TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216)
Gregory VII was well named the Julius Caesar of the Papacy. His great
conception of a sovereign ecclesiastical power, supreme over Europe, was
destined to be realized. For in the fulness of time came Innocent III,
the Augustus Caesar of the Papacy, who ruled the civilized world of
Europe more after the fashion of the old Roman Emperors than any one,
except Charlemagne, had done. But in the interval between these two
famous Popes, there was a period of reaction in which it looked for a
time as if the Empire would plant the Ghibelline flag on the papal
citadel. The Popes of this period were men of no marked ability, whereas
the young king, Henry VI, had inherited the forceful temper of
Barbarossa as well as his theories of Imperial rights, and displayed
great vigour, energy, and resolution. Despite the opposition of the
Popes, who as feudal suzerains of Sicily were most averse to the
alliance, he had married the heiress of the Norman line, and despite the
fierce opposition of the Sicilians,--part Arabs, part Greeks, with
Italians and Normans mingling in,--he established his authority in the
island. Henry was horribly cruel, but he was efficient. He was King of
Germany, King of Italy, and King of the Two Sicilies, and had compelled
a reluctant Pope to crown him Emperor. He determined to be Emperor in
Italy in fact, and to accomplish what his father had failed to do. He
undertook to check and suppress the communes by reviving the old feudal
system. He reinstated old duchies and counties, and enfeoffed his loyal
Germans. Matters looked black for the Guelfs, when, to their great good
luck, the fiery young Emperor died, leaving an incompetent widow and a
helpless baby (1197). By one of those occurrences, in which Catholics
see more than the hand of chance, in the very year after the Emperor's
death, a man of political talents of the highest order was elected to
the pontifical chair.
In the days of Pope Alexander III, the great antagonist of Frederick
Barbarossa, a young nobleman, who took holy orders almost in boyhood,
had given early promise of an extraordinary career. This handsome,
eloquent, imperious boy, named Lothair, inherited through his father,
Thrasmund of the Counts of Segni in Latium, the fierce impetuosity of
the Lombards, and through his mother, a Roman lady of high birth (from
whom he took his master traits), the tenacity, the adroitness, the
political genius of the Romans. He was educated at the universities of
Bologna and Paris, where he studied law, theology, and scholastic
philosophy. The stormy period of the struggle between Alexander and
Barbarossa brought character and talents quickly to the front. Before he
was twenty he had distinguished himself, before he was thirty he had
been made a cardinal, and at thirty-seven he was elected Pope. According
to the practice instituted by the deposed scamp, John XII, of taking a
new name, Lothair assumed the title of Innocent III.
Under the guidance of Innocent III (1198-1216), the Papacy attained the
full meridian of its glory. When this great Pope, lawyer, theologian,
statesman, came to the throne, it was demoralized and weak; before he
died, it had set its yoke on the neck of Europe. For the second time in
history, orders were issued from Rome to the whole civilized world. A
review of his pontificate brings up a panorama of Europe. His task began
in Rome. This little city of churches, monasteries, towers, and ruins,
which took no pride in great papal affairs, had plunged into one of its
fits of republican independence, and, supported by the Emperor, had
ousted the Popes from all control. In the course of a few years, by
intrigue, tact, and civil war, Innocent got into his own hands the
appointment of the senate and of the city governor, and thereby control
of the city. He next turned his attention to the Patrimony of St. Peter,
that central strip from Rome to Ravenna, given or supposed to have been
given by Pippin and Charlemagne to the successors of St. Peter. Here the
impetuous Emperor, Henry VI, had seated his German barons, setting up
fiefs for them, and reestablishing the feudal system under the Imperial
suzerainty. These German barons were hated by the people. Innocent put
himself at the head of the popular discontent, organized a Guelf, almost
a national, party, and either drove the Germans out, or forced them to
swear allegiance to the Holy See.
In Tuscany also the Guelfs were successful in breaking up the feudal
restoration. In fact, since the days of Countess Matilda feudalism had
been doomed. The cities had taken advantage of the wars between Papacy
and Empire to secure virtual independence; and on Henry's death, with
the exception of Ghibelline Pisa, they banded together and agreed never
to admit an Imperial governor within their territories. Innocent tried
to bring these cities under papal dominion, but they were too
independent, and he was obliged to rest content with snapping up
scattered portions of Matilda's domains.
Meantime in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the Emperor's widow had
died, and left to Innocent's guardianship her little son, Frederick.
Innocent, guardian and suzerain lord, immediately began a struggle with
the feudal nobility, just as in Italy, and, after a long and difficult
contest, asserted the authority of his royal ward. On the termination of
the minority, he handed over the kingdom to Frederick, who, on his part
as King of the Two Sicilies, swore fealty to the Pope. Had it not been
for his honourable and powerful guardian, Frederick probably would have
had no kingdom, and in his oath of fealty he acknowledged his
indebtedness: "Among all the wishes which we carry in the front rank of
our desires, this is the chief, to discharge a grateful obedience, to
show an honourable devotion, and never to be found ungrateful for your
benefits--God forbid--since, next to Divine Grace, to your protection we
are indebted not only for land but also for life."
In this way Innocent established the Papacy in Italy; sovereign,
suzerain, protector or ally, he was the head of the Italian Guelfs and
practically of Italy. Let us now look abroad. In Constantinople, the
capital of the Greek Empire, Innocent's legate bestowed the Imperial
purple upon an Emperor. An odd whirl of Fortune's wheel brought this to
pass. Innocent had preached a crusade in the hope of recovering the Holy
Land from the infidels, who had succeeded in expelling the Christians.
An army of Frenchmen and Flemings answered his summons. They determined
to avoid the deadly route overland and go by sea, and applied to Venice
for transportation. When they came to pay the bill they did not have the
money, and the Venetians insisted that they should help them recapture
the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast, which had once belonged to
Venice but had been lost again. Zara was attacked and taken (1202). One
deflection from the straight path of duty led to another. To Zara came
the son of the Greek Emperor to say that his father had been deposed,
and to beg for help. The Venetians, wishing to wound two commercial
rivals at once, Constantinople and Pisa (for the usurping Emperor
favoured Pisa), used the suppliant as a stalking-horse, and persuaded
the Crusaders once again to divert their immediate purpose and to
restore the deposed Emperor to his throne. Again the Crusaders listened
to temptation, for the Venetians baited their hook with golden promises;
they sailed to Constantinople and restored the wronged Emperor. Matters
did not go smoothly, however. Misunderstanding with the Greeks led to
disagreements, disagreements to quarrels, and quarrels to war. The Latin
Crusaders assaulted Constantinople, carried it by storm, and plundered
houses, palaces, churches, shrines, everything; then, with appetites
whetted by petty spoils, seized the frail Empire itself (1204). They
divided Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the islands of the AEgean Sea, and all
the remnants of the Roman Empire of the East that they could lay hands
on. Pious Venice came out best; she took coast and island, town and
country, all along from recaptured Zara round by the shores of Dalmatia,
Albania, Peloponnesus, and Thessaly, ending with half of Constantinople
itself. The Marquess of Monferrat became King of Thessalonica, and his
vassal, a Burgundian count, was invested with the lordship of Athens and
Thebes. The Count of Flanders was elected Emperor of a Latin Empire.
Innocent had been very angry with the deflections to Zara and
Constantinople, and had thundered against the polite but inflexible
Venetians. When the evil had been done, however, he made the best of it,
and behaved with dignity and astuteness. He rebuked the Crusaders for
having preferred the things of earth to those of Heaven, and bade them
ask God's pardon for the profanation of holy places; but he admitted the
advantage that would arise from reconciling the Greeks, schismatics
since the days of Leo the Iconoclast, with the Roman See. So his legate
bestowed the purple on a suppliant Emperor in the city of
Constantinople.
In Germany Innocent also appears as the giver and withholder of crowns.
On the death of Henry VI there was a disputed election. The Hohenstaufen
party, dreading a long minority, passed over the baby Frederick, and
nominated Philip, Henry's brother; the rival party, the German Guelfs,
nominated Otto of Brunswick, a nephew of Richard Coeur-de-lion. Civil
war followed, and both parties appealed to Innocent who, after
deliberation, supported Otto, but exacted a high price. Otto was obliged
to guarantee to the Pope the strip of territory from Rome to Ravenna,
and those portions of Matilda's domains which were not fiefs of the
Empire, also to acknowledge papal suzerainty over the Two Sicilies, and
to promise to conform to the papal will with regard to the leagues of
the Lombard and Tuscan cities. This guarantee of Otto laid the first
real foundation of the Papal States. Hitherto, vague _Donations_ had
given pretexts for claims; but Otto's deed was a definite Imperial
grant, and conveyed an unquestionable title. In spite of Innocent's
support matters went ill for Otto in Germany. Philip's star rose, and
Innocent, to whom the cause of the Papacy was the cause of God and
justified diplomatic conduct, was on the point of shifting to Philip's
side, when in the nick of time Philip was murdered (1208). Otto's claim
was now undisputed. No sooner, however, did he feel the crown secure on
his head than he shifted his ground. Guelf by birth though he was, he
found that he could not be both obedient to the Pope and loyal to his
Imperial duties. He turned into a complete Ghibelline, broke his grant
to the Pope, attempted to restore the feudal system in the papal
territories, and assumed to treat the Two Sicilies as a fief of the
Empire. Innocent, outraged and indignant at this breach of faith,
excommunicated him (1210). Thereupon, as at the time when Gregory VII
excommunicated Henry IV, the German barons rose, deposed Otto, and
summoned young Frederick from Sicily to take the German crown. Innocent
supported Frederick's cause, but exacted the price which he had formerly
exacted from the perjured Otto. Frederick, pressed by present need, and
forgetful of Otto's evil precedent, pledged himself as follows: "We,
Frederick the Second, by Divine favour and mercy, King of the Romans,
ever Augustus, and King of Sicily ... recognizing the grace given to us
by God, we have also before our eyes the immense and innumerable
benefits rendered by you, most dear lord and reverend father, our
protector and benefactor, lord Innocent, by God's grace most venerable
Pontiff; through your benefaction, labour, and guardianship, we have
been brought up, cherished, and advanced, ever since our mother, the
Empress Constance of happy memory, threw us upon your care, almost from
birth. To you, most blessed father, and to all your Catholic successors,
and to the Holy Roman Church, our special mother, we shall discharge all
obedience, honour, and reverence, always with an humble heart and a
devout spirit, as our Catholic predecessors, kings and Emperors, are
known to have done to your predecessors; not a whit from these shall we
take away, rather add, that our devotion may shine the more."[11]
Frederick promised that he would not interfere in the election of
bishops, and that the candidate canonically elected should be installed.
He confirmed the papal title to the Papal States. "I vow, promise,
swear, and take my oath to protect and preserve all the possessions,
honours, and rights of the Roman Church, in good faith, to the best of
my power" (1213).
From this time forward Frederick advanced from success to success. Otto
was driven into private life, and the Pope's legate put the German crown
on Frederick's head at Aachen (1215). Where Innocent blessed, success
and prosperity followed; where he cursed, death and destruction came.
Elsewhere the Pope was equally triumphant. All Europe bent under his
imperial decrees. The kings of Portugal, Leon, Castile, and Navarre were
scolded or punished. The King of Aragon went to Rome and swore
allegiance. The Duke of Bohemia was rebuked, the King of Denmark
comforted, the nobles of Iceland warned, the King of Hungary admonished.
Servia, Bulgaria, even remote Armenia, received papal supervision and
paternal care. Philip Augustus of France, at Innocent's command, took
back the wife whom he had repudiated. John of England grovelled on the
ground before him, and yielded up "to our lord the Pope Innocent and his
successors, all our kingdom of England and all our kingdom of Ireland to
be held as a fief of the Holy See"(1213).
Another triumph of darker hue added to the brilliance of Innocent's
career. In the south of France, in the pleasant places of Provence and
Languedoc, where troubadours praised love and war, and lords and ladies
wandered down primrose paths, the humbler folk got hold of certain
dangerous ideas. They believed that there was a power of evil as well as
a power of good, that Christ was but an emanation from God, that the God
of the Jews was not the real God of Goodness, and, worse than all, that
the Roman Church, with its sacerdotalism, forms, sacraments, and ritual,
was, to say the least, not what it should be. Innocent entertained no
doubts that the Roman Church had been founded by God to maintain His
truth on earth; as a statesman he regarded heresy as we regard treason
and anarchy; as a priest he deemed it sin. He called Simon of Montfort
and other dogs of war from the north and urged them at the quarry. The
heresy was put down in blood. Here appears the black figure of St.
Dominic, encouraging the faithful, rallying the hesitant, and by the
fervour of his belief, by his devotion, by his genius for organization,
more destructive to heresy than the sword of Montfort.
Thus Innocent sat supreme. He had created a papal kingdom where his
predecessors had asserted impotent claims; he had confirmed the Two
Sicilies in their dependency upon the Holy See; he had put the Papacy at
the head of the Guelf party in Italy, and had made that party almost
national; he had enforced the power of the Church throughout Europe, had
given crowns to the Kings of Aragon and of England, to the Emperors of
Germany and of Constantinople. No such spectacle had been seen since the
reign of Charlemagne; none such was to be seen again till the coming of
Napoleon. The conception of Europe as an ecclesiastical organization had
reached its fullest expression.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] _Select Mediaeval Documents_, Mathews, p. 115, translated.