ween him and the pope arose out of a letter which the
latter had occasion to address to the king at Salerno, in which the
royal title was omitted, and that of mere lord substituted. Adrian did
this because William had assumed the crown of Sicily without first
asking it of the pope, who, as the feudal patron of that island by
ancient compact with its Norman conquerors under Robert de Guiscard,
in the time of Pope Leo IX. (A. D. 1053), justly felt his rights
infringed by a proceeding which set at nought their established forms.
In revenge of this pretended insult, William refused to negotiate with
the ambassadors through whom it came; and, furthermore, gave orders to
his chancellor Scitinius, whom he had just made viceroy of Apulia, to
attack the domain of the Church, which that officer accordingly did,
by laying siege to Beneventum, and devastating its territory. But as
this proceeding caused a number of disaffected crown vassals of
Apulia, already secretly tampered with by agents of the Greek emperor,
anxious to recover his lost sway in Italy, to revolt against the
Sicilian government,--many of whom in so doing marched to the relief
of Beneventum,--Scitinius was soon obliged to raise the siege of that
city, and turn his arms against some more vulnerable point. To this
end, he passed direct into the Campagna, and there set fire to the
towns of Ciparano, Barbuco, and Todi; after which, he made his
retreat, demolishing by the way the walls of Aquino, and driving a
crowd of monks out of their convents, which he gave up to the plunder
of the soldiers.

These events had transpired while Frederic Barbarossa was yet
advancing towards Rome, to demand the imperial crown, and on his
arrival formed one of the heads of complaint to him on the part of the
pope, who hoped to use the strong arm of the professed champion of the
Church in redressing her wrongs. Frederic, indeed, expressed the
warmest zeal in the pope's cause, and, none the less so, as it
presented, under the appearance of a sacred duty, a prospect so
inviting to his own ambition. But, as we have seen, he was reluctantly
compelled by his murmuring soldiers to close his campaign and return
home. He did not, however, lose sight of Sicily; which, as will be
described in the sequel, gave rise to a fresh and sharper quarrel
between him and the pope.

Disappointed in his hopes of assistance from Frederic, Adrian, with
characteristic energy, resolved to assist himself; and rej