stical persons) which will nedes be called the shepheards of Christes flocke, to be such warriours and Captaines of souldiors in all þ^e partes of Italie, Campania, Apulia, Calabria (beyng themperours dominions) in Picenū, Aemilia, Flaminia, and Lumbardy, to be sent out agaynst hym: And also when with my selfe I meditate, the destruction of so many great and famous cities, the subuertion of such common weales, the slaughter of so many men, & the effusion of so much Christian bloud: And lastly whē I behold, so victorious, prosperous, & fortunat emperors to be: and so many miserable, vnfortunate, and vanquished Popes put to flight: Am persuaded with my selfe to thinke and beleue, that the iudgementes of God are secret and meruelous, and that to bee true whiche Eneas Siluius, in his history of Austria writeth: That there is no great and maruelous clade, no notorious and special calamitie, þ^t hath happened either to the publique weale or els to the churche of God, of the whiche the Bishops of Rome haue not been the autours. Nicholaus Machiauellus also sayth, that all the ruinous calamities and miserable chaunces that the hole Christian common weale and also Italie hath suffred: haue been brought in, by the Popes and Bishops of Rome.

Many epistles of Fridericus there be, which he wrote vnto þ^e byshops of Rome, to the cardinals, & to dyuers other christiā princes, al which I haue red: & in them is to be sene nothyng cōtrary vnto christiā doctrine, nothyng wicked and vngodly, nothyng iniurious to the church of God, nothyng cōtumelious or arrogātly writtē of Friderike. But in dede I deny not, that they be fraught & full of pitifull complaints, & lamentations, touchyng the auarous amibition of the ecclesiasticall persons, & pertinacie of þ^e bishops of Rome: and þ^t he would receiue & take no satisfaction nor yet excuse in the defēce of the ryght & priuiledge of the empire, which he maintayned: also of their manifold and infinite conspiracies which they practised both secretly and openly against him: And of the often admonitions which he gaue to the whole multitude and order ecclesiastical, to attend vpon and dischardge their functions and charges. And who, that farther is desirous to know and vnderstand the truth, & coueteth to searche out the renoumed vertues of magnificent princes: MarginaliaDeserued commendation vpon the epistles of Fridericke.let them read the epistle of Fridericke dated to all christian princes which thus beginneth Colligerunt principes, pontifices & Pharisæi consilium: and an other, wherin he perswadeth the colledge of cardinals to take vp the dissention betwene the emperour and the pope, which begynneth. In exordio nascentis mundi, and also an other which thus beginneth Infallibilis veritatis testem, besydes yet an other: Ad reges & principes orbis christiani, wyth diuers other moe wherin may well be sene the princelye vertues of this so worthy a piere: all which epistles collected together in the latine tounge, þ^e learned sort I wish to read, wherout they may picke no little benefite and comoditie to themselues: In his epistle last recyted these are his wordes: Non existimetis id me a vobis ideo contēdere, ac si ex sententia pontificia priuationis maiestas nostra sit perculsa: Cum enim nobis sit recte voluntatis cōscientia, cumq̀ deum nobiscum habeamus, eundem testem inuocamus id nos spectasse, cum totum ordinem ecclesiasticum tum præsertim primores neruis potentiæ, dominationisq̀ eorum succisis ertirpatisq̀ tirannidis radicibus ad primitiuæ ecclesiæ conditionem & statum reuocaremus: that is, Thynke you not that we so earnestlye desyre or craue this peace at your hand, as though our maiestye were terrified wyth the popes sentence of depriuation: MarginaliaFriderick purposed with the hazard of the imperiall state to reforme the church of Rome.Whē as god (vpō whom we trust & inuocate) is our witnes and iudge of our conscience: that when we went about to reforme the ecclesiasticall state, but especially þ^e ringleaders of the same: and should restrain your power and extirpate your great tyrannie, and reduce the same to the state and condition of the primatiue church: we lo-ked for no lesse at your hands. For these causes peraduēture, those which had the gouernmēt of the ecclesiastical dignitie, decreed & pronoūced Friderike to be an enemy to the church: which (as I haue sayde) I leaue to others to iudge thereof. Hetherto Pandolphus Colonutius.

MarginaliaFrid. shewed him selfe no enemy, but a frind to the church of Rome.And doubtles examples to the contrarye doth appeare, that Fridericke was an enemy to the church of Rome, for that he both gaue large and great gifts ther-vnto, and also franchised the same with great priuilegis and imminuities: which thinges, by his own constitutions, statutes, and customes may be perceaued and vnderstood. But rather contrarywise, that the bishops of Rome most filthely recompenced the same his great liberalitie & princely beneuolence againe, whych he gaue and bestowed vpon the same, as partlye in the discourse of his history you haue heard: Who notwithstādyng, they so molested and tyred him with such and so manye iniuries as you haue sene: he neuertheles, forgiuyng & pardoning all the same, for the great zeale he had to the common christian wealth (whereof he more forced, then els of any other thing) sought by all þ^e meanes he might for to haue peace, althoughe it were to hys owne great hinderaunce. MarginaliaSelfe, doo, selfe haue the prouerb is.Therefore, seing he was of necessity by the bishops of Rome prouoked to that war: if he dyd them any skath in reuenge of his imperiall dignitye, let them thanke their own selues, which might other wise haue remedied the same. Notwithstanding, vpon this occasion diuers (both Italian and Germaine writers, which at that tyme sought for fat benefices, and euer since euen vnto these our dayes haue done the lyke, MarginaliaHope of gayne allureth mani to flatter and to write vntrewthes.by flattery rather to obtayne that which they hunted for, then to bear true and faythfull testimony of thinges as they wer in deede) tooke great occasion to write, and sclaunder thys good Emperour. But let vs passe ouer these Parasites and returne to those, which althoughe they them selues were of that calling, I meane of the ecclesiastical order: yet notwithstanding, for that they rather preferred the study of veritie, & to reuerence the truth before popyshe authoritie, and flattering seruitude: greatlye extolled & commended thys good Emperour Fridericke. So dyd Nicholaus Cusanus a Cardinal, in his writing affirme this emperor to be an alter Carolus Magnus: both for his wisdom & also diligent regard to the commō weale. So also writeth Aegidius Biturigum the bishoppe, in hys bookes of the institution and bringing vp of a Prince, which he wrote to the French king: exhorting hym and all others, to take a patterne of thys most worthye and excellēt prince. In cōmendation of whose worthy praise and vertue these verses are written on hys tombe.

Si probitas, sensus, virtutum gratia, census.
Nobilitas orti possent resistere morti:
Non foret extinctus, Fridericus qui iacet intus.  

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Verses about the Emperor Frederick II

Foxe text Latin

Si probitas ... Fridericus qui iacet intus.

Translation

John Wade, University of Sheffield

If honesty, sense, the grace of virtues, wealth and nobility of birth could resist death, Frederick, who lies within, would not have died.

Wherfore, in as much as it appeareth by the approued writers of whom I haue made mention: who and what maner of prince Fridericke this emperour was: And, for that he diligently laboured as well in the preseruation of the christen common weale, as in the conseruation of the christen common weale, as in the conseruation of the imperiall dignitie: procured to hymselfe the great hatred and displeasure of the Romaine bishoppes (who haue beene, to all the good Emperoures for the most part vtter foes and enemies) and with what wycked slaunders and other iniuries both by them & by their ministers they continually molested hym withall: Thys lesson ought to be ours: that hauyng the same in our memorie, we imitate and folow his vertues, hating and detestyng the wicked and flagitious doings of those holye fathers that will so be called, and bishops of Rome: desyring God that he will so guide the hartes of all kinges & princes, that they maye by his grace aduaunce and set forth his glory, and reforme the corrupt and vicious maner and order of the churche, to all sinceritie and puritie both of lyfe and doctrine.