fth Book: How Frederick I. of Staufen of
Suabia was Emperor of Rome, and of his descendants, and
concerning the doings of Florence which were in their times,
and of all Italy._

[Sidenote: Epist. vi. (5) 135, 136. Purg. xviii. 119, 120. Cf. Par.
iii. 119.]

[Sidenote: 1154 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Epist. vi. (5) 137.]

[Sidenote: 1159 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Epist. vi. (5) 136.]

[Sidenote: 1157 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Purg. xviii. 119-120. Epist. vi. (5) 135, 136.]

[Sidenote: 1167 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Inf. xix. 70.]

Sec. 1.--After the death of Conrad of Saxony, king of the Romans,
Frederick Barbarossa was elected Emperor, called Frederick the Great,
or the First, of the house of Suabia, and surnamed of Staufen. This
Frederick, when he had received the votes of the electors, proclaimed
himself, and then came into Italy, and was crowned at Rome by Pope
Adrian IV., in the year of Christ 1154, and reigned 37 years between
king of the Romans and Emperor. He was liberal and a man of worth,
eloquent and noble, and glorious in all his deeds. At the first he was
friendly to Holy Church in the time of the said Pope Adrian, and
rebuilt Tivoli, which had been destroyed; but the same day that he was
crowned there was a great scuffle and fight between the Romans and his
followers in Nero's meadow, where they were waiting for the said
Emperor, to the great loss of the Romans; and again within the portico
of St. Peter's; and it was all burnt and destroyed, to wit, the part
of Rome which is around St. Peter's. And when he returned to Lombardy
in the first year of his reign, because the city of Spoleto would not
obey him, forasmuch as it pertained to the Church, he brought an army
against it, and overcame it, and destroyed it utterly; and through his
desire to usurp the rights of the Church, he soon became her enemy:
for after the death of Pope Adrian, in the year of Christ 1159,
Alexander III., of Siena, was made Pope, who reigned 22 years; and he,
to maintain the rights of Holy Church, had great war with the said
Emperor Frederick for long time; which Emperor raised up against him
four schismatical anti-popes at divers times, one after the other, and
three thereof were cardinals. The first was Octavianus, which took the
name of Victor; the second, Guy of Cremona, which took the name of
Pascal; the third was John of Struma, which took the name of Calixtus;
the fourth was called Landone, which took the name of Innocent; w