FREDERICƲS Imperator mare Mediterraneum ingressus, ut Domino vo∣tum* 1.1 peregrinationis persolveret, in vigilia Nativitatis Beatae Virginis Mariae apud Achon applicuit: venientes ei obviam Clerus terrae & populus cum magno honore, ut tantum dicebat virum, illum receperunt. Veruntamen quoniam no∣verant eum a Papa excommunicatum, non ei communicaverunt in osculo, neque in mensa: sed consuluerunt, ut Domino Papae satis∣faciens, rediret ad Sanctae Ecclesiae unitatem. Templarii vero & Hospitilarii, in adventu ejus flexis genibus adoraverunt eum, genua ejus deosculan∣tes, & omnis fidelium, qui aderat exercitus, glorificabant Deum in adventu ipsius: sperantes quod per eum fieret salus in Israel. Tunc Imperator (as he had just rea∣son) ad universum exercitum gravem deposuit querimoniam, de Pontifice Romano, quod injustam tulerat in eum sententiam: affirmans se gravissimae infirmitatis causa, & aliorum arduorum negotiorum, quae totam tangebant Christianitatem, iter suum ad Terrae Sanctae subsidium distulisse.
This perverse Pope on the contrary, to evidence his implacable malice against the Emperour, instead of absolving him from his Excommunication for not going to the Holy Land, now resolves not only to continue it, but makes actual War up∣on his Territories, to deprive him of his Temporal Crown, as Contumacious and Re∣bellious, because he went thither, and set up John de Brennes (whom he made his General) Emperour in his Throne: as Matthew Paris thus relates.