believe Arabian chroniclers, in almost abject supplications. At length
a treaty was signed. It surrendered to the Emperor the whole of
Jerusalem except the Temple or mosque of Omar, the keys of which were
to be retained by the Saracens; but Christians, under certain
conditions, might be allowed to enter it for the purpose of prayer. It
further restored to the Christians the towns of Jaffa, Bethlehem, and
Nazareth.

To Frederick the conclusion of this treaty was a reason for legitimate
satisfaction. It enabled him to hasten back to his own dominions,
where a papal army was ravaging Apulia and threatening Sicily. One
task only remained for him in the East. He must pay his vows at the
Holy Sepulchre. But here also the hand of the Pope lay heavy upon him.
Not merely Jerusalem, but the Sepulchre itself, passed under the
interdict as he entered the gates of the city, and the infidel Moslem
saw the churches closed and all worship suspended at the approach of
the Christian Emperor.

On Sunday, in his imperial robes and attended by a magnificent
retinue, Frederick went to his coronation, as king of Jerusalem, in
the Church of the Sepulchre. Not a single ecclesiastic was there to
take part in the ceremony. The archbishops of Capua and Palermo stood
aloof, while Frederick, taking the crown from the high altar, placed
it on his own head. By his orders his friend Herman de Salza read an
address, in which the Emperor acquitted the Pope for his hard judgment
of him and for his excommunication, and added that a real knowledge of
the facts would have led him to speak not against him, but in his
favor. He confessed his desire to put to shame the false friends of
Christ, his accusers and slanderers, by the restoration of peace and
unity, and to humble himself before God and before his vicar upon