to satisfie the popes desire, which neuer would lynne but by al meanes sought to prouoke him forward, gaue him at length his promise: that by a certaine tyme he would prepare an armie and fight him self agianst those, which kept from him the Citie of Ierusalem (whiche thyng he also confesseth him selfe in his Epistles) and also how he desired, and obtained of the pieres & nobilitie of the Empire, their ayde therunto: as also, to haue apointed a cōuenient tyme when they should be at Brundusium.

MarginaliaThe preparation of the Emperours warre agaynst the Turke.In the meane season, he with all his power and indeuour made hasty and spedy preparation for the warres: he rigged & manned a puissant nauie, he had the pikedst men and best soldiers that were in euery countrey, and made warlike prouision and furniture, for euery thyng that to such a viage and expedition apertayned. Neither was the matter slacked, but at the time apointed: Great bandes assembled and mustured both of Germane souldiers and others, and vnder their captaines apointed set forth & marched to Brundusium. Their generals were, Turing⁹ and Sigebertus, and Augustanus the bishop: MarginaliaGreat sickenes in the Emperours armye.where they, long tyme lyeng and attendyng the Emperours commyng (beyng let by infirmitie and sickenes) great pestilēce and sondry diseases molested thē, by reason of the great heate and intemperaunce of that countrey: and many a souldier there lost his life, among whō also dyed Turingus one of their generalls. The Emperour, when he had somewhat recouered his health, with all his nauie lanched out and set forward to Brundusium. And when he came to the straictes of Peliponēces and Creta (being Ilandes lyeng in the sea) and there, for lacke of conuenient wynde was stayed: MarginaliaThe Emperour himself sicke.sodenly the Emperour (hys diseases growyng vppon hym agayne) fell sicke: and sending before, all or the most part of his bāds and shyppes into Palestina promysing them (most assuredly) to come after and folow them so soone as he might recouer and get neuer so litle health: he hym selfe with a few shyppes, returned and came to Brundusium, and from thence for wante of health, went into Apulia.

MarginaliaThe pope excōmunicateth the Emperour for staying hys viage.When tidinges hereof came to the popes eare: He sent forth his thundryng curses and new excommunicatiōs agaynst the Emperour. The causes wherfore, I finde noted and mentioned by his own letters, that is. MarginaliaHe layeth false accusations to hys charge.How that when he hadde robbed and taken from Brundusius, prince of Turinge, his horses, his money, and other rich furniture of his house at the tyme of his death, he sailed into Italy: not for the entēt to make warre agaynst the Turke, but to cōuey this pray þ^t he had stolē & takē away frō Brondusius, who neglecting his oth & promise which he had made, & fayning hym selfe to be sicke, came home agayn. And þ^t by his default also, Damieta was lost, and the host of the Christians sore afflicted. Fazellus, besides these causes spoken of before, doth write that the pope alledged these also. That he defiled a certaine Damosell, whiche was in the quenes nursery: and that he slue hys wife whē he had whipped her in the prison, for declaring this mischieuous acte to her father kyng Ihon. But all the writers, and also Blondus him selfe doth declare, that this Ioell, dyed after the publicatiō of the proscript and excōmuncation: wherfore, the pope could not w^tout greate shame alledge that cause vpon the death of Ioell: For vndoubtedly þ^e truth is, þ^t she of her sonne Cōradus, dyed in childbed. Then Fredericke, to refell and auoyde the foresayd slaunders, sendeth the bishop of Brundis, & other legates to Rome: whom the pope would not suffer to come to his presence, neither yet to the counsell of the cardinals to make his purgation. MarginaliaThe Emperour purgeth him selfe of those crimes the pope sayd agaynst him by his letters dedicated to all christen princes.Wherfore the Emperour to purge him selfe of the crimes, which the pope did so falsly accuse him of: both to all Christen kyngs & specially to the princes of Germanie, and all the nobles of þ^e Empire, he writeth his letters (which are to be seene) that those thynges are both false and also fayned, and of the popes own head inuented. And sheweth, how þ^t his embassadours with his purgation, could not be suffered tocome to the popes presence: also doth largly intreat how vnthankfull and vngratefull the bishops of Rome were towardes him for the great benefites which both he and also his predecessours had bestowed vpon them and the Romane churche: which letter, for that it is ouer tedious here to place, consideryng the discourse of the history is somewhat long, the summe of his purgation is this.

MarginaliaThe effect of the emperers lettersHe protesteth and declareth vniuersally, that he had alwayes great care for the Christiā common wealth, and that he had determined euen from his youth, to fight agaynst the Turke and Saracens. And for that occasion, he made a promise to þ^e princes electours of Aquisgraue, howe þ^t he would take þ^e warre vpon him: MarginaliaThe emperours purgation.Afterward, he renewed his promise to Rome, when he was cōsecrated of Honorius: Thē, whē he maried þ^e daughter of þ^e king of Hierusalem, which was an heyre of the same: And for because, that kyngdome might be defended and kept from the iniuries of the enemyes, and that he fauored it euen as he did his owne: he prepared an huge nauie, and gathered together a stronge armye of men: neither did he neglect any thyng that belonged to the furniture of þ^e warre. But when the tyme was come, and his bād was gathered together: his sickenes would not suffer hym to be there. And afterward whē he had recouered þ^e same, & came to Brundusium, and from thēce w^tout any disturbance wēt forth with to the sea: he fel into the same sicknes again, by the which he was let of his purpose: which thing (saith he) he is able to proue by sufficiēt testimonie. How þ^e pope also, doth lay the loosyng of Damatia, and other things which prospered not wel w^t him, vniustly to his charge: when as he had made great prouision for the same iourney both of soldiours & other necessary things. MarginaliaThe emperours epistle beginning thus, In admirationem et iusticiam. and agayne Lenate oculos.But he that will vnderstand things more playnly amōg other Epistels of Petrus de Vineis, written in the name of Fredericke, let him read these especially, which begin thus: In admirationem, & iusticiam & innocentiam: & Leuate oculos. And truly euen as Fridericus the Emperor declareth in his letters, concernyng this matter, all the old writers of Germany, do accord & agree in the same.

MarginaliaA letter of the emperour to the kinge of England abstracted by Mathew ParisiensisMatheus Parisiensis also briefly collecteth the effect of an other letter whiche he wrote to the kyng of England, complayning vnto hym of þ^e excōmunication of þ^e pope agaynst hym: Whose wordes are these. And amongst other catholicque princes (saith he) He also wrote his letters vnto the kyng of Englād, embulled with gold: Declaryng the same, that the bishop of Rome so flamed with the fire of auarice and manifest cōcupiscence: that not beyng contented with the goods of the church which were innumerable, but also þ^t he shamed not to bryng princes, kyngs, and Emperours: to be subiect, and contributors to hym, and so to disherite them and put them from their kyngly dignities. And that the kyng of England him selfe had good experiment therof, whose father (that is kyng Ihon) they so long held excommunicate till they had brought both him and his dominions vnder seruitude and to pay vnto him tribute. Marginaliamany kingdoms haue experience of the pope practises.Also, that many haue experience of the same by the Earle of Tholouse & diuers other princes, whiche so long helde their persons and landes in interdict, till they myght bryng them into like seruitude. I pretermit saith he the Symonies, & sondry sortes of exactions (the lyke whereof was neuer yet hard) whiche daylye are vsed amongest the ecclesiasticall persōs, besides their manifest vsurie (yet so cloked and colored to the simple sort) that therewithall they infect the hole world. They be þ^e sugred & enbalmed Simonistes, the insatiable horsleaches or bloud succours: MarginaliaThe church of Rome the mother of mischiefsayeng that the church of Rome, is our mother and nurce, where as it is in dede the most pollyng court in the vniuersall world, the roote and right mother of all mischief: vsing and exercising no motherly doyngs or deades but bringing forth the right exercices of a wicked stepdame: makyng sufficient proofe therof by her manifest frutes