A.D. 123t.] THE I'OI'E AND THE ROMANS. 601 Of the dissension which arose between the pope and tlie Ilomans. In this same year a serious dissension sprang up between tho pope and tlie citizens of Rome, the origin of which was as follows. The said citizens claimed to themselves a privilege, which was, that the Roman pontifr could not for any offence, excommunicate any one of the citizens, or lay an interdict on the city. In reply to this the supreme pontili" said, that although he was inferior to God he was superior to man, and was therefore superior to the inhabitants of Rome ; and, since he was their spiritual father, he ought to, and by right could, punish his erring children, as they were subject to him in the faith of Christ, wherefore he could lawfully excommunicate them and lay the city under an interdict where there was a reasonable cause for so doing. Again, the city authorities and senators exacted from the Roman church an annual tribute, which the Roman pontiffs paid to tbein by a recent as well as old custom, and of which they had been in receipt up to the time of the present pope. To this the pope replied, that if in times of persecution the Roman church, for its own defence and for the sake of peace, had sometimes bestowed large presents on the authorities of the city, this ought not to bo construed into a custom, for that ought only to lie considered a custom which was founded on right and supported by reason ; and, what was more than all this, Christ on his cross had made it so free by his blood, that not even the gates of hell would prevail against it. i-'or these and other causes of dispute lietwccn him and the Romans, the pope left the city with his cardinals, and went to Perugia to stay whilst the quarrel lasted. The Romans in the mean time, growing bold in their opposition to him, pulled down some of his buildings in the city, on which they were excommunicated by him ; he also ingratiated himself with the emperor, and assembled a large army to resist the attacks of the Romans. The united armies of the emperor and the supreme pontili' then destroyed about eighteen villages inhabited by these Romans situated round the city, and cut down the trees in their vineyards ; the citizens then enraged at this, sallied forth from Rome on the 8th of October, to tho uumber it is said of a hundred thousand armed men, for the purpose of pillaging and burning the city of Viterbo, which belonged to the pope ; but when this senseless crowd had got out if the city, and were proceeding without regard to discipline and in disordered masses, the trained troops of the pope and the emperor burst forth from places of ambuscade, and, rushing on the [tomans, caused dreadful slaughter amongst them, although with some loss to themselves. About thirty thousand men fell on both sides ; the Romans, however, suffered the greatest loss as they took to precipitate flight towards the city, scattering themselves in all directions, and their hearts were now greatly exasperated against the pope, because in this conflict many of the higher