THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE AND OF THE PAPACY
[Sidenote: Urban IV (1261-4).]
The date of Alexander's death marks the beginning of a new episode in
the history of the mediæval Papacy. His successor, Urban IV, was a
Frenchman. With more vigour than his predecessor he pursued the policy
of the destruction of the Hohenstaufen. Since the English prince had
proved a useless tool and no more money could be wrung from the
English people, he obtained the renunciation of the claims of Edmund
to the Sicilian crown and turned to his native country for a
candidate. Louis IX refused the offer for a son, but it was accepted
by his brother, Charles of Anjou, whose wife, the daughter and heiress
of Raymond Berengar of Provence, desired to be the equal of her three
elder sisters, the Queens, respectively, of France, England, and
Germany. For the next twenty years the papal policy centres round the
doings of Charles as much as it had centred for thirty years round the
aims of Frederick II. The Guelf party in Rome had already elected
Charles as senator, or head of the civic commune, in opposition to the
Ghibelline Manfred. Thus the Pope and the Italian Guelfs once more
combined to betray Italy to the foreign conqueror. Urban was able to
obtain a promise that Charles would not accept the senatorship for
life, although the need for Charles' presence in Italy as a check upon
the victorious Manfred enabled the new King to obtain better terms in
regard to Sicily than the Pope had offered at first.
[Sidenote: Clement IV (1265-8).]
Fortune favoured Charles from the outset. Before he could reach Italy
Urban had died in Perugia (October, 1264), having never entered Rome
during his pontificate. His successor, Clement IV, a Provençal and
therefore a subject of Charles, had been overpersuaded to accept the
tiara, and naturally continued his predecessor's work. Charles arrived
by sea, was welcomed in Rome where he assumed the office of senator,
and was invested with the crown of Sicily (June, 1265). But from the
very first he showed the arbitrariness and violence which were to
characterise his relations with Italy. He came destitute of money; he
took possession of the Lateran palace until the Pope's remonstrances
forced him to withdraw. His army marched through Italy to join him,
plundering as it came. The Pope was helpless; he had not yet even
ventured to come to Rome. Charles and his wife were crowned King and
Queen of Sicily by a commission of Cardinals; and theirs was the first
coronation of any sovereign other than an Emperor, which had taken
place in St. Peter's.
[Sidenote: End of the Hohenstaufen.]
Meanwhile Manfred was doing everything to meet the new attack. But
there was no patriotism among the Italians of the south. Frederick II
in founding his strong monarchy had alienated nobles and the cities;
the clergy, of course, were his bitter foes. All seemed to think that
Charles' advent would bring freedom and peace. They were soon to be
disabused. On Charles' march southwards Manfred, relying solely on
Germans and Saracens, met him at Benevento, but was beaten and fell in
the fight (February 26, 1266). Charles entered Naples and the papal
aims seemed attained. Charles was their vassal for Sicily, and was now
obliged to lay down his office of senator. The German influence in
Italy was destroyed; the "German" Empire was a thing of the past. But
the Romans still kept the Pope at arms' length. In 1252 they had for
the first time introduced a foreign senator in the Bolognese
Brancaleone who, before his death in 1258, was twice overthrown and
restored to power. Thus the election of Charles was no new departure.
And as his successor was chosen Henry, brother of Alfonso the Wise of
Castile, titular King of the Romans. He maintained the interests of
the commune against the Pope, and then, from hatred to Charles, the
Ghibelline cause against the papal party. The Ghibellines found a
rallying ground in Tuscany, and sent to Germany for Conradin. The boy,
now fourteen years of age, was welcomed by the senator in Rome; but
his forces were utterly defeated by Charles at Tagliacozzo on August
23, 1268. Conradin fled, but was captured and executed.
[Sidenote: Schemes of Charles.]
This time it was Charles, and not the Pope, whose success was the
obvious fact. Whether the Pope interceded for the last of the
Hohenstaufens or approved his execution, is a matter of some doubt.
But Charles was now elected senator of Rome for life, and Clement
offered no opposition to this violation of the original agreement.
Moreover, on Clement's death (November, 1268), the divisions among the
Cardinals assembled at Viterbo prolonged the vacancy in the papal
chair for nearly three years. During that time Charles developed the
most ambitious schemes. With the Ghibelline position he took up the
Ghibelline aims. Thus the papal plans for reviving the Crusades were
nothing to him, but he desired to obtain for himself the crown of
Jerusalem; and since Constantinople had been recovered by the Greeks
in 1261, while on the one side he make a treaty with the Latin
ex-Emperor, Baldwin II, whereby the reversion of the Byzantine throne
should go to the King of Sicily, on the other side the papal project
for an union of the Greek and Latin Churches was an obstacle to his
hostile design. Charles, in fact, began to equip an expedition against
Constantinople. Louis IX for the moment checked his brother's schemes
and took him off on the crusade from which Louis himself was not to
return. The diversion of the expedition from Palestine or Egypt to
Tunis is generally attributed to the influence of the King of Sicily,
whose Norman predecessors had once held the north coast of Africa: but
this charge can scarcely be maintained, for the crusade thither
interfered with his schemes against Constantinople, which were resumed
immediately on his return to Europe.
[Sidenote: Gregory X (1272-6).]
But again Charles was destined to meet with a serious check. When at
length the Church obtained a new Pope it was no servile henchman of
Charles who was elected. Gregory X, a Visconti of Piacenza, had spent
his life outside Italy, and was with Edward I of England in Palestine
when he was chosen. He was the first Pope since Honorius III, who set
before himself the promotion of a crusade as his primary object. As an
indispensable prerequisite of this be desired to promote the union of
the Latin and Greek Churches. It was these unselfish objects of his
which enabled him to check both Charles' power and his schemes. There
was a still further point. The fall of the Hohenstaufen had destroyed
the imperial house, and had left the Papacy not only isolated but face
to face with one who was proving himself "a burdensome protector." The
equilibrium of Europe had been seriously shaken. The election of two
rival Kings of the Romans had not helped to restore it. But now
Richard of Cornwall, who had tried to assert his position, was dead,
and Gregory refused to recognise the claims of Alfonso of Castile. But
Louis IX was dead also, and Charles would be likely to influence his
nephew the new King of France more than he had ever influenced his
high-souled brother. It was necessary to find a new King of the Romans
who might be a counterpoise in Europe, and perhaps even in Italy, to
Charles. Thus encouraged and almost coerced by the Pope, the German
princes elected Rudolf Count of Hapsburg (September 1273), a man of
"popular qualities" who was not too powerful.
[Sidenote: Second Council of Lyons.]
The success of the papal policy was to be advertised to Europe in a
second Council of Lyons (May-July, 1274). This was attended by five
hundred bishops and innumerable other clergy. An opportunity was taken
to issue a canon, the object of which was to prevent the recurrence of
the long vacancy in the papal see which had preceded Gregory's
election. It was decreed that ten days after the death of the Pope the
Cardinals should meet and should be confined in one conclave until a
choice had been made. All intercourse with the outside world was
forbidden; the food was to be supplied through a window, the amount of
it being diminished after three days; while a further diminution was
to take place five days later. The duty of supervision was entrusted
to the magistrates of the city in which the election might be held.
Despite the stringent resistance of the Cardinals the canon was passed
with the aid of the bishops; and although it was more than once
suspended, it has continued to direct the procedure at papal elections
to the present day.
[Sidenote: Union of Eastern and Western Churches.]
But the real object of the meeting of the Council was that it should
witness the reconciliation of the Eastern Church with the Western.
More than two centuries earlier (1054) the long jealousy of Rome and
Constantinople had ended in the rupture of communion between the
Christians of West and East; and the Crusades and the Latin Empire of
Constantinople had prevented any real attempt at re-union. But just
now circumstances were favourable. Michael Palæologus, who had
reconquered Constantinople for the Greeks and made himself Emperor,
was in difficulties at home with a section of the clergy, and,
threatened by the designs of Charles of Sicily, he coerced the Greek
clergy into accepting the union with the Western Church, which gave
the only chance of such help as would hold Charles in check. An
embassy of Greeks appeared at Lyons; and although Bonaventura and
Thomas Aquinas were present to argue the case for the Western Church,
no persuasion was needed. The Greeks expressed a readiness to accept
the primacy of Rome, the doctrine that the Holy Ghost proceeded from
both Father and Son (whereas they had maintained His procession from
the Father alone), and all the customs of the Western Church. It
seemed as if at length a crusade were really possible. The chief
sovereigns of Europe had taken the cross, and Gregory had even
persuaded Charles of Sicily and the Greek Emperor to sign a truce.
[Sidenote: Nicholas III (1277-80).]
But it was not to be. Gregory's death (January 10, 1276) undid all his
work. Charles of Sicily alone rejoiced at the vacancy, and made
desperate efforts to secure the nomination to the Papacy again. But
two nominees died in quick succession; and when on the death of John
XXI after a similarly short reign, Charles again interfered, he was
met by the election of Nicholas III of the family of Orsini, who
returned to Rome and spent the three years of his pontificate in
neutralising Charles' power. For this purpose he used the new King of
the Romans. Charles was forced to resign the vicariate of Tuscany,
which was made over to Rudolf. Charles also resigned the senatorship
of Rome which he had held for ten years. To this Nicholas got himself
elected, and issued a decree by which he hoped to make it impossible
for any foreign prince to be elected, or for anyone to hold the post
for more than a year without the papal favour.
[Sidenote: Revival of the Empire.]
But Nicholas was only able to give a German prince once more a footing
in Italy because Rudolf had been effectually barred from reviving the
Hohenstaufen claims. Already at the Council of Lyons the envoys of
Rudolf had appeared and in his name had taken the oaths previously
exacted from Otto IV and Frederick II. Rudolf had subsequently met
Pope Gregory at Lausanne in 1275, and had confirmed the act of his
representatives. Thus Gregory obtained from a crowned German King an
acknowledgment of all the claims advanced by the Papacy since the days
of Charles the Great. Rudolf was too busy ever to visit Rome; but in
negotiations with regard to his coronation as Emperor, Nicholas III
exacted the confirmation of all that was promised to Gregory, and this
included especially the lands of the old Exarchate and the district of
Pentapolis, which had never yet been actually in the hands of papal
officers.
[Sidenote: Martin IV (1281-5).]
Dante has banned the memory of Nicholas as the simoniacal Pope. He
certainly used his enormous patronage to enrich his own family. But
his death (August, 1280) nearly proved fatal to the freedom of Europe;
for Charles at length obtained his own nominee to the Papacy in the
person of a Frenchman, Martin IV, who proceeded to hand over to the
King for life the Roman senatorship conferred upon the Pope. All the
work of the preceding Popes was undone. The temporary union of the
Churches was dissolved by the excommunication of the Greek Emperor on
the pretext that he had not carried out his promises; and Charles, who
had obtained a footing in the Greek peninsula and made a league with
Venice, prepared to start on his expedition against Constantinople.
There seemed every prospect of his success.
[Sidenote: Sicilian Vespers]
But Charles' brutality had been imitated by his French officials; and
the rising known as the "Sicilian Vespers" in March, 1282, cleared the
French out of Sicily and finally overthrew all Charles' plans. The
fleet prepared for Constantinople had to be turned against the rebel
islanders. The Pope, thinking to play the game of his royal master,
refused to mediate; the Sicilians thereupon declared that from St.
Peter they would turn for aid to another Peter, and offered the crown
to Peter, King of Aragon, the husband of Manfred's daughter,
Constance, who for some years had welcomed Sicilian refugees at his
court and had been ready for the summons. The Pope deprived Peter of
his hereditary dominions and bestowed them on Charles' great nephew
Charles of Valois, a son of Philip III of France; but the Aragonese
fleet under Roger di Loria defeated Charles' fleet and captured his
son and heir Charles the Lame. On January 7, 1285, Charles himself
died, and was followed to the grave very shortly by Pope Martin IV.
The same year saw also the death of Philip III of France and of Peter
of Aragon. Pope Honorius IV followed the policy of his predecessor,
and to him succeeded Nicholas IV. It was during his pontificate that
the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, the result of the First Crusade, was
finally wiped out by the capture of Acre (1291), and the little stir
made by this event affords a measure of the decay of the crusading
spirit.
[Sidenote: Celestine V (1294).]
On the death of Nicholas the division among the Cardinals reflecting
the jealousies of the Roman families of Orsini and Colonna, caused a
vacancy in the papal office for more than two years. Then by a sudden
whim, which in the event of a successful result would have been called
an inspiration, the name of a hermit, Peter, whose austerities in his
cell on Monte Murrone in the Abruzzi had won him great reverence, was
suggested apparently in all sincerity to the wearied and perplexed
Cardinals. He was elected and took the title of Celestine V. In
accordance with the desire of Charles II of Naples, he took up his
abode at Naples. But he was utterly unfit for his high office, and
after a pontificate of less than four months (August to December,
1294) he resigned, thus perpetrating that "great refusal" which won
Dante's immortal phrase of scorn. How far his act was due to the
machinations of Cardinal Gaetani is uncertain. At any rate Gaetani had
evidently obtained Charles' sanction beforehand to his own elevation,
which took place ten days later. But the new Pope did not intend that
anyone should be his master. For the moment he and Charles needed each
other, and it was agreed between them that Sicily should be recovered
for Charles, while Celestine should be given into the keeping of his
successor lest he should become a centre for disaffection.
[Sidenote: Boniface VIII (1294-1303).]
Boniface VIII--such was the name of the new Pope--returned to Rome
escorted by Charles II and his son, Charles Martel of Hungary; and his
coronation surpassed that of all previous Popes in magnificence. The
late Pope was soon secured and placed in a tower on the top of a
mountain, where he died in 1296. It was not so easy for Boniface to
fulfil his part of the compact with regard to Sicily. James, the son
of Peter of Aragon, agreed to surrender Sicily on the understanding
that the new Pope would withdraw the award of Aragon made by Martin IV
to a French prince, and confirm it him. But the Sicilians refused to
return to their French ruler and found a champion in James' younger
brother Frederick, who was their Governor. He was crowned King of
Sicily at Palermo in 1296. Charles II was too feeble to make any real
headway against Frederick, and even the title of Standard-bearer of
the Church conferred by the Pope on James of Aragon, did not keep
Frederick's brother permanently on the papal side. In 1301 Boniface
fell back upon the French prince Charles of Valois, to whom Pope
Martin had given Aragon, and sent for him to attack "the new Manfred"
in Sicily. Charles having first failed in an attempt to appease the
Florentine factions, passed on to the south, and here Frederick
ultimately forced him to peace and a recognition of his title as King
of Sicily (1302). At first Boniface would not ratify a peace from
which all reference to Pope or Church had been omitted; but in 1303
circumstances caused him to accept it, though he exacted as a
condition that Frederick should acknowledge himself a papal vassal.
Frederick, however, never paid any tribute.
[Sidenote: Quarrel with Colonnas.]
Boniface held views of the papal power of the most exalted kind. It
was in accordance with these that he once more made Rome the
headquarters of the papacy. But he soon found himself involved in a
quarrel which, purely local in origin, assumed an European importance.
The family of Colonna by favour of Pope Nicholas IV had become one of
the most powerful in Rome and the neighbourhood. The centre of the
family property was the city of Palestrina. Cardinal Jacopo Colonna,
who as the eldest brother administered it, did not distribute it
fairly to his brothers, but rather favoured his nephews, the sons of
his dead brother John who had been Senator of Rome. One of these was
the Cardinal Peter. Uncle and nephew were the most influential members
of the Roman Curia, and as Roman nobles they resented Boniface's
design of humbling the Roman aristocracy. They refused the papal
admonitions to deal justly with the other members of the family; they
withdrew from the papal Court, and having already turned from
Ghibelline to Guelf, they once more became Ghibelline and made an
alliance with Frederick of Sicily. They published a manifesto in which
they refused to recognise Boniface on the ground that Pope Celestine's
abdication had been unlawful. But Celestine was dead and the Colonnas
had voted for his successor. Boniface deposed the Cardinals and
excommunicated them, even declaring a crusade against them! The
struggle centred round Palestrina, and it is said that the Pope
fetched from a Franciscan cloister a once famous Ghibelline general,
Guy of Montefeltro, by whose advice he decoyed the Colonnas out of
their fortress by promises which he did not intend to keep. Palestrina
was levelled to the ground and the Colonnas fled (1298), finding
refuge among the enemies of Boniface and preparing the way for the
final catastrophe.
[Sidenote: Papal Jubilee.]
Boniface, however, had become his own master at home to an extent
attained by none of his predecessors since Innocent III. His reign
reached what may be termed its high-water mark in the Papal Jubilee of
1300. The cessation of the Crusades had largely increased the crowds
of pilgrims to Rome, until in 1299 there awoke an expectation of
special spiritual privileges in connection with the end of the
century. Indulgences had been so freely scattered in attempts to
promote the Crusades that a craving for them had been created.
Boniface recognised the importance of exploiting the popular feeling,
and after a mock enquiry he issued a bull promising generous
indulgences to all who should visit the Churches of SS. Peter and Paul
during the year for so many successive days, and directing that a
similar pilgrimage should be proclaimed every hundredth year. Pilgrims
flocked to Rome; 30,000 are reckoned to have entered and left daily,
while 200,000 were in Rome at any given moment. The amount of the
offerings must have been enormous, and the Ghibellines naturally
declared that the Jubilee had its origin in the papal need for money.
But most of the pilgrims were poor; and even if the size of the crowds
were a just measure of the continued hold of the Roman Church upon the
people of Western Europe, the absence of all the monarchs except
Charles Martel, the claimant of Hungary, was significant. Indeed,
Boniface had already experienced a foretaste of the independent
attitude of the secular princes, which eventually proved fatal to him.
Rudolf of Hapsburg died in 1291, and the German princes, rejecting the
claims of his son Albert, elected Adolf of Nassau as their King. But
Adolf proved less submissive than his electors had hoped to find him.
He was deposed and fell in battle, and Albert was chosen and crowned
without any reference to the Pope--the first occasion on which the
German princes had acted without papal authority. Boniface had already
barred Albert's claims. He now refused to recognise him, declaring
that the Empire owed all its honour and dignity to the papal favour.
Nevertheless, in 1303 circumstances forced him to accept Albert,
especially since Albert was willing in return to confirm all that his
father Rudolf had granted to the Papacy.
[Sidenote: First quarrel with France and England.]
But this quarrel with Germany sinks into insignificance before the
great contest of Boniface with France, with which his English dispute
was also closely connected. The Hohenstaufen had fallen before the
Papacy because their German kingdom and the "German" Empire rested on
no solid foundation. But in his attempts to coerce France and England
into obedience the Pope found himself face to face with two strong
national monarchies. Boniface failed to grasp the position. Edward I
of England and Philip IV of France were engaged in war. Each resorted
to every available method of raising money for the conduct of the war,
and among other ways laid heavy taxes on the clergy. Boniface having
failed to make the Kings submit their quarrels to his judgment, issued
a bull, _Clericis Laicos_ (February, 1296), by which he forbade,
under pain of excommunication, that any prelate or ecclesiastical body
should pay or laymen should exact from the clergy any taxes under any
pretext without papal leave. Edward I met this manifesto by
confiscating the lay fees of all ecclesiastics; while Philip forbade
the export of all money from France, thus depriving the Pope and all
Italian ecclesiastics endowed with French benefices, of the usual
sources of income from France. The English clergy, with the exception
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, made their own arrangements with the
King. But in order to avoid a rupture with France Boniface issued
another bull, _Ineffabilis_, in which he explained that
ecclesiastics were not forbidden to contribute to the needs of the
State; and by subsequent letters he allowed that they might pay taxes
of their own free will, and even that in cases of necessity the King
might take taxes without waiting for the papal leave. He certainly
told his legates to excommunicate the King and his officials if they
should prevent money coming from France; but in order to gain Philip's
favour he granted him the tithe of the French clergy for three years,
he placed Louis IX among the recognised saints of the Church, and he
promised that Philip's brother, Charles of Valois, should be made
German King and Emperor.
Good relations having been established Philip and Edward now agreed to
submit their differences to Boniface. Philip, however, stipulated that
Boniface should act in the matter not as Pope but in a personal
capacity, and the Pope issued his award "as a private person and
Master Benedict Gaetani" (June 30,1298). But the judgment was in the
form of a bull, and ordered that the lands to be surrendered on either
side should be placed in the custody of the papal officers. Philip
could not reject the award; but he determined to prepare for a
conflict which was clearly inevitable. He gave refuge to some members
of the Colonna family, and he made an alliance with Albert of Austria
(1299).
[Sidenote: Second quarrel with England.]
Meanwhile Boniface began a second quarrel with England. Edward I had
refused the papal offers of mediation on behalf of Scotland. But after
the battle of Falkirk the national representatives of Scotland
appealed to Boniface as suzerain of the kingdom. The Pope wrote to
Edward claiming that from ancient times the kingdom of Scotland had
belonged by full right to the Roman Church, and demanding that Edward
should submit all causes of difference between himself and the Scots
to the Papacy. The English answer was given in a Parliament called for
the purpose to Lincoln (1301), by which a document addressed to the
Pope asserted for the English Kings a right over Scotland from the
first institution of the English kingdom, and denied that Scotland had
ever depended in temporal matters on the Roman Pontiff. Any further
action was prevented by the beginning of the final quarrel between
Boniface and Philip.
[Sidenote: With France.]
The Pope found it necessary to complain frequently of Philip's misuse
of the royal right of regale, and in 1301 relations became so strained
that he sent a legate, Bernard of Saisset, Bishop of Pamiers in the
south of France. But Bernard was arrogant, and on being claimed by
Philip as a subject, he exclaimed that he owned no lord but the Pope.
Since Boniface administered no reproof Philip procured the
condemnation of the Bishop for treason. The Pope in fury issued four
bulls in one day, the most important addressed to Philip and beginning
_Ausculta fili_, in which he asserted that God had set up the
Pope over Kings and kingdoms in order to destroy, to scatter, to build
and to plant in His name and doctrine. Philip caused the bull to be
publicly burnt--"the first flame which consumed a papal bull"--and
called an Assembly of the Estates of the Realm, in which for the first
time the commons were included. The Cardinals, in answering the
remonstrances sent by the nobles and commons, denied that the Pope had
ever told the King that he should be subject in temporal matters to
Rome; and Boniface assured the French clergy that he merely claimed
that the King was subject to him "in respect of sin."
[Sidenote: The final struggle.]
But in July, 1302, the burghers of Flanders inflicted a severe defeat
on the French forces in the battle of Courtray; and the Pope, taking
advantage of Philip's humiliation before Europe, immediately assumed a
more defiant attitude. In a Council at Rome and before the French
envoys, he declared that his predecessors had deposed three Kings of
France and, if necessary, he would depose the King "like a groom"
(_garcio_). He followed this up by issuing the most famous of his
bulls, _Unam Sanctam_, in which he roundly asserted that the
submission of every human creature to Rome was a condition of
salvation. Finally, while on the one side he excommunicated Philip
(April 13, 1303), he hastened to recognise Albert as King of Germany,
and ratified the peace made between Frederick of Sicily and Charles of
Valois. Philip on his side abandoned his Scots allies in order to make
peace with England (May 20, 1303), and called for a second time an
Assembly of the Estates. Before its members the aged Pope was accused
of heresy, murder, and even lust; and the appeal to a General Council
was now adopted by the representatives of the whole French nation. But
it was certain that the excommunication of Philip would be followed by
his deposition; and Philip and his councillors determined to forestall
this. Urged on by the Colonnas the French King conceived the plan of
seizing the person of the Pope and bringing him before a council to be
held at Lyons. Boniface was at his native Anagni, and Philip's
emissaries, in conjunction with many Italian enemies of the Pope,
forced their way into the town and seized the old man (September 3,
1303). He was rescued and taken back to Rome; but the shock of the
attack unhinged his reason and hastened his end. He died on October 11
at the age of eighty-six. His foes described his last days in lurid
colours; but the violent behaviour of his enemies caused strong
disgust throughout Christendom.
To a contemporary, Boniface was "magnanimus peccator," the
great-hearted sinner; while a modern historian describes him as
"devoid of every spiritual virtue." If Canossa was the humiliation for
the Empire which the ecclesiastical annalists describe, in the
pettiness of the stage and the insignificance of the actors Anagni was
an ample revenge of the lay spirit. The Papacy which had worn down the
Empire had dashed itself in vain against the new phenomenon of a
strong national spirit.