ItOGEli 01·' WEND0VEK. [A.D. 1-2-2·*. liow the emperor aroitsed a spirit of persecution against the pope. By these means of excitement the emperor aroused a severe persecution against the pope and the inheritance of the Roman church, and attacking cities and seizing the castles belonging to it. of which the pope informed Roman the legate in France in the letter which follows. Complaints of the pope against the emperor. " Gregory bishop to Roman legate amongst the French, greeting, &c. Give attention, we beg of you, and sec if there is any sorrow like ours, for in the son whom the church of Rome has brought up and raised to a high station in the hopes of having in him a champion against the infidels, it now finds a cruel persecutor and active enemy. And, not to pass over in silence the atrocious injuries and dreadful damage which the said emperor Frederic has continually inflicted on the church and the ecclesiastics, he is now, by means of the Saracens and others, attacking the inheritance of the apostolic see, and, what is more detestable, he is making treaties with the sultan and other Saracens, and shows kindness to them, but open hatred to the Christians, to the extermination of the orders of the hospitallers and templars, by whom the relics of the Holy Land have been hitherto protected. For after the treaty between the Saracens and Christians was by his command broken off, the Saracens made an incursion into the territory of the above-mentioned orders, and when, after slaying and making prisoners of a great number of their followers, they had carried off a great quantity of booty, the templars attacked them and took from them some of the booty to the value of six thousand marks ; but Thomas count of Aterrte, the emperor's minister, furiously attacked them as they were returning, and by force took from them this booty, they, in obedience to the rules of their order, not daring to raise an armed hand against Christians, and this booty the said Thomas restored to the Saracens with the exception of some of it, which he is said to have retained for bis own use. And if the Saracens took booty from the Christians he not only did not endeavour to recover it, but even did not allow the Christians ever to take booty from the Saracens; and by these means they became more insolent and boldly attacked our people, and our people fearing treachery vere less bold in resisting them, and thus