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The Case of the Missing Martyrs: Frederick II’S War with the Church 1239–1250*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX on Palm Sunday (20 March) 1239. Over the next six years a number of peace negotiations and offers took place, all of which ultimately failed, despite a belief at the imperial court in the spring of 1244 that success had been achieved. Finally, at the Council of Lyons, on 17 July 1245, Frederick was declared deposed and ‘deprived of all honour and dignity’ by Pope Innocent IV, and his subjects’ oaths of fealty made null and void.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1993
Footnotes
*
I am grateful to Peter Herde, Bernard and Janet Hamilton, and John Cowdrey for discussion and advice concerning this paper.
References
1 Rolandino of Padua, Chronica Marchie Trivixane, ed. A. Bonardi, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, 2nd edn (Città di Castello, 1933–9), p. 64.
2 Frederick wrote to his son Conrad to this effect just after Easter: J. A. Huillard-Breholles, Historia Diplomatica Friderici Secundi, 6 vols in 12 (Paris, 1852–61) [hereafter HB], 6(i), pp. 176–7.
3 The bull of deposition is printed in MGH.ER, ed. C. Rodenburg, 2, pp. 88–94, no. 124, and also MGH.Const, 2, pp. 508–12, no. 400. It can also be found in a number of contemporary chronicles, notably the Annales Placentini Gibillini, MGH.SRG, 23, pp. 490–1, and Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R Luard, 7 vols, RS (1872-84), 4, pp. 445–55.
4 E.g., Thomas Curtis van Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Immutator Mundi (Oxford, 1972), esp. pp. 418–19, 482–3, 489–90; David Abulafia, Frederick II (London, 1988), esp. pp. 308–20. Gregory was already making preparations for an invasion of Sicily by the autumn of 1239, HB, 5(i), pp. 390–4, MGH.ER, 1, pp. 733–7, nos 833–4.
5 MGH.ER, 2, p. 208, no. 277 (Jan. 1247); p. 251, no. 336 (May 1247); 3, p. 162, no. 195 (March 1253).
6 HB, 5(i), pp. 286–9, esp. p. 287, and cf. MGH.ER, 1, pp. 637–9, no. 741 (Apr. 1239) to the Archbishop of Rouen in justification of the excommunication, and ibid., pp. 573–6.no. 676 (Feb. 1236).
7 The best contemporary account of this is in Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de’suoi continuatori, 3, ed. C. Imperiale di Sant’Angelo, Fonti per la storia d’Italia (Rome, 1923), pp. 104–6, 111–13. Cf. also Richard of S. Germano, Chronicon, ed. C. A. Garufi, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, 2nd edn (Bologna, 1935) [hereafter RSG], pp. 208–9, and MGH.ER, 1, pp. 713–17, nos 812–13, 815.
8 MGH.ER, 2, pp. 134–5, no. 177 (Apr. 1246), ‘pro innumeris sue impietatis excessibus ab imperii caderet dignitate.”
9 MGH.ER, 2, pp. 150–1. no. 199 (June 1246) to Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, ‘tyrampnus F. quondam Romanorum imperator contra Deum et dictam ecclesiam persecutionis arma incessanter et patenter exercet … idem F. non solum ecclesiam set etiam totum fere Christianorum populum flagellarit, et quamdiu in viros ecclesiasticos virus sue feritatis effunderit.’ These phrases are in part repeated in ibid., 2, pp. 184–5, no. 247 (Oct. 1246), and pp. 234–5, no. 309(March 1247).
10 MGH.ER, 2, p. 125, no. 166, ‘Gracias agimus divine dementis, quod vos de manu Pharaonis aripui.’ Cf. ibid., pp. 126–7, no. 168, ‘fidei Christiani contemptor, persecutor ecclesie’ (both Apr. 1246).
11 See above, n. 3, esp. MGH.ER, 2, p. 92, and MGH.Const, 2, p. 511 for the passage in question.
12 MGH.ER, 2, p. 328, no. 456, ‘quod cum F. quondam imperator, membrum diaboli, sathane minister et infelix prenuntius Antichristi, ad destructionem orthodoxe fidei … aspiret.’ Among other references to Frederick as a precursor of the Antichrist is that in Innocent’s statutes for ecclesiastical liberties in the kingdom of Sicily of December 1248, ibid., 2, p. 434–7, no. 613, at p. 434.
13 See, in particular, Kantorowicz, Ernst, Frederick II (London, 1931), pp. 591–5 Google Scholar; van Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II, pp. 481–3, 515; Herde, Peter, ‘Ein Pamphlet der papstlichen Kurie gegen Kaiser Frederick II. von 1245/8 (Eger cui lenia’)’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 23 (1967), pp. 468–538 Google Scholar. Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, 5, p. 146 Google Scholar, said on Rainier’s death in 1250, ‘indeffesus fuerat Fretherici persecutor et diffamator.’
14 MGH.ER, 2, p. 40, no. 52 (March 1244), p. 381, no. 542 (Apr. 1248), ibid., 3, pp. 93–5, no. 113 (June 1251).
15 Ibid., 2, p. 356, no. 504 (Feb. 1248), to the Bishop of Chur, ‘causa ista non est propria sed communis et ad omnes perrinet Chrisrianos.’ The crusade against Frederick was being preached in Genoa in 1240, Annali Genovesi, 3, p. 98; and in February 1241 a papal chaplain was given authority to commute the vows of crusaders to the Holy Land in Hungary so that they could defend the Church against Frederick, MGH.ER, 1, pp. 706–7, no. 801.
16 Excommunication, MGH.ER, 1, p. 640, no. 742 (Apr. 1239); ibid., 2, p. 14, no. 16 (Aug. 1243); deprivation of benefices, ibid., 2, pp. 280–1, nos 381–2 (June 1247), p. 313, no. 431 (Sept. 1247), pp. 452–3.no. 635 (Jan. 1249), p. 468.no. 654 (Feb. 1249); loss of property, ibid., 2, p. 171, no. 231 (July 1246), and fiefs, ibid., p. 358, no. 508 (March 1248); marriage and dowry, ibid., 2, pp. 357–8, no. 507 (March 1248); burials, ibid., p. 253, no. 339 (May 1247), pp. 358–9, no. 509 (March 1248).
17 ‘Edictum contra infideles imperii italicos’, (Feb. 1239), MGH.Const, 2, pp. 286–9, no. 213, esp. cl. 4.
18 E.g., Monte Sant’Angelo, HB, 5(i), p. 565 (Dec. 1239); Benevento (1250), F. Ughelli, Italia Sacra, 2nd edn., 10 vols (Venice, 1717–21), 8, p. 137.
19 Chronica Morchie Trivixane, pp. 73–4, ‘quod talis est mos imperii, cum capitur aliquis, dum sit nobilis, si pugnando capitur imperio contradicens—est autem ultimo supplicio datus est et, sicut visum decet nobilem, pena capitis est punitus.’ Numerous other instances of such atrocities can be cited, e.g., at the sieges of Faenza and Benevento in 1240, Chronica Regia Colonienis, ed. G. Waitz, MGH.SRG, 18, p. 277; Benevento, Biblioteca Capitolare, Cartella 376, no. 15; the execution of the son of the Doge in response to Venetian raids in the Adriatic, also in 1240, RSG, p. 208; and the mutiliation of Genoese prisoners 1245, Annali Genovesi, 3, p. 165.
20 Adam, Salimbene de, Chronica, ed. Holder-Egger, O., MGH.SS, 32, pp. 197, 330 Google Scholar; Annales Parmenses maiores, MGH.SS, 18, pp. 672–3. Cf. Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 4, p. 648 on the siege, ‘decretum est … ut nullus hosrium captorum caperetur incarcerandus et redimendus, sed statini decapitaretur.’
21 RSG, p. 200, recorded the expulsion of the bishops of Teano, Carinola, Venafro, and Aquino in 1239; for that of the bishop of Fondi in October of that year, HB, 5(i), pp. 462–3. For the exiled bishops of Fermo and Cesena, MGH.ER, 2, pp. 167–8, no. 275 (July 1246), and pp. 206–7, no. 274 (Jan. 1247).
22 The arrest of the archpriest of S. Germano and his brother, RSG, p. 205; that of a nephew of the bishop of Carinola, HB, 5(i), pp. 554–5.
23 HB, 6(ii), pp. 580–1 (late 1247) — MGH.Const, 2, pp. 376–7, no. 269.
24 MGH.ER, 2, pp. 91–2, ‘cogunter subire duella, incarcerantur, occiduntur et patibulis cruciantur.’
25 RSG, pp. 200–1.
26 Chronica Majora, 4, p. 256, Annales Parmenses maiores, p. 671.
27 HB, 6(ii), pp. 699–703.
28 Herde, ‘Eine Pamphlet der päpstlichen Kurie’, p. 494.
29 As preachers of the crusade, MGH.ER, 2, p. 123, no. 162 (Apr. 1246), p. 302, no. 416 (July 1247), pp. 448–9, no. 630(Jan. 1249), pp. 532–3.no. 720 (May 1249), ibid., 3, pp. 35–6, no. 48 (Feb. 1251), and for a later period cf. Norman Housley, The Italian Crusades. The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades Against Christian Lay Powers, 1254–1343 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 116–18. As messengers, Annali Genovesi, 3, p. 151. As fund-raisers, Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 4, p. 654. Note also that in 1249 the Piacenzans captured Pontremoli ‘ex operatione plurium fratrum Predicatorum’, Annales Piacentini Gibellini, p. 498.
30 RSG, pp. 156, 207. Giulia Barone, ‘Federico li di Svevia e gli ordini mendicanti’, Mélanges de l’école française de Rome. Moyen Age, 90 (1978), pp. 615–16.
31 HB, 6(i), pp. 143, 405. Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 5, p. 573. Cf. E. Winkelmann, Acta imperii inedita saeculi XIII et XIV, 2 vols (Innsbruck, 1880–5), 1, P. 318, no. 359, there dated to 1240, but more probably to be connected with the conspiracy of 1246.
32 MGH.ER, 2, p. 302, no. 416.
33 HB, 6(i), pp. 479–80.
34 Salimbene, Chronica, p. 330.
35 Quoted by Barone, ‘Federico II di Svevia e gli ordini mendicanti’, p. 620.
36 Salimbene, Chronica, pp. 315, 317–18; esp. p. 318, ‘Tandem imperator fecit eum capi et decern et octo martyria intulit sibi, que omnia sustinuit patienter; nec aliquid potuerunt carnifices extorquere ab eo nisi laudem divinam.’
37 Chronica Majora, 5, pp. 61–7. Marcellinus was named as Rector in two letters of March 1247, MGH.ER, 2, p. 268, no. 363, p. 275, no. 373. Cardinal Rainier had been his predecessor in that office, ibid., 2, p. 561, no. 758 (June 1244).
38 Innocent granted Marcellinus the revenues of the see of Ancona (which was his native town) in November 1240, and in December of that year wrote to the prelates of ‘Sclavonia’ (Croatia and Bosnia?) to secure financial support for him, since he was forced to remain at Ancona ‘pro ecclesie Romane negotiis’, MGH.ER, 1, pp. 695–6, no. 788, pp. 702–3, no. 795. This backs up what Rainald said about his long exile in Ancona ‘in penury’. For his activities there, see also ibid., 1, pp. 705–6.no. 799 (Jan. 1241), 2, p. 14, no. 16 (Aug. 1243), and p. 294, no. 403 (June 1247).
39 MGH.ER, 2, pp. 407–8, no. 577, ‘illam fidei puritatem et fervorem habuit, quod defensioni ecclesiastice libertatis insistens, dispendia multa substinuit, et tandem pro ipsa mortis subire periculum non expavit.’ The debt was also acknowledged in a letter to Marcellinus’s brother on the same day, Les Registres d’Innocent IV, ed. E. Berger, 3 vols (Paris, 1884–1921), no. 3992.
40 Thus the Cesta Francorum, ed. Rosalind Hill (London, 1956), p. 17, on those who died at the siege of Nicea, ‘multi ex nostris illic receperunt marryrium’; and on the Second Crusade, Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII ad Orientem, ed. Virginia Gingerick Berry (New York, 1948), p. 118, ‘finis … martyrio meruit coronari.’
41 Annales Sanctae lustinae Patavini, MGH.SS, 19, p. 191. Housley, The Italian Crusades, p. 166.
42 MGH.ER, 2, pp. 326, 329, 332, nos 453, 459, 465 (all Nov. 1247), pp. 373–4, no. 534 (Apr. 1248).
43 Vauchez, André, La Sainteté en Occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age d’après les procès de canonisation et les documents hagiographiques (Rome, 1981), pp. 43—4.Google Scholar
44 Ibid., pp. 126–7, 173–83. Cf. for the papal monopoly of canonization Eric Waldram Kemp, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (Oxford, 1948), pp. 82–106.
45 Acta sanctorum April, 3 (Paris, 1866), pp. 694–727, esp. p. 706. (The bull of canonization, 24 March 1253, is contained therein, pp. 708–10.)
46 Vauchez, Sainteté, pp. 480–2. Salimbene, Chronica, p. 175 wrongly ascribed the death of St Stanislaus to Frederick II—in fact, he died in 1079!
47 MGH.ER, 1, pp. 453–5, no. 560, ‘virum consumate virtutis et preconem fidei Christian’;cf. ibid., pp. 455–6, no. 561 (both Oct. 1233). The attempt at canonization is mentioned by the early fourteenth-century Chronica Ordinis Fratrum of Galvano Fiamma, ed. G. Odetto, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 10 (1940), pp. 352–3.
48 Chronica Regia Coloniensis, pp. 264–5. MGH.ER, 1, pp. 544–7, no. 647(July 1235), esp. p. 544.
49 Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, 5, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar Nothing at all is known about the bishop of Gerace, allegedly drowned ‘in aquis vehementibus’ (a hot spring?) two years earlier, but Aldoynus of Cefalu, who according to Rainier was murdered by a hired assassin in Rome after ‘having been driven from his see for fifteen years’, is known to have been in exile from 1234, and also earlier, in 1222–3. See Kamp, Norbert, Kirche und Monarchie im Stauftschen Königreich Siziliens, 4 vols (Munich, 1973-82), 2, p. 970 Google Scholar; 3, pp. 1055–63.
50 Vauchez, Sainteté, pp. 134–5, 182–3, ‘97-9.
51 Norman Housley,’Crusades against Christians; their origins and early development, c. 1000—1216’, in P. W. Edbury, ed., Crusade and Settlement. Essays Presented to R. C. Small (Cardiff, ‘985), pp. 17–36, and Housley, The Italian Crusades, passim, but esp. pp. 252–7. E. Siberry, Criticismo/Crusading 1095–1274 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 175–89.
52 E.g., MGH.Const, 2, pp. 126–7, no. 100 (1224), pp. 195–7, no. 158 (1232), pp. 280–5, nos 209–11 (1238/9). See generally, Kurt-Victor Selge, ‘Die Ketzerpolitik Friedrichs II.’, in J. Fleckenstein, ed., Probleme um Fredrich II. (Sigmaringen, 1974), pp. 309–43.
53 Salimbene, Chronica, p. 318; Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 5, p. 63.
54 As, for example, in that of Simon of Collezzone (d. 1250), for which Les Registra d’Innocent IV, no. 5769 (Apr. 1252).
55 Annali Genovesi, 3, pp. 181–2.