hence
came great schism and affliction to the Church of God, forasmuch as
these Popes by the power of the Emperor Frederick held all the
patrimony of St. Peter and the Duchy, so that the said Pope Alexander
had no authority. But the said Pope Alexander fought valiantly against
them all, and excommunicated them: the which all, one after the other,
during his reign, died an evil death. But whilst they were reigning by
the power of Frederick, the said true Pope, Alexander, not being able
to abide in Rome, went to the French court to King Louis the Pious,
which received him graciously. And it is said in France that when the
said Pope was coming to Paris secretly with a small company in the
guise of a lesser prelate, immediately that he came to St. Maure, near
to Paris, albeit they had not had news of the Pope, yet by Divine
miracle there rose a voice: "Behold the Pope! behold the Pope!" and
the bells began to ring, and the king, with the clergy and the people
of Paris, went out to meet him, whence the Pope marvelled greatly,
forasmuch as none knew of his coming; and he thanked God, and made
himself known to the king and to the people, and began to give the
benediction. And afterwards in France the said Pope called a general
council in the city of Tours in Touraine, in the which he
excommunicated the said Frederick, and deposed him from the Empire,
and absolved all his barons from their oaths, and deposed them of the
house of Colonna in Rome, that neither they nor their successors
should ever be allowed to hold any office in Holy Church, seeing that
they all held to the aid and favour of the said Frederick against the
Church. And in that council all the kings and lords of the West
promised and leagued themselves with Louis, king of France, in aid of
the said Pope Alexander and of Holy Church, against the said
Frederick, and likewise many cities of Lombardy rebelled against the
said Frederick, to wit, Milan, and Cremona, and Piacenza, and held
with the Pope and with the Church; for the which thing, when the said
Frederick was passing through Lombardy to go into France against King
Louis, who was supporting Pope Alexander, and found that the city of
Milan had rebelled against him, he laid siege thereto, and, after long
siege, he took it, in the year of Christ 1157, in the month of March,
and destroyed the walls thereof and burnt all the city, and caused the
ground to be ploughed and sown with salt; and the bodies of the Three