The Power Of The Popes Part 11

Leopold Duke of Austria, Alphonso X. king of Leon, and annulled the decision of the French bishops, who had approved the repudiation of Ingelburg II. the wife of Philip Augustus. It is to be remarked that these anathemas although still formidable, had lost a large portion of their unfortunate efficacy. Philip took a third wife, without any new opposition on the part of Celestine. This pope, for some marcs of silver, acknowledged, as king of Sicily, Frederick II. a child of three years, son of the emperor Henry VI. In 1197, Henry died, and Germany was divided between Philip of Swabia, and Otho of Saxony; the simultaneous election of these two emperors became one of the causes of the aggrandizement of the pontifical power. Divisions in Germany, rivalry between France and England, new governments in almost all the states of Italy, expeditions into Palestine, hostilities of the crusaders against the emperors of the East, the propagation of the false decretals in the West: all concurred to promise the most splendid success to the pontiff, who, uniting boldness to skill, should reign sufficiently long to conduct a great enterprise: and this pontiff was Innocent III.

Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3, p. 327.

4 Frasche.

5 Ann. eccles. ann. 1191.

6 Ann. d'ltal. ann. 1191.

CHAPTER VI. POWER OF THE POPES OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

INNOCENT III. in one and the same year, bestowed in the plenitude of his power three royal crowns; to Ioanice, that of Walachia7 ; to Premislaus, that of Bohemia8 ; to Peter II., that of Arragon. Peter received his at Rome, and did the pope homage for his states, which became tributary to the Holy See.? But Innocent, the dispenser of kingdoms, and who even gave away that of Armenia, distinguished himself still more frequently by his anathemas. Venice, France, England, the emperor, all the great potentates of Europe, have experienced the force of his spiritual arms.

7 Fleury's Eccles. Hist. 1. 76, n. 14,1. 76, n. 6.

8 Ibid. 1. 76, n 9.

? Ibid. 1. 76, n, 10.

The Venetians, already powerful by their commerce, had a.s.sumed the cross but for the purpose of extending it; they gained lands and riches in meriting indulgences. Alone capable of equipping great fleets, they exacted eighty-five thousand crowns of gold for transporting the Christian army into Palestine; and, with the a.s.sistance of the legions they conveyed, conquered important places in Dalmatia. Innocent, in order to put a stop to their progress, thought of excluding them from the bosom of the Church. But one of the effects of commercial prosperity is, to weaken in people's minds the dread of ecclesiastical censures: the Venetians made themselves masters of the city and territory of Zara: they continued to fortify and aggrandize themselves; the anathema launched against their republic, had no important effect: the pontiff abstained from renewing it.

He treated Philip Augustus more rigorously. This monarch of France received from Innocent an express order to take back the divorced Ingelburg, and send away Agnes or Maria de Meronie, whom he had married after this divorce. The king at first a.s.sumed an att.i.tude sufficiently bold; but the kingdom was under interdict; the divine offices, the sacraments, marriages, had ceased; the permitting the beard to grow enjoined; the use of flesh forbidden; mutual salutation prohibited. It was in vain that Philip humbled himself, he was obliged to ask of the pope a new enquiry into the affair; it even became necessary to prevent the result of this examination, by declaring that he was about to recall Ingelburg. She was indeed allowed the t.i.tles of wife and queen, but it was in the confinement of a castle. Emboldened by this success, Innocent did not hesitate to erect himself into a supreme arbiter between the kings of France and England, then armed one against the other. He commanded them to a.s.semble their bishops, abbots, and n.o.bles of their states, to deliberate on a peace, and to think on the best means of restoring the churches and abbeys which had suffered during the war.

Philip replied that it did not belong to the pope to interfere in the disputes of kings, nor especially to convey to them such ordinances.

Some French lords added, that the order to make peace was but another reason for continuing the war. But Innocent replied, that an unjust war being a crime, and all crimes having for their judge the Holy Church, he fulfilled a pontifical office in disarming them both. On this principle says Fleury the pope is judge of all the wars between Sovereigns: that is, to speak in plain terms, he is the sole Sovereign in the world. However it may be, Philip, after having renewed his course of conquest, thought proper to consent to a truce, and not irritate too far a pontiff determined on the boldest undertakings. He thus deferred, but by no means avoided, the excommunication. An anathema against Philip was one of the last acts of Innocent III., and one of the results of a new war kindled by this pontiff himself, between the king of England and France, whom he had affected to reconcile.

Ego... nottim facio universil ad quos litterae presentes pervenerint, quod ego domino meo Ph. ill.u.s.tri regi Franco rum consului, ut neque pacem neque treugam faciat regi Anglis, per violentiam y el per coactionem domini papae aut alicujus paps. Quod si dominus papa eidam domino regi super hoc aliquam faceret violentiam aut coactionem, concessi domino regi tanquam domino meo ligio et creantavi super omnia qus ab eo teneo, quod ego super hoc ei essem in auxilium de toto posse meo. Acts drawn up in this form in the names of Renaud count of Boulogne, Raoul count of Soissons, and of Odo duke of Burgundy, are to be found in the Chamber of Charters, all under the date of 1202.

Eccles. Hist 76 m. 60; 1. 79, no. 8.

In fact, this very king of Great Britain whom Innocent had appeared, in 1204, to support against the French, became, a few years after, one of the victims of pontifical despotism. The pope having been desirous, in contempt of the canons and the laws, to dispose of the see of Canterbury in favour of cardinal Langton, John opposed himself to it only by fits of rage which exposed his weakness. Innocent, who knew how to use his power with more prudence, employed by degrees, three modes of repressing this intractableness: first, an interdict upon the kingdom; next, the personal excommunication of the monarch; finally, the deposition of a king who had been so fully convicted of obstinacy in his disobedience to the Holy See.

Bofisuet, Defens. eler. Gallie. 1. 3. c..21.

The English, already dissatisfied with their sovereign, were loosed from the oaths which they had taken to him, and the crown of England was decreed to Philip Augustus, who, imprudent enough to accept it, evinced his grat.i.tude, by releasing Ingelburg from the castle of Etampes, and re-calling her to the throne. But while Philip prepared to reap, with arms in his hands, the fruits of the pontiff's liberality, a legate named Pandolph, took advantage in England of the fright of the deposed king, and presented him the means of recovering his sceptre, by accepting it as a pure gift from the hands of the Church. On his knees before Pandolph, John placed his hands between those of this priest, and p.r.o.nounced in the presence of the bishops and lords of Ireland, the following words,

"I, John, by the Grace of G.o.d, king of "England, and lord of Ireland, for the expiation "of my sins, of my perfect accord, and by the "advice of barons, give to the Roman Church, to "Pope Innocent and his successors, the kingdom of "England and the kingdom of Ireland, with all the "rights attached to the one and the other: I hence- "forward hold them of the Holy See of which I shall "be the faithful va.s.sal, faithful to G.o.d, to the Church "of Rome, to the sovereign pontiff, my lord, and to "his successors lawfully elected. I pledge myself "to pay every year, a tax of one thousand marks of "silver; to wit, seven hundred for England, and "three hundred for Ireland."

Innoc. 3. Epist. 1. 15. ep. 77.-Rymer Act. pub. vol. 1, p. 67.

This discourse is scarcely ended, when the legate is presented with a part of the tribute promised to St. Peter: Pandolph casts the money on the ground, tramples it under his feet, nevertheless collects it again, satisfied with thus expressing the subjection of temporal treasures as well as temporal powers.4 The sceptre and the crown remain in his hands: he keeps them five days; and when, after he has obtained some additional securities, he finally restores them, he pretends forsooth, that they are received as a perfectly gratuitous favour. He now pa.s.ses immediately into France to announce what he has performed in England.- Philip learns from Pandolph, that John, the va.s.sal of the pope, occupies, under the protection of the Holy See, the throne of Great Britain, and that henceforth every enterprise against this kingdom will be punished by excommunication. Philip replied, that he took up arms at the solicitation of the pope alone, that the preparations for it had cost two millions, that a fleet, recently equipped, is in the road at Boulogne, that it waits the troops destined to land at Dover, and that the time for receding is departed. In the mean time, the rebellion of a va.s.sal compels the French monarch to carry the war into Flanders: to this va.s.sal the king of England, the emperor Otho IV. and almost all the princes of Europe join themselves. But the victory which the French obtain at Bouvines, dissipates the hopes of their enemies: Otho is no longer emperor, save in name; and John would have been already dethroned, if Rome had not obtained for him a truce of five years.

4 Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3. pa. 472.

It was the English themselves who at this interval p.r.o.nounced, regardless of the menaces of Rome, the dethronement of their monarch; they offered his crown to Louis, son to Philip Augustus. New decrees of Innocent's prohibit both father and son from invading the State of a prince, a feudatory of the Holy See. The father affects to disapprove a conquest which Rome deems sacrilege, but furnishes, nevertheless, all the means for its execution: the son, in fine, embarks; and the sovereign pontiff, who clearly sees that the father and son understand each other, excommunicates them both. Louis was almost in possession of Great Britain, when the death of John gave a different direction to men's thoughts and their affairs.5

5 Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3. pm 468, 475.

As sovereign of Rome, and as possessing in Italy a very galling preponderance, the Western Emperor was the most exposed to the attempts of Innocent III. To depress the empire, it behoved above all things to re-establish at Rome and in the ecclesiastical domains, the pontifical authority; the pope commenced, therefore, by turning to account the ascendancy which his birth, reputation, and talents, gave him over the Romans; he abolished the consulate, and arrogated to himself the imperial rights, invested a prefect, installed the public officers, and received the oaths of the senators. It was at this moment, says Muratori,6 that the imperial authority at Rome breathed its last sigh.

6 "Spiro qua l'ultimo fiato l'autorita degli Augusti in Roms."

Muratori, Annals of Italy, win. 1198.

Out of Rome, Orbitello, Viterbo, Ombria, Romagna, and the March of Ancona, acknowledged Innocent III. for their sovereign. Reigning thus from one sea to the other, he conceived the hope of conquering Ravenna, which was still wanting to him, of possessing himself of the complete heritage of Matilda, of subjecting still further the two Sicilies, and, especially, prevent-ing their having for master the head of the empire; this last point was always a principle in the policy of the Holy See.

Once should it govern in a direct manner the most part of the Italian provinces, it would be content to exercise elsewhere, a spiritual supremacy: the States which it could not possess, it would be satisfied to bestow, to resume, or to confer on such princes as should render themselves worthy by their docility. The conjunctures of the time altogether, as we have said, favoured this plan, at the accession of Innocent III. Frederick the II. was a child whom his father had caused to be elected King of the Romans, and his mother Constance, had placed him under the protection and even tutelage of the pope. One of this guardian's first acts was, to deprive his pupil of the t.i.tle of King of the Romans, as well as of the prerogatives attached to the crown of Sicily. Between Philip of Swabia, and Otho of Saxony, simultaneously nominated emperors, the first of whom represented the house of Ghibeline, the second that of Guelph, Innocent determined in favour of Otho, even in prejudice of Frederick, whom he considered as a third compet.i.tor. It was, he said, to the Holy See belonged the privilege of judging sovereignly the claims of these compet.i.tors of the empire. The fortune of war favoured Philip of Swabia, with whom the prudent court of Rome already treated, when he was a.s.sa.s.sinated.-His daughter became the wife of Otho the IV. who thus having United all rights and suffrages, considered himself sufficiently powerful to refuse the pope the heritage of Matilda. Innocent now took the part of fulfilling his obligations as a guardian; he opposed his ward, Frederick, to the ungrateful Otho, excommunicated this prince, whom he had himself crowned, and raised Upper Italy against him. In this conjuncture the Ghibelines were seen armed by the pope against an emperor, whom the Guelphs sustained in his resistance to the pontiff: an historical phenomenon, which ought not to astonish us, as we have already observed, that these two parties were attached rather to particular families than to opinions. We may add, that it is the fate of permanent factions to experience many unlooked for changes, to modify according to circ.u.mstances their original designs, to retain their names, and their insignia, much longer than their thoughts or their sentiments, to preserve, in fine, no other invariable interest than that of remaining rivals, and falling foul of each other; it suffices then to be, and to be at war, it matters not to what end. It was especially the battle of Bouviines, which determined, as we have remarked, the fall of Otho IV. and the preponderance of the party of Frederick II. Innocent thus reaped in part the fruits of the triumph of Philip Augustus.

These disputes were connected with the crusade of 1202, which like that of 1095, and those of 1147 and 1189, placed in the hands of the pope the clue of all the movements of Europe. Each of these expeditions occasioned quarrels between the crusaders and the Greeks, and this misunderstanding appeared to Innocent an open for re-conquering the Eastern Church, escaped now two centuries from the domination of the court of Rome. The Greek empire, worn out by war and by faction, became the prey of the crusaders, who, being unable to retain Jerusalem, made themselves masters of Constantinople. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was nominated Emperor of the East; after him four other Frenchmen filled successively the same throne, while, having taken refuge in Nice, the Greek emperors reigned only over some provinces. The palaces and temples of Byzantium were plundered, and the booty, collected by the French lords was estimated at a quant.i.ty of silver of two hundred thousand pounds weight. They found it convenient to indemnify themselves in Greece for the losses sustained in Palestine; the vow which they had made, to combat only infidels, no longer repressed their covetousness; the re-establishment of holy places was but a pretext for pillaging the rich ones; and already the affectation of sentiments of religion was relinquished.:

"They "cast, says Fleury, the relics into unclean places, "they scattered on the ground the body and blood "of our Lord; they employed the sacred vases "for profane uses, and an insolent woman danced in "the sanctuary and seated herself in the chair of the "priest."

Innocent, who was not ignorant of these profanations and complained of them, did not approve the less of the conquest:7

"G.o.d, said he, willing to "console the church by the re-union of the schisma- "tics, has caused the empire of the haughty, supersti- "tious and disobedient Greeks to pa.s.s over to the "humble, catholic, and submissive Latins."

7 Hist, eccles. 1. 76. n. 2.; Innoc. III, Epist 1. 8. ep. 69.

Another benefit derived from the crusades was, the application of their names to many other leagues formed or fomented by the Roman Church.

Innocent III. is the inventor of this artifice, which evinces an abundant acquaintance with the means of leading minds astray by the illusion of words: he applied to the service of his serious political designs, the enormous power of a word which, for the period of one hundred and ten years, had the effect of exciting through Europe the most blind and restless enthusiasm. He preached therefore a crusade against England when he had determined on dethroning John; a crusade against the Hungarians when he affected to become the arbiter of their intestine dissentions; a crusade against a king of Norway, whom also he wished to depose; but above all, a crusade against the Albigenses, a sect extended through the entire south of France. Raymond VI. Count of Tholouse, because he protected the Albigenses his subjects, was excommunicated as the abettor of heresy; and, one of the legates, who excited these troubles, having received a mortal wound, the states of the count, accused without any proof of the a.s.sa.s.sination, were declared vacant, and the prize of the first crusader who possessed himself of them. In vain Raymond humbled himself to degradation: in vain he had-the more culpable weakness to take up the cross himself against his own subjects; Simon de Montford obtained these wretched provinces, purchased by torrents of blood, with which he had inundated them. Raymond took refuge with his brother-in-law, Peter II. king of Arragon, who, after useless intercession with Innocent, took arms against Simon de Montford, and perished at the battle of Muret, in 1213. Two years afterwards the pope in the midst of a Lateran Council, definitely deposed Raymond, granting him a moderate pension, and bestowed his states on Simon, whom they dared to name Maccabeus, and who died in 1218 at the siege of Thou-louse. We do not mean to exculpate the Albigenses altogether, sometimes also denominated Vaudois, because there are numbers residing in the valleys of Piedmont, and often Good-men, from the regularity of their manners; but, to exterminate thousands of worthy men, because they were deceived, and to dethrone him who ruled them, because he did not persecute them speedily enough, such excessive severity unveils the character and displays the power of Innocent III.8

8 Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3, p. 430, 468.

It is not Without an object that this pope is applauded for the establishment of the inquisition. In fact, Lucius III. from the year 1184, had ordered the bishops to seek ont heretics, to subject them to Spiritual, and deliver them over to secular punishments; but this first germ of so formidable an inst.i.tution was developed before the time, when Innocent III. thought of sending into Languedoc two Oistertian monks, charged to pursue the Albigenses, to excommunicate them, and denounce them to the civil authority, which was to confiscate their wealth, or proscribe them, under pain of incurring itself ecclesiastical censures.

Friar Raynier, friar Guy, and the archdeacon Peter of Castelnau, are the first inquisitors named and known in history. Innocent enjoined the people and their rulers, to obey them; the sovereigns, to proceed against the heretics denounced by these missionaries; the people, to take up arms against disobedient princes, or those who evinced too little zeal. Those first ministers of pontifical vengeance had soon fellow helpers, among whom St. Dominick is distinguished; and from the year 1215, their functions had acquired sufficient consistence and splendour to be solemnly approved in the Lateran council.? Without doubt, the inquisition, a kind of permanent crusade, had not been perfected or consolidated, save under the successors of Innocent: but, without the memorable experiment he had the honour of making, it is doubtful if it had so tremendously flourished or brought forth its fruits.

? Concilior, vol. 11, p. 142,-Director. Inquis. part 1,c. 2.

Among three hundred popes, or anti-popes, of which history presents us with the names, we know none of them more imposing than Innocent III; his pontificate is most worthy the attention and study of European monarchs: there they may learn to what extent temporal power, united with ecclesiastical functions, amplifies and perverts them; to what universal supremacy was the papacy destined; in fine, what tyranny did it not exercise over princes, and over people, whenever political circ.u.mstances, even in a small degree, favoured sacerdotal ambition. A pope, said Innocent, the vicar of Christ, is superior to man, if he be inferior to G.o.d-_minor Deo, major homine_; he is the light of day; the civil authority is but the pale planet of the night. It was Innocent III. who discovered in the chapter of Genesis this celestial theory of the two powers, and it was by similar allegories, proofs of the ignorance of the age and of his own, that he subjugated the West, troubled the East, and governed, and deluged the world with blood.:

"Sword, sword," cried he, on learning the descent of the French on England; "sword, sword "spring from the scabbard and sharpen thyself to "exterminate."

Such were the words of his last address. In the midst of the anathemas which he p.r.o.nounced against Louis and Philip Augustus, he was seized with a fever, which, in a very few days brought on a paralysis, a lethargy, and finally the death of the most haughty of pontiffs, of the most skilful enemy of kings. He had governed the Church, or rather Europe, for eighteen years ten months and nine days; it is the most brilliant period of the papal power. England, Poland, Portugal, and we know not how many other States besides, became his tributaries. All historians of this era relate, that in a mysterious vision, St.

Latgarde saw Innocent III. in the midst of flames, and that this pious maid having asked him, wherefore he was thus tormented, he answered, that he should continue so to be till the day of judgment, for three crimes which would have plunged him into the depths of the eternal fire of h.e.l.l, if the holy virgin to which he had dedicated a monastery had not averted the divine wrath. We may be allowed to doubt respecting the vision: but, says Fleury this relation proves persons of the greatest virtue were convinced that this pope had committed enormous crimes. What were the three to which St. Lutgarde alluded? It would be extremely difficult to select them in the life of Innocent.

Ionoc. III. Serm. de consec. pontif. op. yoI. i. p. 180.

Fleury's eccles. Hist 1. 77, n. 62.

Thom. Cantiprat. in vita St. Lutg. virg. apud Surium 16 Jan.-Raynald. ad. ann. 1216.

Hist, eccles. 1. 77, n. 62.

After having had too weak a successor in Honorius III. his place was more worthily supplied by Gregory IX. This pope announced his pretensions by the extraordinary pomp of his coronation.- Historians describe this gorgeous ceremony, in which nothing was omitted which could threaten Europe with a universal monarchy. Frederick II. who in receiving the imperial crown from the hands of Honorius, had ceded the heritage of Matilda, and placed his own son on the throne of the two Sicilies, in order that this kingdom should not remain united to the domains of the empire; notwithstanding so many compliances, and though he was the foster child as it were of the court of Rome, Frederick II.

became the princ.i.p.al victim of the enterprises of Gregory IX.

4 Fleury's eccles. Hist. 1. 79, n. 21.