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II. The Emperor Frederick II and the Sicilian Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

H. J. Pybus
H. J. Pybus
Affiliation:
Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge
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Extract

The struggle between Frederick II and the papacy is the most dramatic of all the medieval contests between Regnum and Sacerdotium and has naturally attracted many historians. Frederick's relations to the church of his Sicilian kingdom is a less obviously dramatic theme and has never been treated except incidentally as one of the contributory causes of friction between pope and emperor. It is, however, worthy of independent study, providing as it does a corrective to the idea of Frederick engaged in almost ceaseless warfare against the church, which one derives from excessive concentration on papal and imperial manifestoes. A study of Frederick's Sicilian constitutions, of his charters to churches and his letters to officials and ecclesiastics, reveals a ruler who is far from being the inveterate enemy of churchmen and of church privileges.

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Research Article
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Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , 1930 , pp. 134 - 163
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1930

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References

1 Hist[oria] Maj[or, Rolls Series]; III, 550.

2 H[uillard] B[réholles, Historia Diplomatica Friderici II], VI, 280.

3 Caspar, Quellen u. Forschungen [aus Italien. Archiven u. Bibliotheken, Preuss. Instit. in Rome], VII, 189; Jordan, Le Moyen Âge, 1923, p. 32. The most disputed portion of the bull is the following: “omni vita; tuæ tempore vel filii tui Simonis aut alterius qui legitimus tui haeres exstiterit, nullum in terra potestatis vestras præter voluntatem aut consilium vestrum legatum Romanæ: ecclesiae statuemus, quinimmo, quæ? per legatum acturi sumus, per vestram industriam legati vice exhiberi volumus, quando ad vos ex latere nostro miserimus ad salutem videlicet ecclesiarum…” (Quellen u. Forschungen, VII, 218).

4 Malaterra, IV, c. 29; Muratori, [Rerum Italicarum] Scriptores, V, 601.

5 Le Moyen Âge, 1923, p. 32.

6 Gött[ingen] Nach[richten], 1899, p 310.

7 The phrase in the bull “quando ad vos ex latere miserimus” requires, according to M. Jordan, the word “legatum” as its direct object.

8 A letter of the Roman Senate to the Emperor Conrad reports a rumour that the pope had conferred the insignia of the legate on Roger, promising not to send a legate to Sicily without his leave but there is no official confirmation of this. Epistolœ Wibaldi, no. 211, Migne, [Patrologia, Série 2], Tome 189. Cf. Caspar, Roger II, p. 402, note 3.

9 Hist[oria] Pont[ificalis, ed. Lane Poole], c. 32, p. 66.

10 M[onumenta] G[ermaniœ Historical Scriptores, XIX, 418.

11 M. G. Constitutiones, 1, App. II, p. 588.

12 Gesta Inn. III, c. 21, Migne, vol. 214.

13 M. G. Const. I, 593.

14 Quellen u. Forschungen, VIII, 50, no. ix.

15 Epistolœ Inn. III, anno 1198, Migne, vol. 214, no. 412, p. 389.

16 “tribus capitulis de appellationibus, legationibus et conciliis a privilegio prorsus amotis, et quarto de electionibus scilicet moderato” (H.B. I, 140).

17 A legate sent in 1204 is to be obeyed “in spiritualibus vel temporalibus.” H.B. I,105.

18 H.B. I, 140; Mitteilungen [des Institute für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung], 1885, pp. 316, 326.Google Scholar Cf. Constitutiones [Siciliœ], 1, 64; H.B. IV, 61.

19 R[yccardi] de S[ancto] Ger[mano, ed. A. Gaudenzi, Soc. Nap. di Storia Patria], p. 124; H.B. IV, 830, 907; V, 253.

20 Constitutiones, III, 29; H.B. IV, 227.

21 R. de S. Ger. p. 102, Const. X.

22 Ibid. p. 102, Const. XV.

23 Scheffer-Boichorst, [Zur] Gesckichte [des XII u. XIII Jahrhunderts], p. 244; Caspar, Roger II, p. 320; Niese, [Die] Gesetzgebung [der Normannen Dynastie in Regnum Siciliœ], p. 115.

24 Caspar, Roger II, p. 320, note 4.

25 Ibid. p. 322; Garufi, I Documenti inediti dell’ epoca Normanna in Sicilia.

26 Scheffer-Boichorst, Geschichte, p. 247, and Sitzungsberichte der Akademie…zu Berlin, 1900, p. 134Google Scholar; Stumpf, [Die Reichskanzler des X, XI u. XII Jahrhunderts] III, no. 511, p. 712; Pirro, [Sicilia Sacra,] vol. 11, p. 1359; H.B. II, 139.

27 The reason for the choice of 1220 and not 1208, the date of Frederick's majority, was to enable him to revise the grants of his officials during his absence in Germany from 1212–20.

28 Frederick says Markwald and others had misused the royal seal. R. de S. Ger. p. 102, Const. XV.

29 Ed. Gaudenzi, Soc. Nap. di Storia Patria, p. 37.

30 H.B. II, 199, 304; III, 302; [Winkelmann,] Acta [Imperil] Inedita, no. 239; Neues Archiv [der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtsforschung], XXVII, 75. For the use of a similar saving clause in the Papal chancery from Celestine II, cf. Niese, Gesetzgebung, p. 115, note 6.

31 Cf. H.B. I, 152 and II, 119; H.B. I, 799 and II, III and Acta Inedita, no, 257.

32 R. de S. Ger. p. 101; cf. Quellen u. Forschungen, IX, 225.

33 R. de S. Ger. pp. 103, III.

34 The constitutions and mandates dealing with this subject are very numerous. Const. III6, H.B. IV, 123; III7, H.B. IV, 125; III11, H.B. IV, 222; Acta Inedita, nos. 806, 807.

35 R. de S. Ger. p. 145.

36 H.B. V, p. 439.

37 Quellen u. Forschungen, XVI, 47; Acta Inedita, no. 828.

38 H.B. IV, 395; Gött. Nach. 1912, p. 405, no. 12 and notes on p. 392.

39 R. de S. Ger. p. 116; H.B. III, 329, 331.

40 H.B. IV, 123; Acta Inedita, no. 834.

41 H.B. V, 252.

42 H.B. II, 281.

43 Ughelli, VII, 836; Pergamene dei Monasterii Soppressi, State Archives, Naples, vol. 9, no. 767; vol. 10, no. 874. Cf. also Arch[ivio] Stor[ico per le provincie] Nap[oletane], vol. 14, no. CXXX, p. 155.

44 Quellen u. Forschungen, XVI, no. xix, p. 42; Arch. Stor. Nap. vol. 14, no. CXXIX, p. 155; no. CXL, p. 355.

45 H.B. VI, 648.

46 M. Paris, Chron. Maj. VI, 301.

47 Acta Inedita, no. 240.

48 H.B. VI, 349; Acta Inedita, no. 173.

49 B[öhmer]-F[icker-Winkelmann, Regesta Imperii, 1198–1272], 2085a, 13180a; R. de S. Ger. p. 147.

50 H.B. III, 290.

51 Ibid., VI, 426.

52 Acta Inedita, no. 1036; H.B. VI, 563, 638.

53 H.B. I, 149, note 1; Ughelli, VII, 623.

54 B.F. 447.

55 H.B. I, 232.

56 Ibid. p. 278.

57 Ibid. p. 278; B.F. 737.

58 He upheld Frederick's claims against those of Otto IV at the Lateran Council of 1215 (R. de S. Ger. p. 93); he escorted Frederick's wife and son to Lombardy in 1216 (B.F. 3845a,b, 3846); he was with Frederick in Italy from 1221 onwards (B.F. 1280).

59 R. de S. Ger. p. 128.

60 H.B. III, 100.

61 B.F. 1795a.

62 Pirro, I, 145.

63 [Huillard Bréholles, Vie et Correspondence de] P[ierre] de la Vigne, p. 355, no. 60.

64 P. de la Vigne, p. 356, no. 61.

65 Ibid. p. 357, no. 62.

66 Ibid. p. 118 et seq.

67 R. de S. Ger. p. 147.

68 Winkelmann, Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. 12, p. 553.

69 Acta Inedita, no. 812.

70 Ibid. no. 822.

71 H.B. IV, 913.

72 Ibid, V, 444.

73 B.F. 3130, 3132, 3156, 3365

74 H.B. VI, 115.

75 H.B. VI, 118.

76 Ibid. p. 123.

77 Vita Inn. IV, c. 19 [Muratori, Scriptores, III], says that he was at the Council of Lyons but the author probably confused him with the Archbishop of Bari; B.F. 7544b, 7545.

78 B.F. 3543.

79 H.B. VI, 426; cf. VI, 615.

80 Reg[esta] Inn. IV, [Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome,] II, 4515.

81 H.B. VI, 553.

82 B.F. 3465, 3494, 3622, 3623.

83 H.B. VI, 805.

84 M.G. Scriptores, XVI, 373; IX, 599; M. Paris, Chron. Maj. V, 190.

85 “excommunicatus et depositus miserabiliter expiravit” (Vita Inn. IV, c. 39). “descenditque ad Inferos nihil secum deferens nisi sacculum peccatorum” (Muratori, Scriptores, VIII, 685).

86 Muratori, Scriptores, VIII, 974.

87 M.G. Epistolœ [saeculi XIII], III, 86, no. 108.

88 Pirro, I, 148; B.F. 8379.

89 Acta Inedita, no. 231.

90 H.B. II, 383.

91 R. de S. Ger. p. 118; M.G. Epistolœ, I, 204, no. 283.

92 Richard does not mention him among those admitted finally in 1226: p. 126.

93 H.B. II, 922.

94 H.B. III, 290.

95 Ibid., IV, 176, note 1.

96 Ibid. II, 497. Winkelmann, De regni Siculi administratione, p. 12, note 16.

97 P. de la Vigne, p. 17. The constitution to which Conrad refers does not correspond to any actually existing constitution but the collection which has come down to us is not a complete code of all the laws in force. The sentence at the end of most of the MSS of the constitutions stating that the laws have been compiled by Peter in accordance with Frederick's orders is missing from the Greek text and the earlier Latin MSS and is probably a later interpolation. Winkelmann, Geschichte [Kaiser] F[riedrichs] II, p. 349, note 1.

98 Cf. Niese, , Hist[orische] Zeit[schrifi], 1912, vol. 108, p. 535Google Scholar.

99 Sthamer, E. in Papsttum u. Kaisertum, Paul Kehr zum 65 Geburtstag dargebracht, München, 1926.Google Scholar

100 Niese, , Hist. Zeit. 1912, p. 534.Google Scholar

101 H.B. III, 266.

102 Cf. B.F. for years 1230–1234.

103 B.F. 6828, 6829, 6831.

104 Ibid. 13180a, 2085a.

105 H.B. V, 597.

106 Ibid. p. 601; cf. also p. 556.

107 B.F. 3109.

108 Ughelli [Italia Sacra], VI, 334, gives 1242 but see B.F. 3254.

109 P. de la Vigne, pp. 358–67, nos. 64–71; p. 304, no. 10; and Introduction, p. 123 et seq.

110 P. de la Vigne, p. 361, no. 67.

111 Ibid. pp. 304, 360, 362, 363.

112 Ibid. p. 359, no. 65.

113 Ibid. p. 366, no. 69.

114 Ibid. p. 366, no. 69, where, in protesting his friendship for Peter, James adds: “salva tamen fide [imperatori] per omnia, ne quid voluntatis pereat, nec quid de jussis prætereat dominantis, contra quem si quis impetit, mundi et sanguinis necessitudo pellatur.”

115 Ibid. p. 368, no. 72.

116 Published by Hampe in Hist[orische] Viert[eljahrschrift], 1922, I, 76.

117 H.B. III, 208. The conduct of Frederick's officials in this Traetto district had been one of the points in dispute in the negotiations over the Peace of San Germano.

118 Hampe, Hist. Viert. 1922, p. 77.

119 R. de S. Ger. p. 143 (not 1236 as Pirro, I, 404).

120 H.B. II, 210.

121 M.G.Epistolœ, I, 235, no. 309; R. de S. Ger. pp. 126, 127, 133, 135; H.B. II, 692; III, 92.

122 H.B. III, 266.

123 Regesta Gregorii IX, I, 686, Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome.

124 R. de S. Ger. p. 140.

125 P. de la Vigne, p. 352, no. 57.

126 B.F. 2017b; R. de S. Ger. p. 145 et seq.

127 B.F. 2052.

128 R. de S. Ger. p. 150.

129 H.B. V, 438.

130 Ibid, VI, 638.

131 M.G. Epistolœ, III, 86, no. 107.

132 B.F. 13816, 13784.

133 H.B. III, 29 and Introduction, pp. 345 et seq.; R. Filangieri di Candida, Arch. Stor. Nap. vol. 37, p. 264; 38, p. 311.

134 Ughelli, VII, 626.

135 B.F. 1710.

136 R. de S. Ger. p. 127.

137 B.F. 1732; H.B. III, 83.

138 Gestes des Chiprois, [Société de l'Orient Latin,] pp. 132–5.

139 Gestes des Chiprois, p. 136.

140 In a fragment of a mandate dated 16 October 1246 (H.B. VI, 461) Frederick refers to him as “fidelis noster.” It is difficult to reconcile this with his attitude at the Council of Lyons in 1245, but as he is only mentioned as signing a document defining the privileges of the Holy See perhaps he had not taken a decided line against Frederick. By 1248 Frederick had deprived him of a castle which Innocent restores (H.B. VI, 651). The letter in Codice diplomatico Barese, VI, 120, saying that the Archbishop of Bari was arrested for prophesying Frederick's approaching murder does not refer to Marinus but is a misreading for the Bishop of Bamberg; see M. Paris, Chron. Maj. IV, 573 and H.B. VI, 405.

141 M.G. Epistolœ, III, 84, no. 105.

142 Reg. Inn. IV, vol. 3, nos. 7059, 7122, 8028, 8029.

143 Ughelli, VII, 627; Reg. Inn. IV, vol. 3, no. 5658.

144 On Walter see Niese, Gött. Nach. 1913, p. 42 and Lejeune, Walter von Palearia.

145 Stumpf, III, 751, no. 530.

146 H.B. I, 85; Gesta Inn. III, c. 23.

147 Mitteilungen, 1901, pp. 578–9; Epistolœ Inn. III, Migne, vol. 214, p. 902, no. 23; Gesta Inn. III, c. 32.

148 Potthast, Regesta pontificum, 1461, 1490; Gesta Inn. III, c. 33. Walter had attempted to obtain the archbishopric in 1200 from the legate; Innocent had refused him the title but allowed him to administer the archbishopric (Winkelmann, Otto IV Jahrbücher, 34, note 1, 36, note 1, 93, note 3; Gesta Inn. III, c. 29). He uses the title of “minister” of the church of Palermo in a document published in Neues Archiv, XXVII, 120, which does not bear out the statement in the Gesta that he was too proud to accept the pope's offer.

149 Gesta Inn. III, c. 36; H.B. I, 100.

150 Pirro, I, 533. II, 1203; Otto IV Jahrbücher, p. 78, note 3.

151 H.B. I, 893; B.F. 623, 625.

152 H.B. I, 170.

153 Walter's fall was not due to the influence at court of the Count of Avellino, his personal enemy, as Niese suggests, as he fell from favour before Walter (H.B. I, 253). The Breve Chronicon (H.B. I, 893) suggests the hatred of the queen Constance as the cause but she speaks cordially of Walter in the privilege of 1213 (H.B. I, 253).

154 R. de S. Ger. p. 76; B.F. 444.

155 Otto IV Jahrbücher, pp. 231–3.

156 Gesta Inn. III, c. 34. Hampe has published a letter to Innocent, probably from Raynald of Capua, which represents Gentile as loyal to Frederick and only leaving the castle to seek supplies. Mitteilungen, 1901, p. 593.

157 Hampe, Mitteilungen, loc. cit.

158 Lejeune exaggerates in saying that Frederick established him as Constance's chief counsellor. See Niese, Gott. Nach. 1913, p. 57, note 1. He is called “fidelis noster cancellarius”by Constance in 1213 (H.B. I, 253).

159 Otto IV Jahrbücher, p. 523; B.F. 12514, 12515.

160 B.F. 1331.

161 R. de S. Ger. p. 105; B.F. 10884a.

162 R. de S. Ger. p. 107.

163 Niese, Gott. Nach. p. 63.

164 “per manus procuratorum ipsius” (Niese, Ibid. p. 61, note 1).

165 Muratori, Scriptores, III, p. 583.

166 Reg. Honorius III, ed. Pressutti, 3467.

167 Henry was deprived of his lands in 1223 (R. de S. Ger. p. 107) but the cause of this was his failure to perform his military service, not his failure at Damietta, and all his lands except the castle of Malta were restored to him (Niese, p. 59, note 7; B.F. 1496a; M.G. Scriptores, XVIII, 153; Winkelmann, [Kaiser] Friedrich II Jahrbücher, vol. I, 159, note 4).

168 Niese, p. 61, notes 1 and 2.

169 Ibid. p. 62, note 4.

170 Cf. B.F. for years 1199 and 1200. Gesta Inn. III, c. 31.

171 Epistolœ Inn. III, Migne, vol. 214, p. 736, no. 187.

172 H.B. I, 57.

173 Ibid. p. 80; cf. also p. 87.

174 R. de S. Ger. p. 124.

175 Niese, p. 66.

176 Ibid. p. 62.

177 H.B. V, 721.

178 Niese, pp. 66–7.

179 H.B. V, 797; Niese, p. 69.

180 Niese, p. 68, note 1.

181 H.B. V, p. 437. Frederick appointed a canon of Bamberg as bishop some time between 1228 and 1231 but by 1232 the bishopric was vacant and Henry serving as a protonotary. Catania was in the hands of proctors from 1232 to 1262 (Niese, pp. 64–5).

182 Mitteilungen, 1885, pp. 298–358.

183 Ibid. pp. 299, 314.

184 Mitteilungen, pp. 302, 310.

185 Ibid. p. 326.

186 Ibid. p. 316.

187 H.B. I, 140.

188 Acta Inedita, no. 242.

189 Mitteilungen, pp. 303, 314, 322.

190 Ibid. pp. 303, 323; Reg. Hon. III, 4261.

191 Mitteilungen, pp. 304, 337.

192 Ibid. pp. 334, 336.

193 Mitteilungen, p. 347.

194 Ibid. p. 350.

195 Ibid. p. 352.

196 H.B. II, p. 595.

197 The detailed evidence published by Winkelmann on pp. 353 et seq. was not all presented at the 1223–4 trial. Some of it was given at a preliminary inquiry quashed by the pope and some was put together by the bishop's enemies later. Cf. p. 305.

198 Mitteilungen, pp. 346, 357, 358.

199 Ibid. pp. 347–50.

200 Ibid. p. 349.

201 M.G. Epistolœ, I, 182, no. 256. Another objection was that the Archbishop of Cosenza originally charged with the inquiry had without warrant delegated the hearing of the case to the treasurer.

202 H.B. V, 251.

203 Ibid. p. 309.

204 Pirro, II, 800; Acta Inedita, no. 73, no. 85.

205 Mitteilungen, p. 338. Frederick in a letter to the pope in 1238 declared that Innocent III had ordered the legate to take possession of it for the crown as the bishop had seized it during the troubles of the minority (H.B. V, 251).

206 Mitteilungen, p. 300.

207 Ibid. p. 333.

208 Ibid. p. 343.

209 Winkelmann, Geschichte Friedrichs II, I, 165.

210 Winkelmann, Mitteilungen, 1885, pp. 346, 358.

211 Ibid. p. 319.

212 Ibid. p. 309.

213 Pirro, II, p. 800.

214 Mitteilungen, p. 328.

215 “Nam cum in maleficio aliqui deprehenduntur ab ecclesia de causa cognoscitur, sive fuerit criminalis sive civilis, et si tale fuerit commissum, quod de persona puniri debeat, ad curiam regiam mittitur, bonis eius omnibus fisco ecclesie devolutis”(Mitteilungen, p. 326).

216 Pirro, p. 800.

217 Mitteilungen, p. 330.

218 Ibid. p. 331.

219 Ibid. pp. 308, 330. Cf. canon 46 of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 (Héfelé, Histoire des Conciles, vol. 52, p. 1368), also canon 19 of the Third Lateran Council of 1179 (Héfelé, vol. 52, p. 1101).

220 Niese, Gesetzgebung, p. 144; E. Mayer, Italienische Verfassungsgeschichte, I, 319; H.B. VI, 807.

221 R. de S. Ger. p. 115, anno 1224: “de ipsis possexionibus que ecclesiastice non fuerint et ab ecclesiis non tenuerint in predictis collectis et servitiis secundum quod eos contingerit proprias eos statuimus solvere portiones, nichil pro ecclesiasticis persolventes.” H.B. IV, 830, 906; V, 253.

222 H.B. II, 239–40, 321; Acta Inedita, nos. 245, 250, 254, 260.

223 R. de S. Ger. p. 123; H.B. II, 595.

224 He was in Cefalù in 1228 (Pirro, II, p. 806) and in 1231 (Mastrullo, Montevergine Sagro, p. 372).

225 H.B. VI, 607.

226 Ibid. IV, 911. The proctors of the church did not belong to Cefalù and only one was a clerk (Mitteilungen, 1885, p. 331). In the inquiry of 1266 it is admitted that the crown had taken the revenues.

227 Ibid, v, p. 251.

228 H.B. V, 575.

229 Mitteilungen, p. 307.

230 H.B. VI, 607.

231 R. de S. Ger. pp. 135, 138.

232 Ibid. p. 134.

233 Ibid. p. 150.

234 H.B. V, p. 438.

235 M. Paris, Chron. Maj. IV, 437. Frederick in a letter to the English nobles, bishops, etc., says that his brother and nephew were both hung as traitors (H.B. VI, 333). The nephew was arrested for returning to the kingdom from service abroad in 1239 (H.B. V, 555).

236 M.G. Epistolœ, II, 423, note 1.

237 Reg. Inn. IV, I, 1280.

238 M.G. Epistolœ, II, 423, no. 596.

239 H.B. V, 463.

240 Otto IV Jahrbücher, 90, note 2.

241 His consecration was delayed until 1233, owing to Honorius' suspicions of undue interference by Frederick in the election (Ughelli, IX, 137).

242 R. de S. Ger. p. 124; cf. Gregory's letter of protest, H.B. II, 594.

243 Chron. Santa Maria de Ferraria, p. 38; B.F. 1518.

244 B.F. 3109.

245 H.B. VI, 284.

246 Perg. delle Commune, no. 145. Naples State Archives.

247 M.G. Epistolœ, III, 199, no. 233.