Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/445

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FREDERICK BARBAROSSA AND ALEXANDER III.
425

subject the world to Rome, and, sure of success, would conquer all things,— if only the favour of the Roman pontiff would aid him in this. And this he did in order that against whomever he, the emperor, declaring war, should draw the material sword,—against the same the Roman pontiff should draw the spiritual sword. He did not find any one hitherto who would consent to such iniquity, and, Moses himself opposing—i.e. the law of God contradicting—he raised up for himself a Balaamitic pontiff, through whom he might curse the people of God; the son of malediction (Antichrist), therefore, for the designation and reception of whom, through many generations, from the first father of the family down to him for whom it was reserved, the name and cognomen of "accursed" has been invented. And perhaps, for the purging and proliation of the Roman church, the attack of the Germans, like that of the Canaanite, has been left to hang over it forever, — in order that for her own improvement he should make her uneasy, himself being conquered and giving way; and that she herself, after her triumph, should be restored more pleasing and more glorious to the embraces of her Spouse. And so to the renown of the fathers,—witness the Lateran palace where even lay men read this in visible pictures—to the renown of the fathers, the schismatics whom the secular power thrusts in are given to the pontiffs as a foot stool, and posterity looks back with triumph to their memory. . . . . . . . . . .

(c.) The Peace of Venice, 1177.

1. The lord emperor Frederick, according as he has received the lord pope Alexander as catholic and universal pope, so he will exhibit to him due reverence, just as his, Frederick's, catholic predecessors have exhibited it to his, Alexander's, catholic predecessors. He will also exhibit the same reverence to the pope's successors who shall be catholically enthroned,

2. And the lord emperor will truly restore peace as well to the lord pope Alexander, as to all his successors and to the whole Roman church.

3. Every possession and holding, moreover, whether of