t extravagant pretensions.

The ambassadors of Rudolph were received with complacency by the Pope,
and obtained his sanction by agreeing, in the name of their master, to
the same conditions which Otho IV and Frederick II had sworn to
observe; by confirming all the donations of the emperors, his
predecessors, to the papal see; by promising to accept no office or
dignity in any of the papal territories, particularly in the city of
Rome, without the consent of the Pope; by agreeing not to disturb nor
permit the house of Anjou to be disturbed in the possession of Naples
and Sicily, which they held as fiefs from the Roman see; and by
engaging to undertake in person a crusade against the infidels. In
consequence of these concessions, Gregory gave the new King of the
Romans his most cordial support, refused to listen to the overtures of
Ottocar, and after much difficulty finally succeeded in persuading
Alfonso to renounce his pretensions to the imperial dignity.

An interview in October, 1275, between Rudolph and Gregory at
Lausanne, concluded his negotiations with the Roman see, and gave rise
to a personal friendship between the heads of the Church and the
empire, who were equally distinguished for their frank and amiable
qualities. In this interview Rudolph publicly ratified the articles
which his ambassadors had concluded in his name; the electors and
princes who were present followed his example, and Gregory again
confirmed the election of Rudolph, on condition that he should repair
to Rome the following year to receive the imperial crown. At the
conclusion of this ceremony the new Emperor, with his consort and the
princes of the empire, assumed the cross, and engaged to undertake a
crusade against the infidels.

During the negotiations of Rudolph with Gregory X, Ottocar had exerted
himself to shake the authority of the new chief of the empire, and to
consolidate a confederacy with the German princes. He not only
rejected with disdain all the proposals of accommodation made at the
instances of Rudolph by the judicious and conciliating Pontiff, but
prevented the clergy of Bohemia from contributing the tenths of their
revenue or preaching the crusade. He endeavored to alarm the princes
of the empire by displaying the views of the new sovereign, to recover
the imperial fiefs which they had appropriated during the interregnum,
and by his promises and intrigues succeeded in attaching to his cause
the Margrave of Baden and th