oath of fealty for them, but such oath was exacted from his
son-in-law, Henry the Proud of Bavaria, to whom the inheritance was
made over on the same conditions. Lothair had perhaps saved the
much-coveted lands from being lawfully claimed by the Hohenstaufen;
but it was the Pope who had really gained by these transactions, for
he had obtained from a lawfully crowned Emperor the recognition of the
papal right to their possession. Indeed, the whole episode of
Lothair's coronation was treated as a papal triumph, and by Innocent's
direction a picture was placed in the Lateran palace in which Lothair
was represented as kneeling before the throned Pope to receive the
imperial crown, while underneath as inscribed the following distich:--

"Rex stetit ante fores, jurans prius urbis honores,
Post homo fit papae, sumit quo dante coronam."

Lothair, however, never saw this record of his visit. He returned to
Germany, having secured, at any rate for himself, the right of
investing his ecclesiastics with their temporalities, the lands of the
Countess Matilda, and, most important of all, the imperial crown
bestowed at Rome by a Pope who was recognised practically throughout
the West. So strengthened, he intended to crush the still opposing
Hohenstaufen. But the intercessions of his own Empress and the papal
legates were backed up by the fiery eloquence of the all-powerful
Bernard, who appeared at the Diet of Bamberg (March, 1135). Lothair
was overruled and terms were granted, which first Frederick of Suabia
and, later on, Conrad were induced to accept. Frederick confined
himself to Suabia, but Conrad attached himself to Lothair's Court, and
became one of the Emperor's most honoured followers.

After Lothair's return to Germany, Roger of Sicily gradually recovered