¹⁸⁶ Guill. Neubrig, Rer. Angl. 1. 2. c. 6. et 9,—Ciacon. de Vitis pont. Rom. Hadr. 4.
¹⁸⁷ Petri Bles. Op. p. 252, 263.—Concilior. v. 9. p. 1143. Hist, eccles. 1. 70. n. 16.
¹⁸⁹ Joann. Sarisb: Polycrat. 1. 6. c. 24; 1. 8. c. 22.
At the above period, reigned in Sicily, William sumamed the Bad, who enraged at receiving from the pope only the title of lord, in the place of that of king, carried hostilities into the ecclesiastical states.¹⁹¹ Adrian, after having excommunicated him, raised against him the nobles, vassals of this prince, promising to support their privileges with an invincible constancy, and to have them restored to the heritages of which they had been deprived. However, the pope shut up in Beneventum, saw himself obliged to capitulate, and to sacrifice the Sicilians who had armed themselves in his defence. William of Tyre has blamed him for it;¹⁹² but according to Baronius,¹⁹³ we must only pity him, for he lacked the means of remaining faithful to his engagements; and he was so far from free, that he was constrained to acknowledge, by authentic deed, that he enjoyed a perfect liberty. However it was, William the Bad, and the pope were reconciled; and there were none discontented save the barons, who, on the word of the holy father, had expected never to be abandoned.
¹⁹¹ Baron. Ann. ecdes. ann. 1154.—Pagi. Act. ann. 1154, n. 4.
¹⁹³ Ann.eccles. ann 1166.—Concilior vol. 10. pa. 1151.
From the commencement of his pontificate Adrian had been relieved of Amauld of Brescia. An interdict launched for the first time against the churches of Rome, terrified the people, and compeled the senators to exile Arnauld, who scarcely out of the city, was delivered to the sovereign pontiff by Frederick Barbarossa, and buried alive at the break of day, without the knowledge of the people. His ashes were thrown into the Tiber, for fear, says Fleury¹⁹⁴ that the people should collect them as those of a martyr. But this service rendered by Frederick to Adrian did not prevent their becoming enemies. From the year 1155, when Frederick came to Rome to receive the imperial crown, the first germs of their discord were perceptible.¹⁹⁵ Frederick, after having refused to hold the stirrup for the pope, acquitted himself of it with a very bad grace. He observed in the palace of the Lateran a picture, in which the Emperor Lothaire was represented on his knees before the pontif with the well known inscription: