THE THRONE OF THE WORLD
of the Pope, The year following Otto lost the Battle of Bouvines, and neither he nor his English ally recovered from the blow. The Papacy had thus pressed to its bosom a young and beautiful viper who would soon prove (as Voltaire was to say later on) "un modele de la plus parfait politique."
These events were followed by the Council of the Lateran (1215) which was the greatest assemblage of churchmen the world had ever seen. Many more than a thousand ecclesiastics, including the Patri- archs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, delegates from Alexandria and Antioch, and legates of the temporal rulers assembled. Archbishop Roderic of Toledo delivered in Latin, French, German, English and Spanish a greatly admired address on the extent of the Papal powers. To this spiritual glorification the Bishop of Liege appended a symbol of the temporal power of the Church by appearing on the first day as a Count clad in scarlet, on the second day as a Duke dressed in green, and on the third day as a Bishop arrayed in violet garments.
Innocent opened the sessions with a feeling that he was soon to die: "I have desired with a great desire to eat this Pascal Lamb with you before I go." The situation then existing throughout the world entitled him to liken the authority of the Papacy to the Sun and the power of Kings to the Moon, which bears its light as a loan from the day star. A man who despised the world sat on a throne from which he ruled the world; and the just steward (whom the press of business he so much deplored had never robbed of a deep earnestness of thought or of the gravity so characteristic of the true Roman statesman) , had proved himself a frugal householder who knew how to garner but also how to give, and who lived as simply as Cincinnatus himself. He had been loyal to the sentiments he had uttered on the day of his coronation: "If I wished to teach and not to do, you would rightly say to me 'Doctor, cure yourself!' One has every reason to despise the sermon of a man who himself gives scandal." The hostile lyrics of Walther von der Vogelweide "Aha, how Christlike is now the Pope's laughter" had missed their target. The Council discussed steps to be taken in order to regain the Holy Land, and the Reforma- tion of the Church. Seventy canons on matters of faith, law and discipline gave a new expression to ancient binding legislation. They dealt with the act of consecration, the Mass, indulgences and their
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