blandrate

Updated: May 9, 2025

But when, in the face of former oaths and pledges to uphold and make good all the rights and property of the Holy See, Frederic began, with reckless effrontery, to wrong that see by investing his uncle, Duke Guelph VI., with Tuscany and Sardinia, in fact, with the entire inheritance of the Countess Matilda, who, as is well known, had bequeathed it to Gregory VII. and his successors for ever, the pope's right thereto having been formally acknowledged by the Emperor Lothair; when, moreover, Frederic began to levy tribute on other possessions of the Church, and did so under pretence of his imperial prerogatives in Rome; when from these temporal, he passed to spiritual usurpations, and intruded, firstly, his chancellor, Raynald, into the vacant see of Cologne, contrary to the provisions of the treaty of Worms to which he has sworn; and, secondly, his favourite, Guido of Blandrate, into the see of Ravenna, in direct opposition to the pope's wishes, to whose episcopal jurisdiction, Guido, as subdeacon in the Roman church, was exclusively subject, and by whom he was destined for other and more suitable preferment; then, at last, Adrian's indignation could contain itself no longer, and he addressed to the emperor a brief, in which, under a forced calmness and moderation of style, his soreness at the outrages committed against him is yet plainly perceptible.

Richard Raby - Pope Adrian IV: An Historical Sketch