nd friend of Roger Bacon, caused to be
ascertained the amount received by foreign ecclesiastics in England. He
found it to be thrice the income of the king himself. This was on the
occasion of Innocent IV. demanding provision to be made for three
hundred additional Italian clergy by the Church of England, and that one
of his nephews--a mere boy--should have a stall in Lincoln cathedral.

[Sidenote: Goading of Europe into a new crusade.] While thus Innocent
III. was interfering and intriguing with every court, and laying every
people under tribute, he did not for a moment permit his attention to be
diverted from the Crusades, the singular advantages of which to the
papacy had now been fully discovered. They had given to the pope a
suzerainty in Europe, the control of its military as well as its
monetary resources. Not that a man like Innocent could permit himself to
be deluded by any hopes of eventual success. The crusades must
inevitably prove, so far as their avowed object was concerned, a
failure. The Christian inhabitants of Palestine were degraded and
demoralized beyond description. Their ranks were thinned by apostasy to
Mohammedanism. In Europe, not only the laity begun to discover that the
money provided for the wars in the Holy Land was diverted from its
purpose, and in some inexplicable manner, found its way into Italy--even
the clergy could not conceal their suspicions that the proclamation of a
crusade was merely the preparation for a swindle. Nevertheless, Innocent
pressed forward his schemes, goading on Christendom by upbraiding it
with the taunts of the Saracens. "Where," they say, "is your God, who
can not deliver you out of our hands? Behold! we have defiled your
sanctuaries; we have stretched forth our arm; we have taken at the first
assault, we hold in despite of you, those your desirable places, where
your superstition had its beginning. Where is your God? Let him arise
and protect you and himself." "If thou be the Son of God, save thyself
if thou canst; redeem the land of thy birth from our hands. Restore thy
cross, that we have taken, to the worshippers of the Cross." With great
difficulty, however, Innocent succeeded in preparing the fourth crusade,
A.D. 1202. The Venetians consented to furnish a fleet of transports. But
the expedition was quickly diverted from its true purpose; the Venetians
employing the Crusaders for the capture of Zara from the King of
Hungary. [Sidenote: The crusade is used for