force. But men soon ceased to find religious inspiration for such
"holy wars," and the calls of later popes fell upon deafened ears. The
democratic policy of Innocent's predecessors had rallied all Italy
around them; but his successors seem to have failed to recognize their
true sources of strength. They abandoned their allies and ruled with
autocratic power. Italy became divided, half Guelf, half Ghibelline,
Moreover, even Frederick II, the ward whom Innocent had placed on the
imperial throne, refused to sanction the encroachments of papal
authority over the empire. So the strife of emperor and pope began
again, only to terminate with the utter defeat and extermination of
the great house of Barbarossa. Their possessions in Southern Italy and
Sicily were conferred by the popes upon Charles of Anjou, brother of
Louis IX of France.

But while the popes were thus temporarily successful in the giant
contest against their greatest rival, to such partisan extremities
were they driven by the necessities of the struggle, that the
awakening world looked at them with doubtful eyes, began to question
their spiritual rights and honors, as well as the temporal authority
they claimed. In Charles of Anjou the popes soon found that they had
but substituted one master for another. Charles was rapidly becoming
as obnoxious to Rome as the emperors had ever been, when suddenly the
tyranny of his French soldiers roused the Sicilians to desperation,
and by the massacre of the Sicilian Vespers[15] the French power in
Italy was crushed.

Men were slow to realize that the mighty hold which the papacy had
once possessed on the deep heart of the world was being sapped at its
foundation. Diplomatic pontiffs still managed for a time to play off
one sovereign against another, and to have their battles fought by