Part 787

"The Countess Matilda, born in 1040, was daughter of Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, and Beatrice, sister of the Emperor Henry III. On the death of her only brother, without issue, she succeeded to all his dominions, of Tuscany, Parma, Lucca, Mantua and Reggio. Rather late in life, she married Guelpho, son of the Duke of Bavaria—no issue resulting from their union. This princess displayed great energy and administrative ability in the troubled times in which she lived, occasionally appearing at the head of her own troops. Ever a devoted daughter of the Church, she specially venerated Pope Gregory VII., to whom she afforded much material support, in the difficulties by which he was constantly beset. To this Pontiff, she made a donation of a considerable portion of her dominions, for the benefit of the Holy See, A. D. 1077, confirming the same in a deed to Pope Pascal II., in 1102, entituled 'Cartula donationis Comitissæ Mathildis facta S. Gregorio PP. VII., et innovata Paschali PP. II.'; apud Theiner 'Codex Diplomaticus,' etc., tom. 1, p. 10. As the original deed to Gregory VII. is not extant, and the deed of confirmation or renewal does not recite the territories conveyed, there is some uncertainty about their exact limits. However, it is generally thought that they comprised the district formerly known as the Patrimony of Saint Peter, lying on the right bank of the Tiber, and extending from Aquapendente to Ostia. The Countess Matilda died in 1115, aged 75."

_J. N. Murphy, The Chair of Peter, page 235, foot-note._

See PAPACY: A. D. 1122-1250.

PAPACY: A. D. 1086-1154. The succession of Popes.

Victor III., A. D. 1086-1087; Urban II., 1088-1099; Pascal 11., 1099-1118; Gelasius 11., 1118-1119; Callistus II., 1119-1124; Honorius II., 1124-1130; Innocent II., 1130-1143; Celestine II., 1143-1144; Lucius II., 1144-1145; Eugene III., 1145-1153; Anastasius IV., 1153-1154.

PAPACY: A. D. 1094. Pope Urban II. and the first Crusade. The Council of Clermont.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1094.

PAPACY: A. D. 1122-1250. Continued conflict with the Empire. The Popes and the Hohenstaufen Emperors.

"The struggle about investiture ended, as was to be expected, in a compromise; but it was a compromise in which all the glory went to the Papacy. Men saw that the Papal claims had been excessive, even impossible; but the object at which they aimed, the freedom of the Church from the secularising tendencies of feudalism, was in the main obtained. … But the contest with the Empire still went on. One of the firmest supporters of Gregory VII. had been Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, over whose fervent piety Gregory had thrown the spell of his powerful mind. At her death, she bequeathed her possessions, which embraced nearly a quarter of Italy, to the Holy See [see PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102]. Some of the lands which she had held were allodial, some were fiefs of the Empire; and the inheritance of Matilda was a fruitful source of contention to two powers already jealous of one another. The constant struggle that lasted for two centuries gave full scope for the development of the Italian towns. … The old Italian notion of establishing municipal freedom by an equilibrium of two contending powers was stamped still more deeply on Italian politics by the wars of Guelfs and Ghibellins. The union between the Papacy and the Lombard Republics was strong enough to humble the mightiest of the Emperors. Frederic Barbarossa, who held the strongest views of the Imperial prerogative, had to confess himself vanquished by Pope Alexander III. [see ITALY: A. D. 1154-1162, to 1174-1183], and the meeting of Pope and Emperor at Venice was a memorable ending to the long struggle; that the great Emperor should kiss the feet of the Pope whom he had so long refused to acknowledge, was an act which stamped itself with dramatic effect on the imagination of men, and gave rise to fables of a still more lowly submission [see VENICE: A. D. 1177]. The length of the strife, the renown of Frederic, the unswerving tenacity of purpose with which Alexander had maintained his cause, all lent lustre to this triumph of the Papacy. The consistent policy of Alexander III., even in adverse circumstances, the calm dignity with, which he asserted the Papal claims, and the wisdom with which he used his opportunities, made him a worthy successor of Gregory VII. at a great crisis in the fortunes of the Papacy. It was reserved, however, for Innocent III. to realise most fully the ideas of Hildebrand. If Hildebrand was the Julius, Innocent was the Augustus, of the Papal Empire. He had not the creative genius nor the fiery energy of his great forerunner; but his clear intellect never missed an opportunity, and his calculating spirit rarely erred from its mark. … On all sides Innocent III. enjoyed successes beyond his hopes. In the East, the crusading zeal of Europe was turned by Venice to the conquest of Constantinople [see CRUSADES: A. D. 1201-1203], and Innocent could rejoice for a brief space in the subjection of the Eastern Church. In the West, Innocent turned the crusading impulse to the interest of the Papal power, by diverting it against heretical sects which, in Northern Italy and the South of France, attacked the system of the Church [see ALBIGENSES]. … Moreover Innocent saw the beginning, though he did not perceive the full importance, of a movement which the reaction against heresy produced within the Church. The Crusades had quickened men's activity, and the heretical sects had aimed at kindling greater fervour of spiritual life. … {2433} By the side of the monastic aim of averting, by the prayers and penitence of a few, God's anger from a wicked world, there grew up a desire for self-devotion to missionary labour. Innocent III. was wise enough not to repulse this new enthusiasm, but find a place for it within the ecclesiastical system. Francis of Assisi gathered round him a body of followers who bound themselves to a literal following of the Apostles, to a life of poverty and labour, amongst the poor and outcast; Dominic of Castile formed a society which aimed at the suppression of heresy by assiduous teaching of the truth. The Franciscan and Dominican orders grew almost at once into power and importance, and their foundation marks a great reformation within the Church [see MENDICANT ORDERS]. The reformation movement of the eleventh century, under the skilful guidance of Hildebrand, laid the foundations of the Papal monarchy in the belief of Europe. The reformation of the thirteenth century found full scope for its energy under the protection of the Papal power; for the Papacy was still in sympathy with the conscience of Europe, which it could quicken and direct. These mendicant orders were directly connected with the Papacy, and were free from all episcopal control. Their zeal awakened popular enthusiasm; they rapidly increased in number and spread into every land. The Friars became the popular preachers and confessors, and threatened to supersede the old ecclesiastical order. Not only amongst the common people, but in the universities as well, did their influence become supreme. They were a vast army devoted to the service of the Pope, and overran Europe in his name. They preached Papal indulgences, they stirred up men to crusades in behalf of the Papacy, they gathered money for the Papal use. … The Emperor Frederic II., who had been brought up under Innocent's guardianship, proved the greatest enemy of the newly-won sovereignty of the Pope. King of Sicily and Naples, Frederic was resolved to assert again the Imperial pretensions of North Italy, and then win back the Papal acquisitions in the centre; if his plan had succeeded, the Pope would have lost his independence and sunk to be the instrument of the house of Hohenstaufen. Two Popes of inflexible determination and consummate political ability were the opponents of Frederic. Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. flung themselves with ardour into the struggle, and strained every nerve till the whole Papal policy was absorbed by the necessities of the strife. …

See ITALY: A. D. 1183-1250; and GERMANY: A. D. 1138-1268.

Frederic II. died [1250], but the Popes pursued with their hostility his remotest descendants, and were resolved to sweep the very remembrance of him out of Italy. To accomplish their purpose, they did not hesitate to summon the aid of the stranger. Charles of Anjou appeared as their champion, and in the Pope's name took possession of the Sicilian kingdom.

See ITALY: A. D. 1250-1268].

By his help the last remnants of the Hohenstaufen house were crushed, and the claims of the Empire to rule over Italy were destroyed for ever. But the Papacy got rid of an open enemy only to introduce a covert and more deadly foe. The Angevin influence became superior to that of the Papacy, and French popes were elected that they might carry out the wishes of the Sicilian king. By its resolute efforts to escape from the power of the Empire, the Papacy only paved the way for a connexion that ended in its enslavement to the influence of France."

_M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation, volume 1, pages 18-23._

ALSO IN: _T. L. Kington, History of Frederick II. Emperor of the Romans._

PAPACY: A. D. 1154-1198. The succession of Popes.

Hadrian IV., A. D. 1154-1159; Alexander III., 1159-1181; Lucius III., 1181-1185; Urban III., 1185-1187; Gregory VIII., 1187; Clement III., 1187-1191; Celestine III., 1191-1198.

PAPACY: A. D. 1162-1170. Conflict of Church and State in England. Becket and Henry II.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

PAPACY: A. D. 1198-1216. The establishing of Papal Sovereignty in the States of the Church.

"Innocent III. may be called the founder of the States of the Church. The lands with which Pippin and Charles had invested the Popes were held subject to the suzerainty of the Frankish sovereign and owned his jurisdiction. On the downfall of the Carolingian Empire the neighbouring nobles, calling themselves Papal vassals, seized on these lands; and when they were ousted in the Pope's name by the Normans, the Pope did not gain by the change of neighbours. Innocent III. was the first Pope who claimed and exercised the rights of an Italian prince. He exacted from the Imperial Prefect in Rome the oath of allegiance to himself; he drove the Imperial vassals from the Matildan domain [see TUSCANY: A. D. 685-1115], and compelled Constance, the widowed queen of Sicily, to recognise the Papal suzerainty over her ancestral kingdom. He obtained from the Emperor Otto IV. (1201) the cession of all the lands which the Papacy claimed, and so established for the first time an undisputed title to the Papal States."

_M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation, volume 1. page 21._

PAPACY: A. D. 1198-1294. The succession of Pores. Innocent III., A. D. 1198-1216; Honorius II., 1216-1227; Gregory IX., 1227-1241; Celestine IV., 1241; Innocent IV., 1243-1204; Alexander IV., 1254-1261; Urban IV., 1261-1264; Clement IV., 1265-1268; Gregory X., 1271-1276; Innocent V., 1276; Hadrian V., 1276; John XXI., 1276-1277; Nicholas III., 1277-1280; Martin IV., 1281-1285; Honorius IV., 1285-1287; Nicholas IV., 1288-1292; Celestine V., 1294.

PAPACY: A. D. 1198-1303. The acme of Papal power. The pontificates from Innocent III. to Boniface VIII.

"The epoch when the spirit of papal usurpation was most strikingly displayed was the pontificate of Innocent III. In each of the three leading objects which Rome had pursued, independent sovereignty, supremacy over the Christian church, control over the princes of the earth, it was the fortune of this pontiff to conquer. He realized … that fond hope of so many of his predecessors, a dominion over Rome and the central parts of Italy. During his pontificate Constantinople was taken by the Latins; and however he might seem to regret a diversion of the crusaders, which impeded the recovery of the Holy Land, he exulted in the obedience of the new patriarch and the reunion of the Greek church. Never, perhaps, either before or since, was the great eastern schism in so fair a way of being healed; even the kings of Bulgaria and Armenia acknowledged the supremacy of Innocent, and permitted his interference with their ecclesiastical institutions. {2434} The maxims of Gregory VII. were now matured by more than a hundred years, and the right of trampling upon the necks of kings had been received, at least among churchmen, as an inherent attribute of the papacy. 'As the sun and the moon are placed in the firmament' (such is the language of Innocent), 'the greater as the light of the day, and the lesser of the night, thus are there two powers in the church—the pontifical, which, as having the charge of souls, is the greater; and the royal, which is the less, and to which the bodies of men only are intrusted.' Intoxicated with these conceptions (if we may apply such a word to successful ambition), he thought no quarrel of princes beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction. 'Though I cannot judge of the right to a fief,' said Innocent to the kings of France and England, 'yet it is my province to judge where sin is committed, and my duty to prevent all public scandals.' … Though I am not aware that any pope before Innocent III. had thus announced himself as the general arbiter of differences and conservator of the peace throughout Christendom, yet the scheme had been already formed, and the public mind was in some degree prepared to admit it. … The noonday of papal dominion extends from the pontificate of Innocent III. inclusively to that of Boniface VIII.; or, in other words, through the 13th century. Rome inspired during this age all the terror of her ancient name. She was once more the mistress of the world, and kings were her vassals."

_H. Hallam, The Middle Ages, chapter 7, parts 1-2 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN: _J. Miley, History of the Papal States, volume 3, book 1, chapter 3._

_M. Gosselin, The Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages, part 2, chapter 3._

_M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Reformation, introduction, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

PAPACY: A. D. 1203. The planting of the germs of the Papal Inquisition.

See INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

PAPACY: A. D. 1205-1213. Subjugation of the English King John.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1205-1213.

PAPACY: A. D. 1215. The beginning, in Italy, of the Wars of the Guelfs and Ghibellines.

See ITALY: A. D. 1215.

PAPACY: A. D. 1266. Transfer of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to Charles of Anjou.

See ITALY: A. D. 1250-1268.

PAPACY: A. D. 1268. The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis, affirming the rights of the Gallican Church.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1268.

PAPACY: A. D. 1275. Ratification of the Donation of Charlemagne and the Capitulation of Otho IV. by Rodolph of Hapsburg.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1273-1308.

PAPACY: A. D. 1279. The English Statute of Mortmain.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1279.

PAPACY: A. D. 1294-1348. The stormy pontificate of Boniface VIII. His conflict with Philip IV. of France. The "Babylonish Captivity." Purchase of Avignon, which becomes the Papal Seat.

Boniface VIII., who came to the Papal throne in 1294, "was a man of so much learning that Petrarch extols him as the wonder of the world. His craft and cruelty, however, were shown in his treatment of Celestine V. [his predecessor], whom he first persuaded to resign the pontificate, five months after his election, on account of his inexperience in politics; and then, having succeeded to the chair, instead of letting the good man return to the cloister for which he panted, he kept him in confinement to the day of his death. His resentment of the opposition of the two cardinals Colonna to his election was so bitter, that not content with degrading them, he decreed the whole family—one of the most illustrious in Rome—to be for ever infamous, and incapable of ecclesiastical dignities. He pulled down their town of Præneste, and ordered the site to be sown with salt to extinguish it, like Carthage, for ever. This pontificate is famous for the institution of the Jubilee, though, according to some accounts, it was established a century before by Innocent III. By a bull dated 22nd February 1300, Boniface granted a plenary remission of sins to all who, before Christmas, in that and every subsequent hundredth year, should visit the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul daily, for 30 days if inhabitants of Rome, and for half that time if strangers. His private enemies, the Colonnas, Frederic of Sicily, who had neglected to pay his tribute, and the abettors of the Saracens, were the only persons excluded. The city was crowded with strangers, who flocked to gain the indulgence; enormous sums were offered at the holy tombs; and the solemnity became so profitable that Clement VI. reduced the period for its observance from 100 years to 50, and later popes have brought it down to 25. Boniface appeared at the jubilee with the spiritual and temporal swords carried before him, the bearers of which proclaimed the text,—'Behold, here are two swords.' … The pope had the pleasure of receiving a … respectful recognition from the barons of Scotland. Finding themselves hard pressed by the arms of Edward I., they resolved to accept a distant, in preference to a neighbouring, master; accordingly, they tendered the kingdom to the pope, pretending that, from the most ancient times, Scotland had been a fief of the holy Roman See. Boniface, eagerly embracing the offer, commanded the archbishop of Canterbury to require the king to withdraw his troops, and submit his pretensions to the apostolic tribunal. … Boniface got no other satisfaction than to be told that the laws of England did not permit the king to subject the rights of his crown to any foreign tribunal. His conflict with the king of France was still more unfortunate. Philip the Fair, like our own Edward I., thought fit to compel the clergy to contribute towards the expenses of his repeated campaigns. The pope thereupon issued a bull entitled 'Clericis laicos' (A. D. 1296), charging the laity with inveterate hostility to the clergy, and prohibiting, under pain of excommunication, any payment out of ecclesiastical revenues without his consent. The king retorted by prohibiting the export of coin or treasure from his dominions, without license from the crown. This was cutting off the pope's revenue at a blow, and so modified his anger that he allowed the clergy to grant a 'free benevolence' to the king, when in urgent need. A few years after (1301), Philip imprisoned a bishop on charge of sedition, when Boniface thundered out his bulls 'Salvator mundi,' and 'Ausculta fili,' the first of which suspended all privileges accorded by the Holy See to the French king and people, and the second, asserting the papal power in the now familiar text from Jeremiah [Jeremiah i. 10], summoned the superior clergy to Rome. Philip burned the bull, and prohibited the clergy from obeying the summons. {2435} The peers and people of France stood by the crown, treating the exhortations of the clergy with defiance. The pope, incensed at this resistance, published the Decretal called 'Unam sanctam,' which affirms the unity of the Church, without which there is no salvation, and hence the unity of its head in the successor of St. Peter. Under the pope are two swords, the spiritual and the material—the one to be used by the church, the other for the church. … The temporal sword is … subject to the spiritual, and the spiritual to God only. The conclusion is, 'that it is absolutely essential to the salvation of every human being that he be subject unto the Roman pontiff.' The king, who showed great moderation, appealed to a general council, and forbad his subjects to obey any orders of Boniface till it should be assembled. The pope resorted to the usual weapons. He drew up a bull for the excommunication of the king; offered France to Albert of Austria, king of the Romans, and wrote to the king of England to incite him to prosecute his war. Meantime, Philip having sent William de Nogaret on an embassy to the pope, this daring envoy conceived the design of making him prisoner. Entering Anagni [the pope's native town and frequent residence, 40 miles from Rome] at the head of a small force, privately raised in the neighbourhood, the conspirators, aided by some of the papal household, gained possession of the palace and burst into the pope's presence. Boniface, deeming himself a dead man, had put on his pontifical robes and crown, but these had little effect on the irreverent intruders. De Nogaret was one of the Albigenses; his companion, a Colonna, was so inflamed at the sight of his persecutor that he struck him on the face with his mailed hand, and would have killed him but for the intervention of the other. The captors unaccountably delaying to carry off their prize, the people of the place rose and rescued the Holy Father. He hastened back to Rome, but died of the shock a month after, leaving a dangerous feud between the Church and her eldest son."

_G. Trevor, Rome: from the Fall of the Western Empire, chapter 9._

"Boniface has been consigned to infamy by contemporary poets and historians, for the exhibition of some of the most revolting features of the human character. Many of the charges, such as that he did not believe in eternal life; that he was guilty of monstrous heresy; that he was a wizard; and that he asserted that it is no sin to indulge in the most criminal pleasures—are certainly untrue. They are due chiefly to his cruelty to Celestine and the Celestinians, and his severity to the Colonnas, which led the two latter to go everywhere blackening his character. They have been exaggerated by Dante; and they may be ascribed generally to his pride and violence, and to the obstinate determination, formed by a man who 'was born an age too late,' to advance claims then generally becoming unpopular, far surpassing in arrogance those maintained by the most arbitrary of his predecessors. … This victory of Philip over Boniface was, in fact, the commencement of a wide-spread reaction on the part of the laity against ecclesiastical predominance. The Papacy had first shown its power by a great dramatic act, and its decline was shown in the same manner. The drama of Anagni is to be set against the drama of Canossa."

_A. R. Pennington. The Church in Italy, chapter 6._