e state of things. With reluctance I
come back to the Italian system, defiling the holy name of religion with
its intrigues, its bloodshed, its oppression of human thought, its
hatred of intellectual advancement. [Sidenote: Renewal of the operation
of Mohammedan influences.] Especially I have now to direct attention to
two countries, the scenes of important events--countries in which the
Mohammedan influences began to take effect and to press upon Rome. These
are the South of France and Sicily.

Innocent III. had been elected pope at the early age of thirty-seven
years, A.D. 1198. The papal power had reached its culminating point. The
weapons of the Church had attained their utmost force. In Italy, in
Germany, in France and England, interdicts and excommunications
vindicated the pontifical authority, as in the cases of the Duke of
Ravenna, the Emperor Otho, Philip Augustus of France, King John of
England. [Sidenote: Interference of Innocent III. in France.] In each of
these cases it was not for the sake of sustaining great moral principles
or the rights of humanity that the thunder was launched--it was in
behalf of temporary political interests; interests that, in Germany,
were sustained at the cost of a long war, and cemented by assassination;
in France, strengthened by the well-tried device of an intervention in a
matrimonial broil--the domestic quarrel of the king and queen about
Agnes of Meran. "Ah! happy Saladin!" said the insulted Philip, when his
kingdom was put under interdict; "he has no pope above him. I too will
turn Mohammedan."

[Sidenote: In Spain and Portugal.] So, likewise, in Spain, Innocent
interfered in the matrimonial life of the King of Leon. The remorseless
venality of the papal government was felt in every direction. Portugal
had already been advanced to the dignity of a kingdom on payment of an
annual tribute to Rome. The King of Aragon held his kingdom as feudatory
to the pope.

[Sidenote: In England; denounces Magna Charta.] In England, Innocent's
interference assumed a different aspect. He attempted to assert his
control over the Church in spite of the king, and put the nation under
interdict because John would not permit Stephen Langton to be Archbishop
of Canterbury. It was utterly impossible that affairs could go on with
such an empire within an empire. For his contumacy, John was
excommunicated; but, base as he was, he defied his punishment for four
years. Hereupon his subjects were rel