t for an answer, but disappeared as soon as
he had delivered it. This is asserted by some to have been meant as an
insult to Frederic, who, at any rate, took care to view it as such.
Adrian, however, was surely of too lofty a character to descend to
such a petty act of spleen; and it is far more likely that the
messenger, aware of what sort of letter he was carrying, and to what
sort of person, did not care, under the circumstances, to do more than
his bare errand; but, that done, to save himself, hastened from the
very possible consequences to his poor limbs of the first ebullitions
of the imperial wrath. Be that as it may, Frederic determined to let
the pope see that he too could act as meanly and spitefully as it was
pretended his Holiness had acted; and, accordingly, he gave his
secretary orders to set in his reply the name of the emperor before
that of the pope, who, at the same time, was to be addressed in the
second person singular; contrary to etiquette, which, even in that
age, required the plural number to be used towards persons of high
rank. To this insolence of Frederic, Adrian rejoined shortly and
pithily, rating him for his irreverence to the Holy See and to St.
Peter, demonstrating to him how his present conduct belied his former
oaths, and warning him lest, in seizing that which had not been given
to him, he should lose that which had. Frederic, conscious of the
grave nature of his crimes against the Holy See, but so long as
fortune favoured him, obstinate in his pride and deaf to religious
reproach, retorted Adrian's reproof more audaciously than ever.

The imperial bully now bid the pope, in plain terms, stick to those
things which,--as he said,--Christ was the first to perform and teach.
The law of justice, said he, has restored to every one his own; and he
(Frederic) will not fail to pay the full honor due to his
predecessors, by preserving intact the dignity and crown which they
had transmitted to him. Why he was not to require feudal oaths and
service from bishops, who professed to belong simply to God, is all
the more incomprehensible to him, as Christ, the great teacher of all
men, freely paid taxes to Caesar for himself and Peter. By so doing,
proceeds Frederic, he gave thee (Adrian) an example to follow, and a
lesson of the last importance in those words: "Learn of me, for I am
meek and humble of heart." From this sacrilegious irony he passes to
vulgar abuse; and tells the pope that his legate