MATTHEW PARIS'S ENGLISH HISTORY. How the pope secretly took to flight. WHILST the year's orbit was revolving amidst these worldly changes, the emperor Frederick, urged on by the goadings of pride, began to repent of having, as above mentioned, humbled and bound himself to submission to the Church, and he now laid traps for the feet of the pope, and planned secret treachery, which afterwards, however, became evident enough. The pope, on the other hand, being forewarned of this, avoided as much as possible the fox-like meanderings of the emperor, and kept vigilant watch against them, nor would he put any trust in him or his friends, as he knew them all well, and thought of the future in comparison with the past. On the day of the Holy Trinity, the pope, wishing to strengthen his party, because he had so few companions in his labours and participators in his anxieties, created ten cardinals; namely, Master John of Toledo, an Englishman by birth, and some others of distinguished family and morals. On the eighth day before the feast of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, he went with all the cardinals to the city of Cas tellana, eighteen miles from the city, in order to be nearer the emperor, to settle the peace, which was now become a suspicious, indeed a hopeless, matter; and on the eve of the day of the apostles Peter and Paul, he arrived at the city of Sutri. The emperor, however, kicking against him, sent him word that he would do nothing in the matters agreed on, unless he first received letters of absolution, and as the pope refused to do this, replying that it was dissonant to reason, a disagreement arose between them. The pope, therefore, foreseeing the results of his anger, determined on making a sudden and clandestine flight, and without any |
