de Pennaforte, who had
attained celebrity as a literary opponent of the Saracens. It is amusing
to remark that even this simple work of labour could not be promulgated
without the customary embellishments. It was given out that an angel
watched over Pennaforte's shoulder all the time he was writing.

[Sidenote: Outbreak of his quarrel with the pope,] Meantime an unceasing
vigilance was maintained against the dangerous results that would
necessarily ensue from Frederick's movements. In Rome, many heretics
were burned; many condemned to imprisonment for life. The quarrel
between the pope and the emperor was resumed; the latter being once more
excommunicated, and his body delivered over to Satan for the good of his
soul. Again Frederick appealed to all the sovereigns of Christendom. He
denounced the pontiff as an unworthy vicar of Christ, "who sits in his
court like a merchant, weighing out dispensations for gold--himself
writing and signing the bulls, perhaps counting the money. He has but
one cause of enmity against me, that I refused to marry to his niece my
natural son Enzio, now King of Sardinia." "In the midst of the Church
sits a frantic prophet, a man of falsehood, a polluted priest." To this
Gregory replied. [Sidenote: who rouses Christendom against him.] The
tenor of his answer may be gathered from its commencement: "Out of the
sea a beast is arisen, whose name is written all over 'Blasphemy.'" "He
falsely asserts that I am enraged at his refusing his consent to the
marriage of my niece with his natural son. He lies more impudently when
he says that I have pledged my faith to the Lombards." "In truth, this
pestilent king maintains, to use his own words, that the world has been
deceived by three impostors--Jesus Christ, Moses, and Mohammed; that of
these two died in honour, and the third was hanged on a tree. Even now,
he has asserted, distinctly and loudly, that those are fools who aver
that God, the Omnipotent Creator of the world, was born of a woman."
This was in allusion to the celebrated and mysterious book, "De Tribus
Impostoribus," in the authorship of which Frederick was accused of
having been concerned.

The pontiff had touched the right chord. The begging friars, in all
directions, added to the accusations. "He has spoken of the Host as a
mummery; he has asked how many gods might be made out of a corn-field;
he has affirmed that, if the princes of the world would stand by him, he
would easily make for