Pope Alexander III and the Canonization of Saints: The Alexander Prize Essay

E. W. Kemp

doi:10.2307/3678572

Pope Alexander III and the Canonization of Saints: The Alexander Prize Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

E. W. Kemp

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Although the cult of the saints was so prominent an element in medieval religion, decrees controlling it occupy a comparatively small place in the medieval canon law. In the Decretum of Gratian, composed about nineteen years before Alexander III became pope, there are only two decrees of importance which seem to concern the canonization of saints. They come from the two chief periods of legislation on this subject, the fifth and the ninth centuries. The first of them is a canon of the so-called fifth Council of Carthage (401 A.D.) which was perpetuated in the West in the Dionysian and Hispana collections, and was among the canons chosen from the Dionysiana by Charles the Great as specially relevant to his time. The second was passed in 813 by the Council of Mainz and under the influence of the same emperor. Together they appear in the collections of Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres and then in the Decretum of Gratian where they remained in effect the only written legislation on the subject until the time of the fourth Lateran Council.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 27 , December 1945 , pp. 13 - 28

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678572 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1945

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^{page 13 note 1} Canon 15. P.L., 84, col. 212. Cf. Maassen, F., Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts, p. 163.Google Scholar

^{page 13 note 2} Admonitio generalis, cap. 42; Council of Frankfurt (794), Canon 42; Ed. Boretius, A., M.G.H., Capitularia I, pp. 56 and 77Google Scholar. Cf. de Clercq, C., La Législation religieuse franque de Clovis á Charlemagne, pp. 171 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 13 note 3} Canon 51. Ed. Werminghoff, A., M.G.H., Legum sectio iii, Concilia II, ii, p. 272Google Scholar.

^{page 14 note 1} Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 4 série (1938), pp. 215–19.

^{page 14 note 2} Eugippus, , Vira S. Severini, cap. xlvi Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, vol. ix, pars. 2, p. 65.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 3} M.G.H., Script, rerum merovingicarum, v. 728.

^{page 14 note 4} P.L. 137, col. 845 ff.

^{page 14 note 5} Maitre, L. et de Barthou, P., Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Ste. Croix de Quimperlé (2nd ed., 1904), p. 285.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 6} Domine Tornacensis, dico vobis in veritate; si Dominus talia vel semel fecisset circa aliquem praedecessorum meorum, ego nec papam nec legatum nec vel archiepiscopum consulerem; sed tola constantia Sanctum Dei, ut dignus est, exaltarem. P.L., 174, col. 1434.

^{page 14 note 7} P.L., 170, col. 865.

^{page 15 note 1} Auctoritate tamen Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae quae omnium conciliorum firmamentum est. P.L., 180, col. 1118.

^{page 15 note 2} Act. SS. Oct. x, p. 837.

^{page 15 note 3} M.G.H., Script, ii, pp. 48 and 85.

^{page 15 note 4} Sed cum canonica censura propter illusiones daemonum, quae frequenter in ecclesia Dei in talibus contigerunt, statutum sit, ne quis sine apostolica auctoritate, et vita ipsius per viros auctorabiles approbata, canonizaretur. M.G.H., Script, xii, pp. 641 f.

^{page 15 note 5} Act. SS. Oct. xi, p. 992.

^{page 16 note 1} M.G.H., Script, xxix, p. 18. Goeftz, , Vitae Sanctorum Danorum, p. 202.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 2} Act. SS. Oct. xi, p. 992.

^{page 16 note 3} Williamson, E. W., The letters of Osbert of Claire, p. 82Google Scholar.

^{page 16 note 4} For Urban II and St. Urloux see page 14, note 5. Innocent II refused to canonise Edward the Confessor in 1139. There were political factors in this case. P.L., 179, col. 568. Cf. Bloch, M. in Analecta Bollandiana (1923), vol. 41, pp. 12–14CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{page 17 note 1} M.G.H., Script, xii, p. 641 f.

^{page 17 note 2} P.L., 190, col. 852 ff.

^{page 17 note 3} P.L, 200, col. 106. Cf. Jaffé-Loewenfeld, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, no. 10654.

^{page 17 note 4} P.L., 185, col. 622.

^{page 18 note 1} P.L., 200, col. 235.

^{page 18 note 2} See Act. SS. June i, p. 119; Florez, H., España, Sagrada (2nd ed., 1772), vol. xxvi, pp. 274 ff.Google Scholar; Fita, Fidel, Canonizacion del abad San Iñigo. Bulario antiguo e inedito del monasterio de Oña, in Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1895, vol. xxvii, pp. 76 ff.Google Scholar; and 1901, vol. xxxviii, pp. 206 ff. Additional evidence pointing to the early years of Alexander III may be found in the dispute between the abbeys of Oña and San Millan over certain rights in the parish of Altable. A settlement was made by Cardinal Hyacinth in 1155 and confirmed by Alexander III in 1169. The monks of Oña failed to observe the award and the case was constantly being brought before popes and papal legates until the end of the century, so it is perhaps unlikely that the offending abbey would have received any privilege from Rome after 1169. See Kehr, , Papsturkunden in Spanien, ii, Navarra und Aragon (1928), pp. 386, 388, 435, 464, 558 ff., 561 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 18 note 3} Act. SS. Oct. vii, pp. 1142, 1160 f., 1181.

^{page 19 note 1} M.G.H., Script, xxix, p. 19.

^{page 19 note 2} Alexander III created the province of Uppsala in 1164, but ordered that the archbishops should be consecrated by the archbishops of Lund and respect them as their primates. P.L., 200, col. 301 ff.

^{page 19 note 3} Cf. P.L., 200, col. 609. The letter is dated 8 November, and must belong to 1167, 1168 or 1169, the only years that Alexander was at Benevento in November. It is natural to suppose that this letter is a result of the mission since the bull canonizing Canute is also dated from Benevento on 8 November and definitely belongs to 1169.

^{page 19 note 4} P.L., 200, col. 608.

^{page 19 note 5} P.L., 200, cols. 725, 726, 727, 730, 735, 872, 894. Letters 788, 789, 790, 794. 798, 995. 1014.

^{page 19 note 6} P.L.. 200, col. 727. Letter 790.

^{page 19 note 7} P.L., 200, col. 900.

^{page 20 note 1} P.L., 200, col. 900 f.

^{page 20 note 2} P.L., 200, col. 901 f.

^{page 20 note 3} Boso, Cardinal, Vita Alexandri, in Duchesne, L., Liber Pontificalis, vol. ii, p. 426Google Scholar.

^{page 20 note 4} P.L., 199, col. 359.

^{page 20 note 5} P.L., 199, col. 362.

^{page 21 note 1} Non earn authenticam esse; nondum enim ex apostolica auctoritate catalogo martyrum martyr ascriptus erat. Materials for the History of Archbishop Thomas Becket, i. 150 (Rolls Series).

^{page 21 note 2} Act. SS. Oct. xiii, pp. 290–92. H. Florez, op. cit., vol. 35, pp. 407–10.

^{page 21 note 3} de Yepes, A., Coronica general de la orden de San Benito (1615), vol. v, fos. 14a–15aGoogle Scholar.

^{page 21 note 4} A. de Morales, Coronica general de España, lib. xvi, cap. xxxvii, n. 7 (1791 ed.), vol. viii, p. 287 ff.

^{page 21 note 5} Por el autoridad del Papa nuestro Señor la quel (aunque indignos) tenemos en las provincias de España. Morales, op. cit., p. 288.

^{page 21 note 6} Y esto concedemos por virtud de la dignidad, y oficio de que usamos, y de la autoridad que nos esta dada. Yepes, loc. cit.

^{page 22 note 1} Salazar, Joannes Tamayus, Anamnesis sive commemorationis sanctorum hispanorum, 1562, vol. ii, p. 40Google Scholar. Yepes, op. cit., vol. 5, fos. 15b–16a, gives a Spanish translation of the bull.

^{page 22 note 2} P.L., 185, col. 626 f.

^{page 22 note 3} P.L., 185, cols. 622–5.

^{page 22 note 4} P.L., 185, col. 626.

^{page 23 note 1} Fontanini, J., Codex constitutionum quas summi pontifices ediderunt in solemni canonizations sanctorum (1729), p. 644Google Scholar. Kehr, P., Italia pontificia, vol. iii, p. 261Google Scholar.

^{page 23 note 2} The Bollandists, Act. SS. May ii, p. 320, incline to 8 May 1175, and Luchaire, A., Etudes sur les actes de Louis VII, p. 312Google Scholar, agrees with them.

^{page 23 note 3} Act. SS. May, ii, pp. 321.

^{page 23 note 4} Gallia Christiana, ed. Piolin, P., vol. 4, p. 988.Google Scholar

^{page 23 note 5} Loewenfeld, S., Epistolae pontificum romanorum ineditae, p. 156Google Scholar.

^{page 23 note 6} Unless Alexander's remark about Bellevaux: Dignum est ut domus tantae religionis tanti patroni iugiter praesentia gratuletur, be taken to imply this.

^{page 24 note 1} Act. SS. May, ii, p. 322.

^{page 24 note 2} See Delehaye, H., ‘Pierre de Pavie, légat du pape Alexandra III en France’, in Revue des Questions historiques, vol. 49, new series, no. 5, 1891, pp. 1–61Google Scholar, and Ohnsorge, W., Päpstliche und gegenpäpstliche Legaten in Deutschland und Skandinavien, 1159–1181, Historische Studien no. 188, 1929, p. 82.Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 3} Translatio S. Annonis archiepiscopi, M.G.H., Script, xi, p. 515.

^{page 25 note 1} See the Translatio S. Annonis; Lacomblet, T. J., Urkundenbuch für die Geschichte des Niederrheins (1840), i. 343, no. 486Google Scholar; and Brackmann, A., ‘Zur Kanonisation des Erzbischöfs Anno von Köln’, in Neues Archiv für ältere deutsche Geschichtshunde, vol. 32 (1906–1907), pp. 157 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 26 note 1} Act. SS. Oct. vii, p. 1161.

^{page 26 note 2} De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, Lib. i, cap. ix, n. 7.

^{page 26 note 3} Probably 1171, 1172, or 1181, the only years in which Alexander seems to have been at Tusculum on July 6th which is the date of the letter. P.L., 200, col. 1259.

^{page 27 note 1} E.g. Z. B. van Espen, Jus Ecclesiasticum universum, pars i, tit. xxii, cap. vii, n. xiv; Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. Naz, R., Article Causes de beatification et de canonisation, vol. iii, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 27 note 2} Kuttner, S., ‘La réserve papale du droit de canonisation’, Revue historique de Droit français et étranger, 1938, pp. 172–228Google Scholar.

^{page 27 note 3} Ibid., pp. 196–9.

^{page 28 note 1} Kuttner, S., ‘La réserve papale du droit de canonisation’, Revue historique de Droit franfais et étranger, 1938, pp. 190–196Google Scholar.

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