The Great Events by Famous Historians [Volumes 1-14]

The ambassadors of Rudolph were received with complacency by the Pope, and obtained his sanction by agreeing, in the name of their master, to the same conditions which Otho IV and Frederick II had sworn to observe; by confirming all the donations of the emperors, his predecessors, to the papal see; by promising to accept no office or dignity in any of the papal territories, particularly in the city of Rome, without the consent of the Pope; by agreeing not to disturb nor permit the house of Anjou to be disturbed in the possession of Naples and Sicily, which they held as fiefs from the Roman see; and by engaging to undertake in person a crusade against the infidels. In consequence of these concessions, Gregory gave the new King of the Romans his most cordial support, refused to listen to the overtures of Ottocar, and after much difficulty finally succeeded in persuading Alfonso to renounce his pretensions to the imperial dignity.

An interview in October, 1275, between Rudolph and Gregory at Lausanne, concluded his negotiations with the Roman see, and gave rise to a personal friendship between the heads of the Church and the empire, who were equally distinguished for their frank and amiable qualities. In this interview Rudolph publicly ratified the articles which his ambassadors had concluded in his name; the electors and princes who were present followed his example, and Gregory again confirmed the election of Rudolph, on condition that he should repair to Rome the following year to receive the imperial crown. At the conclusion of this ceremony the new Emperor, with his consort and the princes of the empire, assumed the cross, and engaged to undertake a crusade against the infidels.

During the negotiations of Rudolph with Gregory X, Ottocar had exerted himself to shake the authority of the new chief of the empire, and to consolidate a confederacy with the German princes. He not only rejected with disdain all the proposals of accommodation made at the instances of Rudolph by the judicious and conciliating Pontiff, but prevented the clergy of Bohemia from contributing the tenths of their revenue or preaching the crusade. He endeavored to alarm the princes of the empire by displaying the views of the new sovereign, to recover the imperial fiefs which they had appropriated during the interregnum, and by his promises and intrigues succeeded in attaching to his cause the Margrave of Baden and the counts of Freiburg, Neuburg, and Montfort. But he secured a still more powerful partisan in Henry, Duke of Lower Bavaria, by fomenting the disputes between him and his brother the Count Palatine, and by ceding to him Scharding and other places wrested from Bavaria by the Duke of Austria.

When summoned by Rudolph to do homage for his fiefs, according to the custom of the empire, he returned a haughty answer, treating him as Count of Hapsburg; a second summons was received with silent contempt; on a third he sent his ambassador, the Bishop of Seccan, to the Diet of Augsburg; and his example was followed by Henry of Bavaria. These ministers were, however, only deputed to raise a feigned contest relative to the vote of Henry and to protest against the election of Rudolph. The ambassador of Henry urged the protest with moderation and respect; but the Bishop of Seccan delivered a virulent invective against the chief of the empire, in a style conformable to the spirit and character of his powerful and haughty master. He declared that the assembly in which Rudolph had been chosen was illegal; that the arbitration of Louis of Bavaria was unprecedented; that a man excommunicated by the Pope for plundering churches and convents was ineligible to the imperial throne, and that his sovereign, who held his dominions by an indisputable title, owed no homage to the Count of Hapsburg.