VII - THE WAR WITH THE NORMANS

Summary

No sooner was the war with Genoa ended than the Moorish princes of Spain and Africa sought to tie the hands of the Pisans by treaties and concessions. In June, 1133, two galleys appeared at the mouth of the Arno bearing ambassadors from Abu-Ibn-Iusuf, Emir of Morocco, from the Emir of Flemcen and from the head of the tribe of the Beni Meimum (the Gaido Maimone of the chronicles), lord of Almeria. With them a “pax” and confederation was entered into, whereby a vast stretch of African sea-board and the richest of the Spanish States were thrown open to Pisan commerce. In the following September, Innocent, finding himself insecure in Rome, where the partisans of Anacletus still occupied almost all the towers and fortresses of the city, once more took refuge in Pisa, and there, on the 30th May, 1134, a General Council was assembled: “'Tertio Kalendas Iunii, celebratum et incoeptum est Concilium, domino et summo pontifice Innocentio papa praesidente, cum multitudine patriarcharum, archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, abbatum et sacerdotum, clericorum.” Among the rest was St Bernard of Clairvaux. The Council of Pisa consolidated the power of Innocent; many recalcitrant bishops were deprived of their sees, and even Milan abandoned the cause of his adversary. The peaceful conquest of that city was the work of St Bernard and constitutes the greatest of his many triumphs. The welcome which he received at the hands of the citizens was, perhaps, the most splendid spectacle of the century.