he would only relay in person, shared the sultan’s proposal to form an alliance to destroy their mutual enemies and help the Christians “recover Jerusalem and all of the lands that they held in the days of Saladin.” After his meeting with Gabra, the pope sent him back to Frederick’s court to continue with these negotiations. This is the last thing ever heard of the sultan’s emissary and the proposed peace between the Muslim ruler and the bishop of Rome.22
Peace among Christians living in the crusader kingdoms remained just as elusive, despite the truce established in 1234 by Albert of Antioch and the archbishop of Ravenna between John of Ibelin and Frederick’s officials. When news reached the pope in the summer of 1235 that John and his supporters at Acre were planning an assault on Tyre, which was held by Frederick’s imperial marshal, Richard Filangerium, Gregory again tried to intervene on the emperor’s behalf. Writing to the Hospitaller, Templar, and Teutonic orders in Syria, calling for “peace and tranquility” rather than “dissension and scandal,” he instructed them to work for the “preservation of imperial rights” and stop the attack on Tyre. An injury against the emperor, Gregory stated, is like “an injury to us.” He sent a similar message to John of Ibelin and the citizens of Acre, threatening them with ecclesiastical censure if they did not reverse their confrontational course.23
In his letters to the various parties concerned, the pope did not disguise or dissemble his reasons for supporting Frederick. Damage to the emperor’s power would equally harm the church and impede the upcoming crusade. After the emperor’s recent service, meaning his support against the rebellious citizens of Rome, Gregory felt especially beholden to back the Hohenstaufen position overseas. Writing directly to Frederick in September 1235 and celebrating the empire as the “strong-arm and defender of the Apostolic See,” Gregory reviewed his past efforts to defend Frederick’s rights in Syria. With this address, he included a separate “form of peace,” laying out the new terms for a settlement in the kingdom of Jerusalem that would restore the status quo before the recent rebellion against the imperial marshal. In that same letter, however, Gregory also tried to explain his controversial decision to lift the sentence of interdict passed against Acre by his own legate, Theodoric of Ravenna, after proctors from the city at the papal curia provided sworn assurances of their good behavior moving forward. The pope did so because of the particular situation in that city. With so many different kinds of Christians and kinds of worship in the city, he worried that leaving the ban in place might encourage some citizens to abandon the Roman rite altogether, allowing for the spread of heresy. Gregory must have realized that Frederick would question his decision to lift the interdict before finalizing the terms of peace, so he asked Peter de Vinea, who was present at the curia for negotiations over the problems in Lombardy, to approve of the papal agreement with the citizens of Acre. To Gregory’s disappointment, Peter refused, since his mandate from the emperor did not authorize him to do so.24
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