could, readily nullify an election, and the possibility was avoided of having men in the bishoprics who might be hostile to the German or to the imperial interests.
No. III. consists of the documents relating to an interesting episode, which shows how ready the papacy was to put forth every real or theoretical claim to superiority over the empire, and how ably, as yet, the latter was able to maintain its dignity. The date of the correspondence is 1157-8.
Eskil, bishop of Lund, had been captured by German highwaymen while on his way to Rome, and the pope had demanded the emperor's interference in the matter. Frederick had done nothing, for Eskil happened to stand in disfavour with him at the time. The pope accordingly sent two cardinals to Vesan9on to press the matter. In the letters that they bore Adrian spoke of the imperial crown as a benefice that he had conferred upon Frederick. There is scarcely a doubt but that the pope knew the full force of the words he w;as using. Since the time of Gregory VII., who was the first to receive princes as vassals of the Roman see, the feudal relation had been entered into with the papacy more than once, and its terminology could not have been unfamiliar to Adrian. In the present case one of the legates had made matters worse by bursting out with the remark: "from whom then has the emperor the empire except from the pope?"
Frederick's manifesto (III. c) is a spirited defence of the imperial independence. It is to be compared with the similar utterances of the electors in 1338 (see No. VIII.). Almost the entire clergy approved of the emperor's attitude in this matter, and the pope, finding the opposition altogether too strong for him, was fain to explain away the objectionable clauses.
The documents under No. IV. concern the contest between Frederick Barbarossa and Alexander III., which lasted from 1160 to 1177, being the longest war that was ever waged
