The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [1915]
[Footnote 127: The laborious Benedictines (l'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 896) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II., archbishop of Palermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian; and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on himself) appears to indicate that he was born, or at least educated, in the island.]
[Footnote 128: Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his history from the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: Legis et justitiae cultus tempore suo vigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte contentus; (were they mortals?) abique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum metuebat viator insidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum, (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii p 939.)]
[Footnote 129: Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarun tuarum affluentia diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinus et moribus informata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura discessit: et nunc cum imgentibus copiis revertitur, ut pulcherrima nutricis ornamenta barbarica foeditate contaminet .... Intuari mihi jam videor turbulentas bar barorum acies .... civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florentia, metu concutere, caede vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedare luxuria hinc cives aut gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi, virgines constupratae, matronae, &c.]
[Footnote 130: Certe si regem non dubiae virtutis elegerint, nec a Saracenis Christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus licet quasi desperatis et perditis subvenire, et incursus hostium, si prudenter egerit, propulsare.]
[Footnote 131: In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum rerum studiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciae reponendum.]
[Footnote 132: Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas, .... muriorum etiam ambitum densis turribus circumseptum.]
[Footnote 133: Cum erudelitate piratica Theutonum confligat atrocitas, et inter aucbustos lapides, et Aethnae flagrant's incendia, &c.]
[Footnote 134: Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgor illustrat, quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio praeminere, nefarium esset .... vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I wish to transcribe his florid, but curious, description, of the palace, city, and luxuriant plain of Palermo.]
[Footnote 135: Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tam inopia civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt.]
[Footnote 136: The Normans and Sicilians appear to be confounded.]
The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first gratified by the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the grandson of the first king, whose birth was illegitimate, but whose civil and military virtues shone without a blemish. During four years, the term of his life and reign, he stood in arms on the farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of Germany; and the restitution of a royal captive, of Constantia herself, without injury or ransom, may appear to surpass the most liberal measure of policy or reason. After his decease, the kingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; and Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if the pope and the free cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, they would have combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent the dangerous union of the German empire with the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for which the Vatican has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive; and if it were true that Celestine the Third had kicked away the Imperial crown from the head of the prostrate Henry, ^137 such an act of impotent pride could serve only to