68 Dante Sexcentenary Lectures
Charlemagne. A century later the title to the empire, now
known as the Holy Roman Empire, passed to the kings of
Germany, who were disposed to exercise a real governing
power in Italy. Thus the Popes found they had raised up
a new enemy, and thereupon began the long contest of the
empire and papacy that filled the annals of two hundred
years, from the middle of the eleventh to the middle of the
thirteenth century, 1050—1250.
The last part of the struggle, which came to an end
shortly before Dante was born, and the echoes of which con-
tinued to resound in Italy while he was growing to man-
hood, was particularly bitter. The severity of this period
of the struggle was due to a combination of causes. The
most important factor was the union in one person both of
the Imperial title and of the crown of the kingdom of
southern Italy and Sicily. This situation called forth the
utmost efforts of the Popes, for it made the prospect of the
unification of Italy under a strong master alarmingly im-
minent. A second factor which embittered the struggle was
the character of the man who controlled the combined re-
sources of the empire and the kingdom. This man was
Frederick II, the son of Henry VI, and the grandson of
Frederick Barbarossa, all of the house of Hohenstaufen.
Born in Sicily and bred in that semi-oriental atmosphere,
strongly influenced by Arabic culture, Frederick was feared
both as a political antagonist and as a free-thinking enemy
of the Christian faith itself. And the papacy, too, for the
greater part of the period was led by strong men and great
haters, notable among them Gregory IX (x227-1241) and
Innocent IV (1243-1254). It was Innocent who at the
great Council of Lyons in 1245 finally declared Frederick
deposed both from the empire and the kingdom, and re-
leased Frederick’s subjects from their oaths of fidelity to