumbling wreck of the Christian possessions in the Holy Land. In the East he not merely held the justly alarmed Emperor, Michael Palæologus, to his plighted fidelity and allegiance, but insisted on the more ample recognition of the Papal supremacy. He demanded that a solemn oath of sub

1 Bunsen und Platner, Roms Beschreibung, ii. p. 231.

2 Raynald. sub ann. 1279, 80. Pachymer (vi. 10, p. 461) calls the Pope

ordination should be taken by the Patriarch and the clergy. To the prudent request of the Emperor, that the obnoxious words which asserted the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, should not be forced at once into the creed, he returned a haughty reply that no indulgence could be granted, though some toleration might be conceded for a time on the other points in which the Greek differed from the Roman ritual. He even required that the Greek Church should humbly seek absolution for the sin of their long schism. A strong faction broke out in the Empire, in Constantinople, in the Court, in the family of the Emperor. They branded the Pope, the Patriarch, the Emperor, as heretics. Palæologus became that most odious of persecutors, a persecutor without the excuse of religious. bigotry; confiscation, scourging, mutilation, punished the refractory assertors of the independence of the Greek Church. The Pope's Legates were gratified by the sight of four princes of the blood confined in a loathsome prison. But discontent led to insurrection. The Prince of Trebisond, who had always retained the title of Emperor, espoused the cause of Greek orthodoxy. His generals betrayed the unhappy Palæologus: his family, especially his nieces, intrigued against him. He hesitated; for his hesitation he was excommunicated at Rome by Martin IV., the slave of his enemy Charles of Anjou. On his death the Greeks with one Return of consent threw off the yoke; the churches the Greek were purified from the infection of the Latin dependence. rites; the creed resumed its old form; Andronicus, the

Church to in

upẞavos. The Jesuit Possin, Chronol. in Pachymerum, conjectures Ovpoivos the Orsini perhaps a blunder of the Greeks. The whole long intrigue may be traced through two or three books of Pachymer.

son of Palæologus, refused burial to his schismatic father.1

But Italy was the scene of the great achievements, it was to be that of the still greater designs, of Nicolas III. The Emperor Rodolph was not yet so firmly seated on his throne (he was involved in a perilous war with Ottocar of Bohemia) as to disdain the aid of the Roman Pontiff. He could not but look to the resumption at least of some imperial rights in Lombardy; if the Pope should maintain the cause of Charles of Anjou, Italy was entirely lost. From the magnificence, the policy, or the fears of Rodolph, the Pope extorted the absolute cession to the Roman See, not only of Romagna, but of the exarchate of Ravenna. The Chancellor of the Emperor had exacted an oath of allegiance from the cities of Bologna, Imola, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena, Ravenna, Rimini, Urbino, and May 29, 1278. some other towns. Rodolph disclaimed the acts of his Chancellor, recognized the donation of the Emperor Louis, and made a new donation, in his own name, of the whole territory from Radicofani to Ceperano, the March of Ancona, the duchy of Spoleto, the county of Bertinoro, the lands of the Countess Matilda, the exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, Ferrara, Comachio, Montefeltro, and Massa Trabaria, absolutely; and with all his full rights to the See of St. Peter. The Pope obtained a confirmatory acknowledgment of his sovereignty, as well as over Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, from the great electors of the Empire.2 This document is signed by the Archbishop of Salzburg and other prelates, by the Chancellor of the Empire, by Albert the eldest, and 1 Raynald. 1279. ii. 2 Raynald. p. 473.