2579

June 12. Lyons. Pope Innocent IV writes to the podestà and the commune of Novara, relating that he has learned from the serious complaint of the archdeacon of Antioch that, when he was going to the Apostolic See for the business of the church of Antioch and had arrived at the port of Mergozzo in the diocese of Novara, some sons of iniquity who claimed to have been assigned by the addressees to guard the port maliciously asserted that he was carrying commercial merchandise and dared to detain his bags. While many people ran to the port because of this, 622 gold coins (aurei) and 35 imperial pounds, which the chapter of Antioch was sending to [patriarch-]elect [Opizo Fieschi], were stolen from one of these bags. The pope orders the addressees to have what was taken by the people of that place restored without delay. Otherwise, the addressees should know that he has sent a letter to Bishop [Odemaro Buzio] of Novara ordering him to force them to do this via ecclesiastical censure, after a warning, without appeal.