[Sidenote: The Second General Lateran Council, 1139.]
In April 1139 Innocent II. consummated his triumph by holding a General Council in the Lateran, which was attended by a thousand bishops. This second Lateran Council was reckoned by the Westerns as the Tenth General Council. It removed the last traces of the schism, and re-enacted more formally the canons already drawn up in the Pope’s presence at the Council of Reims of 1131. It is significant of the future that the Council condemned the errors of Arnold of Brescia.
[Sidenote: Innocent II. and Roger II. of Sicily.]
Innocent thus restored the Papacy to its old position in things spiritual, but not even St. Bernard could give him much help against Roger of Sicily. After the quarrel of Pope and Emperor, the Norman king speedily won back his position in Apulia and Calabria, and even at the very end of the schism his influence had forced Monte Casino, the mother of all Western monasticism, to acknowledge Anacletus. Spiritual weapons were useless against Roger. No sooner, therefore, was the council over than Innocent took the field in person against his rebellious vassal. The fate of Leo IX. was speedily repeated. The papal army was no match against Roger’s veterans, and Innocent, shut up in San Germano, was forced to yield himself prisoner. Roger showed the head of the Church the same respect which Robert had shown his predecessor. But the Pope could only win back his liberty by confirming to the Norman all the advantages which he had formerly wrested from the weakness of Anacletus. The treaty of Mignano again restored the old alliance between the Papacy and the Italian Normans. Roger did homage to Innocent for Sicily, Apulia, and Capua. A great south Italian kingdom was thus definitely legalised which, in the varied changes of subsequent history, obstinately maintained its unity with itself and its separateness from the rest of the peninsula.
[Sidenote: The organisation of the kingdom of Sicily under Roger II., 1127–1154.]
Roger governed the state which he had founded with rare ability and energy. He was a true Norman, and many features of his character suggest a comparison between him and William the Conqueror. He now showed as much capacity in statecraft as he had previously shown as a warrior. Fierce, relentless, and unforgiving, he ruthlessly crushed the barons that had profited by the period of struggle to consolidate their independence, and built up a well-ordered centralised despotism, that was able to give examples in the art of government to Henry of Anjou. With rare sympathy and skill, he permitted the motley population of his new kingdom to live their old lives under their old laws. The Saracens of Sicily that had faithfully supported him in the days of his adversity, continued in their former abodes, occupying separate districts in the cities, worshipping without hindrance in their mosques, and still governed in the petty matters of everyday life by their own judges after the laws of Islam. The Byzantine Greeks, still numerous in the towns of Calabria, enjoyed similar immunities for their schismatic worship, and still followed the Roman law. Arabic and Greek were equally recognised with Latin as official languages in the public acts, and Roger’s coins bore Arabic devices. The court of the king took a character of Eastern pomp and luxury that anticipated the times of Frederick II. A Greek general led Roger’s armies, and a Greek churchman, who wrote a book against the Roman primacy, shared with Arab physicians, geographers, and astronomers the patronage of the Norman king. The very monuments of art show the same strange juxtaposition of the stern romanesque of Neustria with the mosaics of the Byzantines, and the brilliant decorations of Arabic architects. Roger made Naples and Sicily one of the best-governed states in Europe, and with the happy quickness of sympathy and readiness to learn and borrow, which was the best mark of the Norman genius, combined elements the most diverse and unpromising into a happy and contented whole.