THE ORJGINS OF THE SICILIAN KINGDOMprotect those who protected heretics. Yet Frederick himself
had passed extremely severe legislation against heretics in
southern Italy, and pursued them actively in those areas of
northern Italy where he possessed influence. The reality was
that the emperor had been sucked into a destructive Lom-
bard civil war, fought out by opposing armies who looked
for succour to the pope, emperor or another saviour, such
as Henry (VII) King of Germany.
The breakdown of relations with the papacy was clear
after Cortenuova. In^1239 Gregory IX elevated the struggle
to defend Rome against the Hohenstaufen into a crusade
in defence of the relics of Sts Peter and Paul.~~ Thereafter
battle was joined permanently, and not even the emperor's
capture of a shipload of prelates sent to discuss his case, or
a papal interregnum from 1241 to 1243, were able to force
the disengagement of the parties. In 1245 Pope Innocent IV,
elected after a long conclave which each faction had desper-
ately sought to influence, turned against Frederick. He fled
to Lyons and excommunicated the emperor. He declared
Frederick deposed from his thrones. The grounds for doing
so were that the emperor had despoiled the Sicilian Church,
had consorted with Saracen infidels, had strayed far from
Christian belief and practice; the emphasis in papal accusa-
tions was not, generally, on the threat Frederick posed in
Lombardy and in central Italy. More particularly, the papacy
made every effort to separate Sicily from Germany; from the
time of Honorius III the question of a divided inheritance,
with Sicily passing to one heir and Germany to another, stood
prominently on the papal agenda. This was not necessarily
something Frederick opposed; but he was not prepared to
let an outside party determine the succession to his thrones.^34
For the five years following his 'deposition' Frederick
fought with some success to hold together his heritage: the
lay nobility in Germany largely stood by him, and he retained
much support among the Ghibellines of northern and central
Italy. He was relentless in attempts to raise money in Sicily
and southern Italy. He showed no mercy towards conspirators
- David Abulafia, 'The Kingdom of Sicily and the origins of the political
crusades', Societa, istituzioni, spiritualita. Studi in on ore di Cinzio Violante,
2 vols (Spoleto, 1994), vol. I, pp. 65-77. - Abulafia, Frederick II, pp. 368-9.